Posts Tagged ‘bristol city’

Promotion in our own hands but still possible for 21 other Championship teams.

With all the talk of promotion being in our own hands, people are still missing how close this division still is. With just 10 games left for most teams, eleven for a few, there is still 21 other clubs that could overall the Albion and clinch promotion. Probably a very long shot and i am sure most bookies would offer silly odds on Scunthorpe gaining promotion, however, technically they can still leap frog the Albion.

The Baggies need 25 points to secure promotion, thats 8 wins and a draw, of course this goes down if Notts Forest lose or draw any of their remaining ten fixtures. Forest cannot seem to get a result away from home anymore, the last away win being ironically their 3 – 1 destruction of the Albion some 6 away games back.

Should forest lose just 1 of their remaining 5 away games and the Albion beat Swansea this week, Albion will need just 6 wins and a draw to guarantee premiership football next season.

There are all sorts of twists and turns still to come as the season comes to it’s crescendo, however, the Albion have probably got the harder of the run ins with games at Swansea, Reading, Watford, Doncaster and Crystal Palace to come and home games to play versus Preston, Coventry, Leicester, Middlesborough and Barnsley.

Forest have the following away games, Barnsley, Newcastle, Bristol City, Blackpool and Scunthorpe. Their home games are Peterborough, Crystal Palace, Cardiff, Ipswich, Plymouth.

The 3rd team in the race, Swansea have a run in with games at QPR, Cardiff, Blackpool, Bristol City and Sheffield United. Their home games are of course Albion tommorrow night, followed by Ipswich, Scunthorpe, Barnsley and Doncaster.

Looking at just the 3 most likely teams for the 2nd promotion spot it is inevitable that there will be some twists and turns, that the Albion are not certainty’s for the 2nd spot, however, it seems pretty certain that Newcastle will be promoted before the last day looms, they need just 7 victories from 11 games.

Will the battle be won on the final day of the season? Quite possibly, however, the Albion players seem to be up for the battle and are issuing their war crys already. Robert Koren today said:

“There are still ten games until the end of the season and we need to focus on ourselves.

“We have everything in our hands and we cannot look too much at what Nottingham Forest or anyone else are doing.

“We need to get as many points as possible from these ten games.

“We are full of confidence and we feel we are good enough to go up.

“But we need to show that week in, week out.”

With Forest suffering away day jitters and Albion on a roll, by this time next week the picture may well look much rosier for the Albion. If stats are anything to go by, tommorrows game should be an easy victory for the Baggies as Albion are the Championships top scorers on 71 goals and Swansea the lowest on just 31, what a shame it does not work like that.

West Brom Reading FA Cup Replay Preview

The Baggies went out on penalty’s against Middlesbrough at this stage of the FA Cup just 3 seasons ago and Roberto Di Matteo is making sure as best as he can that this does not happen again tonight.

“We have practised penalties even though it’s not the same on the training ground as when you go into a game and you have to do it in front of 20,000 and the pressure is on,” said the Albion boss.

“By now I know the character of my players and I have a good idea of which ones I would like to take penalties, if it goes that far.”

Players that may return tonight include James Morrisson and Marek Cech, both fit again although Morrisson clearly lacking in match practice after 10 months out.

Giles Barnes will still play no part as he is not quite fit yet, Ishmael Miller still has an injured ankle, Jerome Thomas has another game where he is banned, then the 2 loan players Frank Nouble and Ben Watson are cup tied.

Di Matteo has said “We have to take into consideration that Cech has been out for three weeks and Morrison for ten months.

“But it’s good to have some players back.

“Morrison’s been doing well but competitive games are completely different.

“The fact he has been out of the game for a long time means we have to be careful with him.

“Barnes is getting closer but he’s not in the frame for tomorrow.

“It’s hard for me to say when Giles and Ishmael Miller will be back.”

At the Madejski Stadium 2 weeks back the Albion came from behind twice and the late equaliser was very cruel on Reading, however, with a home tie in the quarter finals up for grabs at against Aston Villa or Crystal Palace the Baggies are surely going to be well up for this game.

Roman Bednar should keep his shirt and Abdoulaye Meite who was an unused substitute on Sunday in the defeat at Bristol City may get a recall.

Another player likely to keep his place tonight will be the in form Albion defender Jonas Olsson , he is over the moon at getting his first ever call up to the Sweden national team.

His top notch Baggies performances have seen him with just rewards, a place against Wales in Swansea next Wednesday.

Olsson won 25 caps at under-21 level but an appearance at the Liberty Stadium would be his first full cap.

The former NEC Nijmegen centre-back said: “Since I moved to England I have developed in the right direction.

“I feel that I have come to a country whose football suits me, and I have grown with the task.

“It is very nice to have a chance in the ‘big’ team. I’ve played some under-21 games before and to pull on the national team jersey is special and it makes me happy.”

Bristol City Albion Team Sheet Bednar Starts

For this live televised game the Albion have rung the changes yet again.

Bednar returns and Youssouf Mulumbu is back from suspension, these are the only two changes.

Luke Moore and Andy Slory are the casualty’s who drop to the bench, Abdoulaye Meite is now fit and another one of the substitutes.

Gary Johnson names an unchanged Robins team to the one that drew 1-1 at home to Leicester five days ago.

BRISTOL (4-4-2): Gerken, Nyatanga, Carey, Orr, Fontaine, Skuse, Elliott, Johnson, Clarkson, Haynes, Iwelumo. Subs: Collis, Maynard, Hartley, Williams, Sproule, Plummer, Edwards.

ALBION (4-5-1): Carson, Zuiverloon, Tamas, Olsson, Mattock, Brunt, Koren, Mulumbu, Dorrans, Nouble, Bednar. Subs: Kiely, Slory, Moore, Cox, Meite, Thorne, Wood.

Referee: N Swarbrick (Lancs).

Bristol City West Brom Preview

West Brom may or may not have Bednar available tomorrow dependant on a late fitness test, it remains to be seen whether his back injury has cleared up. James Morrison (heel), Jerome Thomas (suspension), Gonzalo Jara (foot) and Ishmael Miller (ankle) are all unavailable to boss Roberto Di Matteo.

Bristol City have won only one in eleven of their last Championship games and are looking quite an easy task, however, a home draw against Leicester City resulted in manager Gary Johnson praising his players along with the fans, whom he said were getting right behind the team. They are due to break this bad streak and as the games go on they get closer and closer to doing so. Every dog has their day and Albion manager Di Matteo will be warning his players to be wary.

There has been quite an atmosphere and much unrest at Ashton Gate for the last few months, with them going from near the play off’s to near the drop.

Add the bad form of Bristol City and the fact that Albion are the best travelled club in the championship, most will expect to see an away win, this is shown in the fact that Albion are odd’s on with most bookies. Albion have gained more points away from home, losing only to Barnsley this term and are the Championships form club this month too.

The only evidence against the Albion winning this with ease is the injury problems that have befallen them, oh and of course the amount of games that they have had to play this month.

A good bet would seem Albion to come from behind as this has been the way of late, added to the fact that almost all of goals scored against city have come in the last ten minutes.

On Betfair you can get 33-1 on Bristol leading at half time with the Albion winning the match. Updated prices are shown here on our live WBA odds comparison page.

If Bristol City were to win this game, it will be the first time in 15 years.

The last two games between the 2 have seen the Albion 4 to 1 victors.

David Clarkson is the only Bristol City player to have scored in the last 540 minutes of league football.

This will be the 4 double of the season if the Baggies win.

9 First team players were missing at Cardiff, however, heading down the M5 again will not see the Albion so short.

Midfielder Youssouf Mulumbu will be available after playing out his suspension, although Jerome thomas is still with 2 games left of his ban. Giles Barnes played well midweek for the reserves, however, the club report he is not yet fit enough for first team action so is unlikely to figure.

So the team sheet will be interesting tomorrow, however, there is likely to be 18 players available unlike Tuesdays game when Bednar had to sit on the bench even though he was never going to get on the pitch.

SBOBET are the latest company on Albion’s unique short term shirt sponsorship deals

Seems that every time the Albion appear n television they get a new recruit for their one of shirt sponsorship deals. SBOBET being the latest for Sunday’s televised trip to Bristol City.

SBOBET are an online betting company and their brand will be seen on the player’s shirts for what could be one of the biggest audience’s for a Baggies game on television, due to the fact it is being shown Sunday afternoon on BBC1.

Sales & Marketing Director Adrian Wright along with Head of Partnerships David Colesby are over the moon to have got the signature from SBOBET, they are hoping it will be the start of a longterm business deal.

SBOBET join what is becoming a long list now, holding others such as Blue Square, Victor Chandler and Esprit.

The last time the club had a shirt motiff was the Haiti Earthquake Appeal at Newcastle last month.

Wright said: “We’re delighted to welcome SBOBET on board for Sunday’s game.

“Our one-off shirt sponsorships are proving very popular and have provided a tangible return for the companies we have worked with so far.

“Analysis provided by Repucom illustrates that the return in media value has been more than ten times their initial investment.”

Bill Mummery, SBOBET’s Executive Director, added: “We like the Albion business model and this is an ideal opportunity for us to extend our television reach whilst testing the effectiveness of Albion’s approach.

“We are a leading global sports betting brand, a positioning which we plan to repeat in the UK.

“Football and television are playing a significant role in us achieving this goal.”

Albion have done reasonably well for single shirt sponsorships, however, will no doubt be looking to get an official sponsor next season.

Should the club be promoted, they will not be allowed to offer single match sponsorship under Premier League rules.

Bristol City Tickets Latest

Tickests are on sale until 4PM this afternoon and available from the club ticket office at the Hawthorns. Once 4PM passes, the only way to get in to Ashton Gate will be by using the cash only turnstile at the away end on the day.

There are only around 500 tickets left so it will be wise to consider whether travelling without a ticket is worthwhile. If all tickets sell, there will be a 2000 strong Black Country following for this televised match.

Seat prices are as follows, £25 adults, £20 seniors, £15 students and £10 juniors.

Jerome Thomas gets a further ban

Jerome Thomas faced an FA disciplinary hearing this morning and was handed a further 1 match to his already long 4 match ban.

Albion legal director Darren Eales was at Wembley with Thomas who had to face a fresh charge of violent conduct for his actions after the red card at Plymouth.

Having already served 2 games of the now 5 game ban he will be available a week Saturday, quite soon really, however testament to the amount of games needed to be played in such a short time. This will allow him to play in the Derby game in just 11 days.

The games he will miss are Cardiff tonight, Bristol City and next week’s FA Cup fifth-round replay against Reading.

Cider Boys defeated as easy as crushing apples

In a game that threatened to put a stop to the Albions winning run, a match that pitted one of the best form teams in the division against  a bouyant Albion, the Baggies pointed out within 12 minutes that the winning streak was to continue.

West Brom massacared Bristol City 4-1 to climb above Newcastle at the Championship summit, although the Toon have a game in hand.

Much of the damage was done inside the first 12 minutes as Jerome Thomas and Chris Brunt both fired home.

A Louis Carey own goal and Simon Cox’s second Championship goal of the season then killed off any hope Bristol City had at the start of the second half, before Paul Hartley netted a consolation in the 83rd minute.

The teams were welcomed on the pitch by very typical British autumn weather, the Black Country was awash, with rain and wind swirling around The Hawthorns. The crowd of over 23,000 were kept warm if not dry by a very entertaining match, although 3,000 of them were doomed to a sad journey back to the cider fields of Bristol.

Gianni Zuiverloon had to clear Cole Skuse’s effort off the line in the 3rd minute, but a fresh Albion side counter atacked at speed and opened the scoring at the other end just 30 seconds later.

Thomas rounded off a sweeping move as he cut in from the left before firing a fierce shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the penalty area.

Scott Carson was forced to tip Carey’s header over the crossbar before Brunt doubled West Brom’s lead with just 12 minutes gone.

Scotland midfielder Graham Dorrans found his Northern Irish team-mate with a great throughball and he rounded Dean Gerken before firing home from an acute angle to put the home side in control.

Chances

But Carson was soon called upon to deny the lively Nicky Maynard before Dorrans himself side-footed wide from close range when he really should have put the result beyond doubt.

Chances were coming at either end as City midfielder Hartley then lashed a free-kick inches wide and, with the visitors more than holding their own, the difference at the half-time interval proved to be Albion’s ability to take their chances.

But if the game was still somewhat in the balance at the break then it was all over just two minutes after the restart.

Cox picked up the ball and sent a shot goalwards, which appeared to be going wide, until Carey stepped in to intercept and could only fire the ball into his own net.

Albion were threatening a rout as they made it 4-0 just 53 seconds later – Cox sliding in to convert Marek Cech’s cross from close range and put his name on the scoresheet.

From then on in it was a case of going through the motions for Albion, with Zuiverloon failing to pull the trigger when in a great position to make it 5-0 while Danny Haynes wasted a good chance at the other end.

But the Robins did grab a consolation in the 83rd minute through Hartley’s stunning free-kick, which deserved to be worth more.

The Albion enjoyed a series of superb performances throughout the team – Brunt, Cox, Jara and Zuiverloon were all on top of their game, helping the Albion once again pull clear of the play-off contenders.

Joe Mattock was stretchered off before the break with a foot injury and will undergo xrays this evening to find out the extent of the injury.

Todays four goals took Albion’s total to 11 in three games and sees them top of the Coca-Cola Championship scoring table with 35 from 17 games.

ALBION (4-4-2): Carson, Zuiverloon, Meite, Olsson, Mattock (Cech 30), Brunt, Jara, Dorrans (Mulumbu 57), Thomas, Moore, Cox (Koren 78). Subs not used: Kiely, Wood, Martis, Teixeira.

CITY (3-5-2): Gerken, Carey, McCombe, Nyatanga, Skuse, Elliott (Johnson 78), Sno (Clarkson 78), Hartley, McAllister (Williams 17), Maynard, Haynes. Subs not used: Basso, Fontaine, Sproule, Saborio.

GOALS: ALBION – Thomas (3), Brunt (12), Cox (46, 48). CITY – Hartley (83).

BOOKINGS: ALBION – Cox (simulation 78).

Ref: Michael Oliver (Northumberland).

ATTENDANCE: 23,444.