Posts Tagged ‘cardiff’

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.

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.

Cardiff West Brom Preview

Away to promotion rivals Cardiff and the Albion squad is as short as little is to large. No less than 7 first team regulars are missing and Di Matteo will be forced into yet more changes, having to draft in even more youth’ and be preying for 150% from his men.

He has included 17 yr old Academy starlets Sam Mantom and Kayleden Brown in the squad travelling to Sth Wales, drafting in 19 yr old midfielder Joss Labadie too, who has just returned from loan at Cheltenham.

Di Matteo says:

“We have shown lots of fighting spirit during the season and it’s our philosophy to never give up,”

“We will be competitive tonight, for sure, and I am 100 per cent certain that the players that go out onto the pitch will give everything they have.

“I am trying to be positive.

“We have some problems but we’ll try to cope with them.

“It’s not the end of the world and we could be worse off.

“We have shown real spirit during the season and we never give up.

“I am looking at tonight and thinking ‘interesting’!

Albion’s inaugural trip to Cardiff’s new stadium tonight, pairs the top and second top scorers together so could be a right firecracker of a game. Especially when you consider, Scott Carson was sent off and refuses to forgive Chopra. Chopra on the other hand has admitted that he will continue to provoce ugly scenes as it the only way he knows how.

Cardiff were mauled big style 2 games back by the toon, however, returned to winning ways when beating bottom half club Peterborough.

Making a return tonight must be Frank Nouble, who missed reading due to being cup tied.

“It’s fantastic to have Frank back,” added Di Matteo.

Cardiff will be looking to take a stronger grip on a play off place, whilst the Albion will be looking to break even further clear of Nott’s Forest whom they have points and a game in hand over.

X-rays showing the Chile defender Jara, has fractured a metatarsal in his right foot, he is no doubtful to play again this season. Defender Abdoulaye Meite is out with an ankle injury, while winger Andy Slory is to be missing with an achilles injury. Di Matteo will be also without Youssouf Mulumbu and Jerome Thomaswho are serving suspensions, Marek Cech with a hamstring injury, Ishmael Miller with another ankle injury and both long term injured players, James Morrison and Giles Barnes with heel and achilles injuries respectively.

So a great bet on tonight’s game could well be over on the goals market, bearing in mind the teams scoring more goals than anyone else in the division.

Sky Bet are offering you a £10 Free Matched Bet and have odds of 5/6 on over two and a half goals.

They go 6/5 on the draw and 15/8 on a Cardiff victory, however an Albion win is 11/5, now that is an excellent price considering the Albion’s away record this season.

Bet 365 are offering 5/6 on both teams to score at any point in the game. They are also offering a special too, Roman Bednar to score first in a 2 all draw is offered at 75 – 1.

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.

No team is Odds on for the Championship

With the title race still wide open there are some winning odds available on the eventual winners of the Championship.

On the Betfair exchange you can still get 2.6 on the Baggies with leaders Newcastle still on offer at 2.1 so if you think it is between these two teams you cannot go wrong by backing both. Fancy Forest’s chances of beating both the Albion and the Toon to the title? Well they are on offer at 8, so there is a massive return available for you there.

Newcastle are 1.02 and 1.03 respectively to manage a top 6 finish so those of you with a large fund available and looking for a return could do so with that market. Forest are almost evens to make the same top 6 finish too, so maybe your funds are worth placing there?

Promotion wise, Albion, Newcastle and Forest are 1.42, 1.3 and 2.58 with the 2 Welsh teams Cardiff and Swansea at 5.9 and 5.6.

If you are looking the other direction, you can always lay Newcastle in the title race at 2.12.

These odds are very fluid and trading opportunity’s will appear on and off as the days and weeks progress. Have you the nerve and the skill to trade these teams during the run in?

Sign up with Betfair to take advantage of these betting exchange odds and get your free £25 for signing up.

The trip to Cardiff also offers a few different bets, Cardiff are 2.92, Albion 2.62 anf 3.4 the draw is offered. You can get 10′s on an Albion single goal victory and 27′s on a 3 to 1 win, with west brom to win both halfs at 4.5.

Jara out for the season – 7 to miss the Cardiff trip?

News that Gonzalo Jara is out for the rest of the season brings more headaches and a possible need to make more use of the emergency loan option.

The Chile international has taken an xray that has shown a fractured a metatarsal to his right foot.

Di Matteo will now be without seven regulars to choose from for tomorrows trip to Cardiff.

Abdoulaye Meite has a badly bruised ankle that won’t heal in time for the Cardiff game. also missing will be Youssouf Mulumbu and Jerome Thomas who are both suspended, Marek Cech, Ishmael Miller and James Morrison are also out with hamstring, ankle and heel injuries respectively.

Andy Slory may recover in time from the pre match warm up Achilles injury, and certain to start will be Frank Nouble who missed out at Reading due to being cup tied.

Di Matteo said: “It’s really bad news for us regarding Gonzalo.

“He got caught on the follow through and as well as having an open wound, he has also fractured a metatarsal.

“I don’t think he will play again this season, which is a massive blow for us.

Surely this whole injury crisis has to be in part, down to the very heavy schedule so far this month.

“He should recover in time for the World Cup but, unfortunately for both him and Chile, he won’t be playing any football in the next two-and-a-half months.

“Abou won’t be available tomorrow either. He was on the end of a nasty tackle. His ankle is badly bruised and he’s in a bit of pain.

“Andy didn’t train yesterday and we’ll have to assess him. But we haven’t ruled him out.”

Di Matteo said the quick turnaround of games means it is unlikely the club will be able to bring any fresh loan signings in for the Cardiff trip.

“Everyone knows we have an interest in Jason Koumas but there’s no more news on that one,” he added.

“He’s one of several players we’re interested in but nothing’s been done yet.”

Massive injury boosts at the Hawthorns and transfer rumours

Not only are Youssouf Mulumbu, Jerome Thomas and Luke Moore all looking likely to be fit to start in the  Sky televised Rangers clash at The Hawthorns on Monday after their individual struggles struggles with injuries, however, James Morrison may also be back in training as early as next week too!.

With Thomas and Moore back in training and raring to go, Mulumbu is also showing no signs of any serious injury after his recent early bath in the Cardiff defeat.  Morrisons scarring is healing very well and he should be able to start light training any day soon.

The Rangers game will also see a return for Dean Kiely, who will be looking to make his claim for the number one shirt permanent whilst Scott Carson sits out due to his 3 match ban. Carson is expected to be fined by the club after his out of character head butt on Chopra, the club feel that his sending off and the very nature is deserving of a club fine.

Di Matteo has actually hinted that should Kiely perform well that there is no reason why he cannot keep the shot stoppers jersey indefinitely. This episode will see a young keeper on the bench in the form of youth keeper Ryan Alsopp.

In other news today, reports are rife that Albion are likely to make a big money offer for out of favour Stoke striker James Beattie.