Today starts a new chapter in The Black Country Prophet. Every Tuesday will feature the #WBAFC blog and here's the first foray.
Flashback – it suddenly feels like the
Megson Premier League era again.
Valiant, courageous performances, pressing
teams, creating chances – not taking them – and eventually losing to a shot
deflected in off some inadvertently placed arse.
St James’ Park marked a second successive
last minute loss for West Bromwich Albion and the only saving-grace is that the
Baggies’ form up to this point has been, generally, so sensational that these
losses can be soaked up by previous performances.
The warning signs are there, however. The
hallmark of a good side is that they win when they’re playing badly and,
equally, a bad team picks up zero points when they
should be accumulating them.
From 30 minutes onwards at the home of the Magpies, West Brom looked a
great, great side. After stand-in-skipper Jonas Olsson and Gareth McAuley’s
failings for Demba Ba’s opener, they were imposing and a pillar of strength. In
Claudio Yacob’s absence, the midfield, and in particular Yousuf Mulumbu,
dominated their counterparts who were sidelined to a few Hatem Ben Arfa
mercurial runs.
And then up-front, Romelu Lukaku and Shane
Long ran the Newcastle back line into submission at times and the midfield’s
good play created a great array of chances for the largely profligate forwards.
The week previous, against 10-man
Manchester City, the Baggies had taken the champions to the wire. At 1-1 the Midlands side were on-top and pushing for the win; but, inevitably, to a last
minute counter attack, conceded to Super Sub who doesn’t want to be called Super
Sub, Edin Dzeko’s late strike.
Inevitable. Well it was. It was an
inevitability in the Megson and Mowbra eras – where the Albion were the plucky
losers – the relegation fodder who trumped up to the established Premier League
sides’ grounds, put in a great account of themselves but go back to The
Hawthorns empty handed.
That, now and hopefully for the foreseeable
future – under the former stewardship of technical director Dan Ashworth and a
succession of good managers and good managerial planning – is Albion’s past.
The West Bromwich side have shaken the tag
of perennial yo-yo team which has dogged them in both psychology and points
since Gary Megson took the forlorn side and made them hard-to-beat. And now, as
a proven, solid Premier League side WBA can absorb these hard to take defeats
because, not only are the points in the bag already, but there is promise of
good results in the future.
The Baggies are a good Premier League side.
They’ve taken the better sides of the Barclays Premier League, taken points
from them, and made them anxious and aware of the hardship posed when playing
the Midlands’ finest team.
And that’s the difference. That’s why I
still wanted to punch the laptop screen when Papiss Cisse’s backside took the
plaudits from the encounter but I knew it wasn’t the end of the world. And that’s why, as Steve
Clarke said in his post-match interview, we’ll win more games than we’ll lose
if we play like that.
