Posts Tagged ‘west ham’

Nouble Off whilst Koren and Barnes Speak out.

Roman Bednar is fighting hard to get fit in time for the visit of Blackpool to the Hawthorns, whilst Jerome Thomas is a major doubt with a hamstring injury suffered during the Owls game midweek.

Bednar has been missing from the Baggies team for 3 games with to a groin injury but could just make it to face Ian Holloway’s men if he comes through training tomorrow.

“We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see if Roman is okay,” said Di Matteo.

“If he is able to train with the team then we will include him for selection on Saturday.

“If he is not able to train then he will be out of the picture.

“Jerome Thomas is very doubtful for Saturday.

“I found out after the game he had a little problem.

“It’s not a bad injury, it’s a tight hamstring and we’ll see how it improves.”

Simon Cox is a better prognosis, he is now fit and available to play should he be called upon.

Frank Nouble has returned to West Ham after the Albion decided not to extend his loan any longer.

Giles Barnes spoke today of how he has called on his team mates to reproduce the battling sprit from the Owls victory and coast to promotion with ease.

“Everyone who comes to us has to be scrappy because they won’t beat us in a football game of out-passing us,” said Barnes.

“After about 60 to 70 minutes you know things can happen so it’s a case of riding the storm.

“I don’t think we should look at other teams, just keep getting win, win, win and not worry about other teams.

“Even when we go away people try to stop us playing football and get in our faces.

“But we proved on Tuesday we can get into people’s faces and battle.

“It’s was a massive win.

“It was massive for the whole club not just the head coach.

“If we can lock down that automatic spot then we’ll be happy.

“We have to get our professional head back on and be ready for Saturday.”

Robert Koren meanwhile issued a similiar statement when professing how he does not want to end up in the lottery of the play off’s.

Koren who scored a tremendous goal midweek to gain all 3 points for the Albion was at the club when they suffered defeat at the hands of Derby in the play off final at Wembley, he has no desire to suffer the stress or upset of that again.

“I was involved in the play-offs when I arrived at the club and my experience is not nice,” said Koren.

“I prefer the top two so hopefully we will get good results at the end of the season and stay out of the play-offs.

“The play-offs are very difficult and there is a lot of pressure on those games.

“I think we have enough quality to show in the last 11 games that we are good enough.

“We have done a great job so far and we need to stick together.

“We have our fans behind us and they are doing a great job, and on the field we have to play our part.

“Everybody needs to play a part and if we believe it as one, we can do it.”

Koren would like nothing better than to be travelling to the World Cup as a premiership player and thinks the return of long term injured players will bolster the Albion and help secure automatic promotion.

“That is one of the biggest things,” Koren added.

“We have a big squad now with good players and it’s good to see all of the injured players coming back.

“They are showing the right spirit and from the first one to the last one we need to look like a team together.

“From the first to the last everybody has to stick together as a team.

“It’s not about personal things, it doesn’t matter who is playing, we need to stick together, get the right results and reach first or second place at the end of the season.”

Reading Albion preview, team news and odds detail

Reading and West Brom meet tomorrow in an all Championship FA Cup fifth round tie and Albion are not expecting anything like the easy 3 to 1 victory they had at the Hawthorns in October.

In a game where one club is struggling near the foot of the table and another club is topping the table, you would not expect the struggling club to be so expected to win. The Royals, however, have beaten top opposition including the premier giants Liverpool and also Burnley, to get thus far.

Saturday’s game at the Madejski Stadium looks likely to render the pair’s differing league fortunes irrelevant, with Reading as sure that they will get through to the quarter final as any of the other 15 teams still in the hat.

The Baggies head for the Madejski Stadium looking to book a place in the quarterers but have to get past a rejuvenated Reading team, who have only lost three times in 11 games since new head coach Brian McDermott took over and have moved within a point of Coca-Cola Championship safety.

Royals tactician is looking to mastermind another scalp en route to a place in the last eight, with Albion the team in his sight’s..

Reading will be without defender Zurab Khizanishvili, the Georgia international made his home debut in the win over Plymouth on Tuesday night but is now cup tied having played for Blackburn in the FA Cup already.

Matt Mills is available again, however, after serving a one-match ban and he should take Khizanishvili’s place in the centre of defence.

Sigurdsson, who has scored in both rounds has been out with a foot injury while Czech Republic international Matejovsky has been struggling with an abdominal injury, however, both are rumoured to be close to fitness and may play a part.

Roberto Di Matteo has to make changes again, not only because of being involved in so many games of late, however, also because of injury, cup ties and suspension issues.

Loanee Frank Nouble is ineligible for the tie having played earlier in the competition for West Ham.Then there will be others missing, striker Ishmael Miller (ankle), defender Marek Cech (hamstring), winger Jerome Thomas (suspended) and midfielders James Morrison (heel) and Giles Barnes (Achilles) all remain unavailable.

Di Matteo has also confirmed that youth team players will be on the bench for the match, with the Baggies boss possibly having his mind on Tuesday’s crunch Championship clash at Cardiff.

Young Graham Dorrans may be rested for tomorrow’s FA Cup clash at Reading, the Baggies midfielder who is on top form this season, is carrying a slight hip flex injury.

Although not serious, Albion boss Roberto Di Matteo may be tempted to give him a break, although still will be viewed in many quarters as the wrong thing to do with so many other forced changes coming.

Roberto Di Matteo said: “Graham Dorrans has been fantastic for us, also because he has been playing with a little injury in the last three weeks.

“I am aware of it and wary of it.

“You always try to think ‘maybe I can pull him off’, but it’s kind of difficult because he can be so influential for us.

“He’s got a little problem on his hip flex, which we’ll have to monitor.”

Di Matteo has some pedigree in the FA Cup, scoring in two finals for Chelsea back in 1997 and 2000.

“I’m not sure if it’s helped our league campaign but a win gives you confidence,” he added.

“Every win gives you confidence, whether it’s in the league or cup. It gives you a belief. It’s a nice habit.

“It’s a great competition the FA Cup in England. We’ve tried our best in previous games and that’s what we’ll do on Saturday – we’ll try to get through to the next round.”

Paddy Power are offering a free tenner bet for all new account’s and the odds available are 7/4 on Reading, 12/5 the draw and 7/5 on the Albion with 80 more bets available on the game.

Sky are offering 7/4 on Reading, 12/5 the draw and 6/4 on the Albion. They too are offering a free tenner bet, however, this is a tenner match bet.

Ladbrokes will give you 8/5 on either result with 12/5 the draw like elsewhere and are also offering West Brom Blog readers a free tenner too.

Bet 365 are now running a great new incentive where you can pick your own bonus and one that is far greater than before, get up to £200 as a starter with maybe more to follow. Their odds on the game are slightly different with 7/4 Reading, 6/4 Albion and 23/10 the draw.

Keep an eye out around the West Brom Blog for plenty of special offers at all the sports books and a few offers at online casinos and poker rooms.

Nouble Starts and there are 3 more changes tonight

Fresh kid on the block, short term loan signing Frank Nouble is given his Albion debut as Roberto Di Matteo makes a total of 4 team changes tonight. Obviously Jerome Thomas was out, but the other three are chosen.

The West Ham forward Nouble replaces the suspended Jerome Thomas on the left wing as we suggested earlier today, however, Slory still gets no better than the bench.

Gonzalo Jara, Jonas Olsson and Robert Koren are all recalled after being rested at Plymouth, the benched three who they replace are Gianni Zuiverloon, Abdoulaye Meite and Simon Cox.

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

SCUNTHORPE (4-4-2): Murphy; Byrne, Mirfin, Jones, Sparrow; Togwell, O’Connor, Moloney, McDermott; Wright, Hooper. Subs not used: Lillis (gk), McCann, Hayes, Forte, Woolford, Morris, Raynes.

REFEREE: K Wright (Cambridgeshire).

Eager Nouble may start tonight against the Iron

Frank Nouble has today spoken about his hope for the future and how he thinks he could help out tonight. Although a striker he has confirmed himself as a potential replacement for the suspended Jerome Thomas against Scunthorpe.

He said: “I just want to play in an attacking role, be it left wing, right wing or up front, I am here to gain some experience and help the team.”

The 18-year-old finalised his initial 28 day loan from West Ham earlier today and in time to face Scunthorpe at the Hawthorns tonight.

Continuing, Nouble said:

“I am very excited. I watch some of the games on TV and some of the teams like West Brom are big teams, so I want to see how I do at this level.

“I made my debut at 17 recently. I have just turned 18 and I want to get as much experience as I can in any league, be it the Championship or Premier League.”

The youngster’s arrival from Upton Park gives Roberto Di Matteo extra options in the quest for a replacement for Thomas, who begins his four match ban tonight.

Nouble agreed that Di Matteo’s friendship with West Ham boss Gianfranco Zola played a big part in securing the move.

He said: “Gianfranco Zola and the manager here are close friends, so it was easy for them to talk about me. I think Roberto Di Matteo definitely listened to what he said and I think he is happy I have come here.

“The manager here has Chelsea links and was a terrific player when at Chelsea with Gianfranco Zola.”

Albion first team coach Michael Appleton has also spoken about Nouble: “Frank is really strong and aggressive and he will give us an outlet sometimes when we need that, especially when teams are trying to frustrate us.

“He is versatile and can play in different positions, which is good for us. There may be times when we want to use him in the centre but he has played a lot of football lately in wider areas so I think we’ll look to use him in both areas of the pitch as and when we need to.”

So, with Thomas out and Nouble fresh whilst other players are suffering from the rigours of 4 games in 10 days, added to the fact that he cannot play Saturday at Reading due to being cup tied, it is very likely that he will start tonight.

Albion really do need to make changes quite often at the moment anyway, as by next Tuesday at 10 pm they will have played 5 games in 13 days, a ridiculous amount in such a short period.

West Ham striker Frank Nouble to sign tomorrow

News from the Hawthorns seems to confirm that Albion will be signing the powerful West Ham striker Frank Nouble on loan tomorrow once the window is open for loans.

Although signing in time for tomorrows visit of the Iron, he will unlikely make the team sheet, however, may be a possibility for the bench.

Nouble’s initial month long stay at the Albion will see him available for the matches against Cardiff, Bristol City, Derby, QPR and Sheffield Wednesday.

At 6ft 3in the player would be a great asset for the trip to Reading in the FA Cup fifth round on Saturday, however, as he is cup tied will be unavailable for the game.

This is certainly making full use of the emergency transfer window, as Roberto Di Matteo has lost Ishmael Miller to an ankle injury for at least two weeks along with Jerome Thomas who is banned for 4 games.

West Ham signed Nouble from Chelsea in the close season on a 5 year contract.

He made his debut versus Wolves when the Hammers won by 2 goals to nil in the opening game so should go down quite well at the Hawthorns just for this reason. He has made 8 more first team appearances since.

Nouble is not shy of goals, he has scored 2 goals 10 times whilst playing for Chelsea reserves.

Giles Barnes speaks of his fitness confidence.

Giles Barnes is hoping to make his first appearance for new club Albion within weeks after vowing to rediscover the form that made him a £7 million man.

The ex Derby winger was talking to the club site for the first time about his fight to regain full fitness and explained that his ruptured Achilles has now fully healed.

Barnes is hoping and convinced that all the injuries over the last 3 years are now behind him and that he can get on with his career.

He said: “I’m there or thereabouts. I am short of game practice and I’m not going to hide that but as soon as I get one or two game practice games behind me I would be thinking I’d be ready to enter the first team if selected.

“My Achilles feels fantastic. I don’t have any pain or any swelling from it, so I suppose that’s a good thing.”

At 21 he has already been one of English football’s brightest talents and attracted bids of £7million in the summer of 2007, one of those bids from West Ham, this was after helping Derby reach the Premier League at Albion’s cost. The hammers move looked all set to go when the injury nightmare started.

He said: “There is no doubt in my mind. I was probably playing better football than ever when I went on loan to Fulham, even though it was in reserve games. In training I was sharper than I had ever been before.

“Even though I got my Achilles injury from that, I didn’t lose my football brain and thank God I haven’t lost any pace or anything like that.

“You come back stronger from things like that and if you keep watching football you learn things as well.”

With foot, knee and Achilles problems since 2007, Barnes has never considered once that his career could be doomed to failure.

He said: “That is one thing that never came into my head – not even an echo. I am that eager to get back. If anyone had turned around to me and said ‘we’re not too sure,’ that would have been a big shock to me.

“But not playing again is not something I ever contemplated.”

Only time will tell, however, should Barnes regain the form he was capable of and steer clear of any further injury, Albion may have an asset on their hands that could be worth close on £10 million.