UK Trip – Boing Boing
The Lord’s my Shepherd, I’ll not want:
He makes me down to lie
In pastures green; he leadeth me
The quiet waters by.
It was a clear and decisive moment when I realised I had become a West Bromwich Albion supporter. Sitting around a computer monitor at my mates house for the third consecutive weekend waiting for the scores to update minute by minute I found myself enthralled to a little known team I had never seen play, most people had never heard of and at that current moment in time I was never sure if I would ever see live.
The defining moment was an late Sunday night/Monday morning, it was a survival game for ‘The Albion’ and we were at home to the Champions Charlton Athletic. It was either neighbouring Walsall or us who wouldn’t survive the afternoon and fortunately Richard Sneekes and Bob Taylor found the back of the net, Albion got the points and survived the dreaded drop.
From that moment on I knew ‘The Albion’ were my team, now I just had to adjust to sporadic match updates and buying copies of British Soccer Week.
Fast forward to 2008 where strangely enough I visited Charlton to see my first Albion game. It was dreadfully cold and as I made the walk to ‘The Valley’ I could barely control my excitement. Stupidly I had purchased home tickets so couldn’t jump up in celebration when Kevin Phillips equalised and nabbed a point.
I managed to watch seven games over the three seasons I was living in London and strangely enough never saw an Albion loss. Two wins and five draws is hardly anything to write home about but when three of those games belonged to the 2008/09 failed Premiership campaign it wasn’t all bad.
So the opportunity arose to visit England and make another pilgrimage to The Hawthorns. Crystal Palace were to be the opponents this time and although their league form had been rubbish they had just knocked out the white hot Tottenham in the FA Cup whist we embarrased ourselves against Reading and missed an opportunity for a cup run.
Whilst I hadn’t watched too many games this season I could sense things were not all rosy under Tony Pullis this season. Results weren’t coming and to be fair our football style had been dour.
As a strode off the train from London I was probably far too excited at the site of The Hawthorns, it wasn’t the Nou Camp or San Siro but here I was 10,000 miles from home watching the Baggies run around again, albiet keeping our toe dipped in the relegation dog fight.
Walking inro the Hawthorns you get a feeling of real football, the sense of history as you take a seat in a league that has been diluted by a Billionaires playground.
My arrival had also coincided with the Chris Brunt ‘coin’ incident so I was interested too see how the home fans would react.
The late afternoon kickoff probably added to the experience as I was near freezing, having left a warm Melbourne summer.
The reaction Chris Brunt recieved was nothing short of exceptional with fans wanting to show everyone who they really were. Brunty a 300 game vetrean epitomises the West Brom attitude in so many ways and that resonated with the crowd. Unfortunately it a cruel twist of fate Brunt suffered a knee injury in the first half but that was the only downside of the cracking performance.
Three goals in the opening 31 minutes, I could hardly belive it. I found myself literally pinching myself at halftime, not only was I at The Hawthorns but watching some quality football against an opposition who I was very wary of.
What happened just after halftime quickly brough myself and the hoard of Baggies supporters back down to earth. A horrible defensive error between Ben Foster and Jonas Olsson literally gifted Palace a goal and a way back into the match. On 80 minutes Wickham decreased the gap to one after a scorching goal. This was 10 plus minutes of squeaky bum time for every Albion supporter.
Finally after what seemed an eternity the referee blew full time and not only had West Brom secured three value points but gad given me a proper Hawthorns experience.
Off to Leicester
At the start of the season this game hardly held any significance but because of the incredible run of form Ranieri’s men had experienced I found myself on a Baggies coach enrote to top of table Leicester City.
Leicester is not dissimilar to The Hawthorns where you get football fans who have most likely experienced more bad days than good but will always support their team. The current enigma at Leicester has football fans around the globe excited and willing the foxes on. Every night except tonight, I was there supporting The Albion in full voice and also had to keep my unbeaten record alive.
There was a positive feeling in the away bays, the Palace performance was full of quality and we knew tonight was a great opportunity to take something from Leicester.
The game itself was choc full of quality and when Rondon put us in front early you knew it could be just our night. For Leicester to fight back and hit the front just before half time you had to think maybe Leicester are that good, maybe it’s their destiny to win the league.
This all went away when Craig Gardiner scored one of the best free kicks you will see all season and made it 2-2. From that moment on both teams had their chances but I feel a point each was a fair result.
The atmosphere at the King Power was one I’ll probably never experience again, it was just that good. Away fans sang for 90 minutes willing their team over the line against some quality opposition. The home fans generated a special type atmosphere and must also be a reason why there team is over performing this season.
What a cracking match I was able to witness, for me the spirit of The Albion is alive and well.
Sadly that’s my last opportunity to see West Brom on this trip but I am already thinking ahead for a return in the future.
Thanks to the West Bromwich Albion staff who made tickets accessible for purchase and the fans of the club who made the experience memorable.
I’ll leave you with one last thought I overheard yesterday before the game “What do people expect, we aren’t Barcelona or Arsenal or Chelsea, we are The Albion. Read into that how you like but I think after the Leicester performance we can be very proud of our football club.
