Mini Boing

West Brom may be the only team in the Premiership to have received two written apologies this year. The first was from Howard Webb for missing a foul in the game against Stoke which would have given us a penalty and maybe a win and not a draw. The second was from the referee against Chelsea for giving a penalty in the last minute leading to a Chelsea equaliser. The absence of this penalty, so close to the final whistle, would also have given us a win rather than a draw.

These four points would have pushed the Baggies up the league a few places and would have meant that the accusation raised against Steve Clarke, the manager we sacked just before Christmas, that we were under-performing, would not have looked so convincing. I know that our calendar year results have been poor and our good position at the end of the 2012/13 season was largely predicated on a good first half of the season but, given the level of investment we can manage as a club, 8th-10th in the Premiership currently represents success for us. Basically we are regularly towards the top of the league of the rest. I count the 'big' clubs, with whom we cannot compete financially, as the two Manchesters, the two Liverpool clubs, Chelsea and Arsenal. Tottenham and Newcastle should also be part of this cartel but haven't been able to nail their membership through consistent results.

So four more points, taken from us dodgily, and we would probably still have Clarke for a bit longer.

Our new man, Pepe Mel, was sacked by Real Betis last autumn in similar circumstances. Having got his club promoted he was then dismissed when a run of poor form saw them looking to avoid relegation rather than pushing on. He had got them into Europe.

Sometimes the only change a club owner can make to his investment is the manager. It is the route taken too often.

That said, Mel looks a good guy who has long wanted to manage in England. If he is poor he will last 12-18 months and then we will sack him. If he is good he will last 12-18 months and one of the big eight will steal him.

Welcome to our world. Manchester United. Come on down.

Sport Spin Spot

Whilst us Baggies are enduring a desperate run of results at the moment, how about this, from the BBC website after Fulham's 3-0 win yesterday?

'...the home side were happy to play out a convincing victory which leaves them in mid-table and leaves West Brom in freefall after five straight defeats.'

The table now reads:

Fulham played 21 points 22 position 13th
West Brom played 21 points 22 position 16th

9th place in the table is one win away for both of us.

Cricket news is better though. Well batted England.

Boing not Boring

A fine away win at high-flying Doncaster Rovers 3-2 and the Baggies are back up again. The most consistent side in the Football League, Championship and Premiership continue their fine run:

2000/01 6th in Championship. Lost in play-off semi-final
2001/02 Promoted to Premiership in 2nd place
2002/03 Relegated from Premiership in 19th place
2003/04 Promoted to Premiership in 2nd place
2004/05 17th in Premiership, avoiding drop on last day
2005/06 Relegated from Premiership in 19th place
2006/07 4th in Championship. Lost in play-off final
2007/08 Promoted to Premiership as champions
2008/09 Relegated from Premiership in last place
2009/10 Promoted to Premiership, probably in 2nd place

Over the last ten seasons we have been between 17th and 26th best team in the country every season.

Consistency

West Bromwich Albion 2000/1 - 6th Division 1 = 26th overall
West Bromwich Albion 2001/2 - 2nd Division 1 = 22nd overall
West Bromwich Albion 2002/3 - 19th Premiership = 19th overall
West Bromwich Albion 2003/4 - 2nd Division 1 = 22nd overall
West Bromwich Albion 2004/5 - 17th Premiership = 17th overall
West Bromwich Albion 2005/6 - 19th Premiership = 19th overall
West Bromwich Albion 2006/7 - 4th Division 1 = 24th overall
West Bromwich Albion 2007/8 - 1st or 2nd (barring accidents) Championship = 21st or 22nd overall.

How consistent is that?

Boing

You cannot believe how much satisfaction it is possible to derive from the digits 1 and 0 when they occur in the sentence Woverhampton Wanderers 0 West Bromwich Albion 1. This is doubled when the victory takes you 2 points clear at the top with three games to play. With a vastly superior goal difference to er, everyone, we need two wins and a draw to be sure, assuming no-one else slips up.

Boing! Boing! Baggies! Baggies!

Top

A pause please. A brief contemplation of a time when all is well. The fleeting moment when the scenery glimpsed through the car window matches the music on the stereo and becomes a personal video. You see, we are top of the league. Who?

Well in 1967 I started supporting West Bromwich Albion and, as of lunchtime today, their early kick-off and victory over third placed Charlton took them above Watford, perhaps only momentarily, to top.

In 2000, unable to get to many West Brom games because of their constantly-changing start times and comparative popularity, I started attending the newly reformed Leamington FC. They are top of their league.

Moving to Nailsea in 2006 I felt that occasional visits to my local team were in order. Nailsea United FC are top of their league. Three teams; three tops. Top that.

Man Utd 3 West Brom 5

Follow the link to see the highlights of one of our greatest ever victories, followed by a bit of racism from the manager Ron Atkinsion, yes that Ron Atkinson.

Gerald Sinstadt can't tell Ali Robertson (blond defender) from Ali Brown (dark-haired, permed forward).

X-certificate tackle from Len Cantello not included in the package but trust me, it was horrid.

Watch us try to play football in our own half and get caught. Also notice three forwards goal-hanging most of the time.

RIP WBA

2000/1 Division 1 6th
2001/2 Division 1 2nd promoted
2002/3 Premiership 19th relegated
2003/4 Division 1 2nd promoted
2004/5 Premiership 17th
2005/6 Premiership 18th or 19th relegated

How consistent is that? Between the 17th and 26th best team in the country five seasons running.

On boinging

Disappointed boing boing wasn't a West Bromwich Albion online fanzine although you will find the excellent boing by following this link. Only of interest to the elite few I guess.

Boing boing baggies baggies is the chant of the faithful followers of West Brom on achieving success (like a goal for instance). It all started back in 1991 when, in a game against Hull City (won 1-0, Darryl Burgess header second half) there was a sponsored bounce. Someone had offered a huge sum for charity if the whole crowd bounced for a minute. The chant began about half way through, perhaps influenced by a Eurodisco trend at the time.

During the 12 match run of defeats a few seasons later we ended up chanting:

We'll boing again
Don't know where don't know when
But I know we'll boing again some sunny day
Some sunny day

Favourite taunt (bit cliched now)

Boing when you're winning
You only boing when you're winning

Footie Stuff

Whilst losing in the FA Vase on Saturday (Leamington 2 Wimborne 3) was a bit sad, although not as entertaining as the own goal with which the Baggies self-destructed against Sunderland, it is always nice to see that an opponent's match report is fair and represents the same game as you went to. Well done Wimborne's web-writer. I agree. Went to the same game as you and you deserved to win.

Back to that own goal. West Brom's miracle season last year (staying up with 34 points) turned round with a 1-1 draw at Man City who had 14 shots on target and scored 1 goal; we had no (nil, none, 0, not a one) shots on target and scored 1 goal thanks to Richard Dunn accidentally diverting a huge hoof upfield into his own goal past the as-ever hapless David James. Season picked up from there with the realisation that you don't have to be that good to scrape a point, just lucky.

On Saturday, in what looked an even game on the tele, le Tallec was through for Sunderland being jostled by Steve Watson. Steve Watson gives good jostle. Paul Robinson, who never jostles if he can steam-roller and who the fans love because, as the boing boing web-site puts it he, '...plays like we'd play if we pulled a blue and white striped shirt over our heads,' charged back and got his foot to the ball and pushed it out for a corner except it hit Steve Watson and crept over the line. Newspapers talking about le Tallec's deflected shot were at the wrong game. He lost the ball into the goal.

Robbo and Watson sat side by side with the joint dejection that only footballers know on a day when the football gods have decreed you will lose whatever. Baggies remain 16th and are one of five poor sides in the bottom five. Gonna be another tight one.

West Brom

One of the things that happened to me when I was a child was West Bromwich Albion. Unusually, for most people pick either a local team or a team that is doing well, I didn't pick the nearest team (probably Birmingham City) or a team that was doing well (can't think who it was then, maybe Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool or perhaps Leeds or Chelsea) but a team who I noticed were relatively local and had just lost the League Cup Final to a team two divisions lower. It was West Brom 2 QPR 3 and a picture of midfielder Ian Collard that hooked me. No idea why. We won the FA Cup the following year. Within two years I had a season ticket and saw the Baggies slump to relegation some years later. They got to the League Cup Final in 1970 (lost to Man City in extra time) and I had a ticket but was involved in a serious car accident on the way there, losing two teeth in the process, and never saw the game. I still have the ticket somewhere. I still don't have the teeth.

Three seasons in old Division 2 (now called Division 1) and then a few excellent seasons back in the top flight with good players and good managers, many of whom left for better things leaving us in the lurch. Mid eighties and we slumped down again, being relegated to the third flight in 1991.

Two seasons later we made it back again and I was at Wembley for the play off final 1993, with my sons. 23 years wait for the teeth to be avenged. Beat Port Vale 3-0 (Hunt, Reid, Donovan).

Now we have been in the Premiership for one season, failed to make the grade and come straight back down and are top of Divison 1 as I write. Boing boing baggies baggies is the chant as we bounce between Premiership and Division 1. Top flight football with all the changes of kick off times was impossible to organise and so, whilst still loving the Baggies with most of my heart, I watch Leamington FC in the Midland Combination Premership when I need live football. It's a reasonable standard, a crowd of 300-500 and a lot of fun listening to terrace wit. Terraces you see. Long gone elsewhere.

I might have been a good footballer. I was talented at 14 and had a couple of trials but at a rugby playing school I didn't get much chance to push it. Retired aged 44 after winning my only ever medal playing alongside my son in the Midlands Christian League in 1998. Miss it terribly.

Last night West Brom beat Bradford away with an 88th minute winner. Three points clear at the top.