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General Football & Sports / Re: OFFICIAL CHAMPIONSHIP THREAD

« on: Yesterday at 11:22:04 AM »

I TOLD YOU GUYS ABOUT SOUTHAMPTON!!!!

All this nonsensical fear about them utterly ridiculous.

Haven't read any "fear" more that posters are concerned that they've beaten us twice this season...even though we were arguably the better side for most of the 180+ minutes...same with Leicester. What Leicester and Soton have is quite clinical goal scorers...sadly we don't.

No point in being the better side if you don't win.

We may well finish 6th anyway and will be unlikely to face Soton again...unless it's in the final.

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Next Match Forum - 27/04 Sheffield Wednesday (A) / Re: Match Officials

« on: Yesterday at 08:35:32 AM »

That's as well as may be but we all know who he is and we all know what he did. 'The List' if it exists would have him with the letters DVB after his name like some kind of a degree qualification. There are degrees and there are degrees.

oh I know what he did...appalling decision that cost us a play off final place (although it was one of many awful decisions he made that day).

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Forthcoming Match Forum - 04/05 Preston North End (H) / Re: Ticket Info & Requests

« on: April 23, 2024, 01:01:56 PM »

Sold out according to O/S.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Mikey Johnston joins on loan (Official!)

« on: April 23, 2024, 12:31:40 PM »

Can we cut out the petty comments about other posters opinions. If you disagree with them that's fine just do it in an adult way.
Just because someone posts controversial and/ or negative posts about players or manager doesn't mean they are a troll or less of a fan.

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Next Match Forum - 27/04 Sheffield Wednesday (A) / Match Officials

« on: April 23, 2024, 12:20:44 PM »

Ref: Graham Scott
1st Ass: Harry Lennard
2nd Ass: Derek Eaton
4th Off: John Busby

Did our 1-0 over Leeds at the end of December.

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Next Match Forum - 27/04 Sheffield Wednesday (A) / Re: Pre Match Chat

« on: April 22, 2024, 12:31:22 PM »

Amazing winning result for Wednesday today and just hope it isn’t the same for Wednesday on Wednesday!  Now out of the bottom three at the expense of Birmingham, their confidence will be sky high.

Why  on Wednesday? We play them on Saturday.

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General Football & Sports / Re: FA Cup

« on: April 22, 2024, 11:23:15 AM »

As much as I don't like Man Utd , when they showed the replay you could clearly see the Coventry player was offside...only just in front but offside non the less.

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General Football & Sports / Re: OFFICIAL CHAMPIONSHIP THREAD

« on: April 21, 2024, 05:15:57 PM »

Sheff Wed beat Blackburn with some truly awful goalkeeping from Pears.
Blues back in bottom 3.

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Last Match Forum - 20/04 Leicester City (A) / Re: After Match Debate

« on: April 20, 2024, 07:23:53 PM »

Poor defending for the goals from Palmer  Bartley, Kipre and Townsend for the first and Townsend, Yokuslu and Furlong for the second.
Diangana and Johnston have to put away at least one of their chances.
We were the better team but Leicester have players that are clinical in front of goal.
Ref and bald assistant were atrocious.
Best performance for a number of games and we need to keep it going for the next two games.
Norwich not winning was a bonus. We need to, at least, match their results and we'll finish 5th.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: OUT ON LOAN THREAD

« on: April 19, 2024, 09:04:45 AM »

He's not going to play under CC so i imagine we would consider any offer around a few million to save on wages mainly. Do Cardiff have that money though?

I think a lot might depend on what happens to the manager too. If he stays Cardiff may well put a bid in for Grant; if the manager goes then I'm sure we'll look to sell or loan Grant out again.

He's definitely not in Corberan's plans.

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General Football & Sports / Re: OFFICIAL CHAMPIONSHIP THREAD

« on: April 18, 2024, 08:31:31 AM »

The overreacting to Soton is hilarious they aren't prime Pep Barca you know! Defensively they are the worst of the 4, stay in the game you'll always get a chance

This is undoubtedly true, the same could be said of Ipswich too. The issue is that they also score a lot of goals.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Brandon Thomas-Asante

« on: April 17, 2024, 02:58:22 PM »

Agreed, it seems difficult for some to accept he is a very decent striker at this level, a bargain for what we paid for him and also not a world beater either. I have no complaints with BTA, his goal output is decent and consistent, and his work rate is top notch.

He's definitely not as bad as many are painting him.
An earlier poster said that he was a scorer of great goals rather than a great goal scorer and I think that's correct.
He reminds me of Rondon in a number of ways, hold up play isn't the best at times, never shirks from doing the hard work; scores a few but misses plenty. Like Rondon the more time he has to think about a chance the less likely he is to score it. He's improved from last season and that's important.
I think some would be more appreciative of him if we'd been able to rotate him with either Dike or Maja (or both) but we haven't.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Play off Points Target

« on: April 16, 2024, 01:01:08 PM »

It wouldn't surprise me if we lost to both Leicester and Sheff Wed....at the same time it wouldn't surprise me if we beat both!
Our form has been quite poor for a number of games but we've managed to turn defeats into draws (Millwall & Watford) and a win into a draw(Stoke). On Saturday we were the better side when it was 11 v 11 but we didn't create anything of note. Had we kept 11 on the pitch I'm pretty sure we could have found a way through Sunderland.

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Last Match Forum - 20/04 Leicester City (A) / Match Officials

« on: April 16, 2024, 11:01:59 AM »

Ref: Thomas Bramall
1st Ass: Adrian Holmes
2nd Ass: Simon Long
4th Off: Tom Nield

Reffed our 0-2 with Wolves in the cup.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Carlos Corberan

« on: April 14, 2024, 12:17:32 AM »

In reality we are 5th, over the last 10 games we are 6th and better than both Leicester and Soton. So whichever way some posters want to paint it..we are top 6 on merit.
 Should we not make the play offs it'll be disappointing but considering the injuries we've had and some of the weaknesses in the squad for me it shouldn't reflect negatively on Corberan.

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Last Match Forum - 13/04 Sunderland (H) / Re: After Match Debate

« on: April 13, 2024, 06:49:33 PM »

Sunderland were very well drilled, they had a game plan and stuck to it. Took the one chance they had.
We struggled to break through but we were getting better at it before the needless sending off.
Johnston was getting frustrated as he was in space but the ball was always being played across to the right. He then started coming inside more and more leaving no o e out wide left.When he first joined he was much more effective picking the ball up out wide and cutting in, he needs to get back to doing that.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Brandon Thomas-Asante

« on: April 13, 2024, 11:44:50 AM »

There aren’t any, as far as I’m aware. Just people who realise just how limited he is

Do they need to constantly bang on about it every  game though?
We all know he's limited so why keep mentioning it.

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Last Match Forum - 13/04 Sunderland (H) / Re: Match Officials

« on: April 12, 2024, 08:35:09 AM »

Fair point well made.

Just goes to emphasise how inept he was.

Indeed, he must have been trying extra hard to stand out from the rest of his inept peers!

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Last Match Forum - 13/04 Sunderland (H) / Re: Match Officials

« on: April 12, 2024, 08:11:21 AM »

He's so bad he gave Charlton a late penalty to equlise at 2-2 when we should have had a free kick for a foul on Ajayi. In another fixture he also sent Grady Diangana off with a straight red instead of Nathan Ferguson before the linesnoun put him right. That's just two instances off the top of my head.

It was the same game that he sent Diangana/Ferguson off and gave the last minute penalty for the foul on Ajayi that should have been a free kick to us.

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Last Match Forum - 10/04 Rotherham United (H) / Re: After Match Debate

« on: April 11, 2024, 10:01:54 AM »

Comfortable without really getting out of 2nd/3rd gear.  Important to give M'Vila, Maja, Philips and Reach more minutes.
Reach had a good game and was probably man of the match.
BTA should have scored more but Swift also missed a good chance. On another night we score 4 or 5.
As well as Reach played I'd have Townsend back in for Sunderland as he is a better defender and going forward there's not too much difference between them.

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Last Match Forum - 13/04 Sunderland (H) / Match Officials

« on: April 10, 2024, 12:39:10 PM »

Referee: Matthew Donohue
Assistant Referee: Paul Hodskinson
Assistant Referee: Nigel Lugg
Fourth Official: Jeremy Simpson

one on Smeth Dan's list!

Reffed our 1-1 at Elland Rd in August.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Play off Points Target

« on: April 10, 2024, 11:46:33 AM »

Old adage of one game at a time is still the right way to look at it IMV. Everyone expects us to beat Rotherham tonight but you only have to look at the upsets last night to Norwich, Leeds, Leicester to understand that nothing is guaranteed in this league.

Best case scenario we get the top six spot wrapped up by this weekend, but we have to beat Rotherham first to give ourselves the opportunity.

Spot on. I remember a few seasons ago we were playing Wigan at home, who were in the bottom three, everyone was predicting an easy win and we got beat 1-0.

Sides with nothing to play for (apart from pride) can be a huge banana skin as the pressure is off them and they can play with more freedom. There is the flip side though in that the last thing Rotherham will want is another heavy defeat.

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Last Match Forum - 10/04 Rotherham United (H) / Re: Pre Match Chat

« on: April 09, 2024, 09:03:18 AM »

I'm expecting more than a few gaps in the crowd for this one. No disrespect to Rotherham (while automatically sounding disrespectful) but an already relegated side on a probably wet Wednesday night for an 8pm red button fixture won't be of much appeal to some in our season ticket base.

On the flip side I thought Rotherham did very well to keep us at arms length for much of the game at their place. And let's be honest, the pressure is very definitely off their players and you rarely know what you're going to get in this division.

Here's hoping the players keep their concentration and the crowd doesn't get restless if we're not 2 up in the first fifteen minutes. Although it would be appreciated I am not expecting a complete walkover and imagine Rotherham will keep us honest so patience will be required.

I think forner Viler Andre Green is still injured and really want the pantomime villain/donkey that is Jordan Hugill to miss out. I struggle emotionally seeing him on a football pitch and knowing what might have been. That and he comes across as an utter b'end of course.

COYB  .

Sadly I'll be one of the missing as I won't leave work until after 5, going to have to buy an audio pass.

As you say the pressure is off their players and I'm expecting a tough game. I'm hoping that they will come with a Gung Ho! attitude and leave lots of space for Johnston, Fellows/Wallace and Diangana to exploit. They might decide to try and stifle us and hit on the break though.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: System / Tactics / Personnel

« on: April 09, 2024, 08:14:58 AM »

I am wondering whether the introduction of Johnston, whilst him being a good offensive player, has actually meant we are far poorer defensively. I'd trace back our new-found fragility back to QPR away/Cov at home which coincides with Johnston breaking in to the team.

I know Phillips has been out for a long time, but the work he did off the ball in a defensive sense really contributed to us being tough to beat, I wonder if his re-introduction could be key to us being a better defensive unit again. It would feel harsh to leave Johnston out but maybe that's what's needed. Or perhaps there's a way Phillips can do that work from the right hand side and we reconstruct the side accordingly.

It could just be mental and physical wear and tear and there's no merit to Johnston being detrimental to our defensive setup but the timeline matches.

Not really. Johnston played in the 4 games prior to that; Blues, Cardiff and Soton at home and Plymouth away. We only conceded in the Soton game.
I think it's more to do with mental/physical tiredness than it is to do with Johnston.

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West Bromwich Albion FC / Re: Carlos Corberan

« on: April 08, 2024, 12:44:53 PM »

It does seem that whenever we do something good it’s “Corberan is a tactical genius, whose little clever little tweaks are responsible”. Likewise, when something goes wrong it’s “ah well, the players are absolutely terrible, Corberan is overachieving”

Personally, think he’s done about par for the squad we’ve got.

I know I’ll get pelters for this but unless we get promoted I personally wouldn’t be averse to the new owner bringing in his own man for next season.

I keep reading this "par for squad" comment which would be fair enough if Corberan had had pretty much a full squad to choose from for most of the season but he hasn't.
Don't get me wrong he's made mistakes just as every manager does but for me he is over achieving based on what he has had to pick from.