Owls head to Hawthorns

The Owls travel to the Midlands tomorrow in the first of three games on the road, Wednesday face high flying Albion at the Hawthorns before trips to Swansea and Preston in the next week. 

Owls News

Wednesday boss Alan Irvine will assess the fitness of his returning players ahead of the trip to the Hawthorns, Darren Purse and Tommy Miller both completed 90 minutes whilst Jermaine Johnson was a constant threat in his 70 minute spell terrorizing Bruno Berner.

Tommy Spurr could miss the trip to the Hawthorns after taking a facial knock in Saturdays win, the left back was concussed in the incident which bizarrely saw the referee award a free kick to the visitors, Eddie Nolan switched to left back and looked assured whilst Spurr’s replacement Frankie Simek was comfortable on the right.

The midfield four played a high tempo game on Saturday with Tommy Miller particularly having a great game and showing some of the abilities that persuaded Brian Laws to bring in the attacking midfielder, more of the same is required against arguably the most cultured side in the division.

Leon Clarke will retain his place up front, the former Wolves man will be a target for some abuse by the Baggies faithful but if the Leon who played Saturday turns up the Albion back four could be facing quite a handful, both he and Tudgay could be a tough test for the Baggies.



Team News

Team (possible): Grant, Simek, Beevers, Purse, Nolan; Johnson, O’Connor, Potter, Miller; Clarke, Tudgay.

(subs from) O’Donnell, Hinds, Boden, McAllister, Varney, Soares, Esajas, Jeffers, Gray, Spurr.

West Brom News

The Baggies come into the game in 3rd place after a disappointing defeat away at QPR at the weekend, the Baggies will be hoping their game in hand will earn them 3 ppints and move them back into the top two at Nottingham Forests’ expense.

West Brom Heroes

Jeff Astle was a Baggies hero and goal scoring machine during the 60’s and 70’s, he cost the club £25,000 when he was signed from home-town club Notts County, indeed he’d modeled his style of play on County legend Tommy Lawton.

Jeff had spent 5 years at County netting 31 league goals for the club in over 100 appearances which was hardly prolific but his move to the Hawthorns galvanized his career and in his ten spell with the club he would net at a rate of almost 1 in 2, with 174 goals in 361 appearances, he became the first man to score in the final of both major cup competitions at Wembley, netting a winner in the 1968 FA Cup final and scoring in 2-1 League Cup final defeat two years later, he also netted in the 1966 League cup final but this was played over two legs, Albion won it.

He was the top scorer in the 1969/70 season with 25 goals and that got him into the England side, he played 5 times for his country but failed to score. After leaving Albion Jeff went to Greece for a short spell before returning home to Non-League football.

In 2002 Jeff passed away at the age of 59, he had been suffering from a degenerative brain disease which was later found to be the result of his playing career.

Another Albion legend is Laurie Cunningham, he only spent two years with the club but what a couple of years.

London born Laurie was rejected by Arsenal as a youngster and instead signed for Leyton Orient, he made his debut in the 1974/75 season and left midway through the 1976/77 campaign to join Johnny Giles’ West Brom alongside Cyrille Regis. It was under former Wednesday manager Ron Atkinson that his career took off, he alongside Regis and Brendan Batson helped transform Albion into one of the most attractive and attacking sides in the country.

In 1977 Laurie became the first Black international for England when he was capped at U21 level, in 1979 he became the first black player to wear the 3 lions at full level in a competitive fixture.

Laurie spent just over three years with Albion scoring 30 goals in 114 appearances from the wing, he created many more, he signed for Real Madrid for a reputed £950k fee in the summer of 1979, his first season was one to remember as he helped the club to a domestic double scoring 8 league goals in the process. He began the following season well before breaking a toe, it was to be the start of a succession of injuries that blighted his career, he returned to help Real retain the Copa Del Rey in 1981.

The next two seasons were injury hit, he made just more appearances without scoring for Madrid, he also had a 5 game spell at Manchester United on loan netting once.

In 1983 he signed for Sporting Gijon on loan, he made 30 appearances in the league for the club scoring 3 times, following the loan Real cut their losses and Cunningham signed for Marseille, he had an impressive spell with the club and 8 league goals in 30 appearances in the 1984/85 season.

After that spell in France he returned home to sign for Leicester where he had a 1 year spell making 15 league starts for the club but he failed to net, he returned to Spain to sign for Rayo Vallecano in the Spanish second division, he made 37 appearances for the club which helped secure a move to Charleroi in Belgium for the 1987/88 season. Once again injuries took there toll and he played just one league game for the club before joining Wimbledon on loan in early 1988, he helped the Crazy Gang to their great FA Cup shock victory in 1988.

Laurie returned to Rayo Vallecano to spend more time with his Spanish wife in the summer of 1988 and helped the club back into the Primera League, in fact he netted the goal that sealed it.

In the summer of 1989 Laurie Cunningham was killed in a road crash in Madrid.

The Ground


West Brom have been at the Hawthorns for 110 years and the ground is up there with my favourites in the country, it is an old ground in its history terms but new in the set up and offers a great view wherever you sit.

The ground has seen many changes over the years, from the early mud mounds to the concrete terraces then onto the electronic turnstiles and the electric floodlights.

The stadium capacity is currently 26,500 all seater, the largest stand at the Hawthorns is the East Stand, the stand was build in 2001 to replace the old Rainbow Stand which had stood since 1964, the capacity of the stand is just shy of 8,800 and all the clubs commercial activities are in this stand as well as the administrative centre.

Across from the East Stand is somewhat unsurprisingly the West Stand, this was fully refurbished in 2008 and was the Halfords Lane end until then, it holds 5,110, it was originally built in two phases between 1979 and 1982.

The main home end is the Birmingham Road end, this was originally a terrace stand but after the Taylor Report it was renovated and a new stand was opened in 1994 with space for around 8,300 spectators, this stand is behind one of the goals.

The away fans are held in the Smethwick End which has a total capacity of 5,816 but the stand is often split between home and away fans reducing capacity down, the Owls will have around 1,500 seats for the game with space for a few more.



The Gaffer


Former Italian international Roberto Di Matteo is boss at the Hawthorns, he succeeded Tony Mowbray in the summer following his defection to Celtic.

This is only the second job of Di Matteo’s managerial career, he had spent the previous season at MK Dons replacing Paul Ince, the likeable Italian had guided Franchise FC to the League One play offs in his spell in charge but they were cruelly beaten by Scunthorpe.

As a player he began his career in Switzerland (the country of his birth) and spent time at Schaffhausen, FC Zurich and FC Aarau before joining Lazio in the summer of 1993 on a free transfer.

His time at Lazio was a success and saw him capped by Italy (the home country of his parents) and he was a lynchpin in the Rome club’s side until he fell out with the coach over a defensive error, that signaled the end of his career with Lazio and he joined Chelsea in the summer of 1996 for a near £5m.

Di Matteo quickly settled at Stamford Bridge and was getting a reputation as a goal scorer, he scored the fastest ever goal in an FA Cup final at the old Wembley when he beat Middlesbrough’s Ben Roberts from 30 yards after just 43 seconds. He went on to win the that trophy again 3 years later as well as the UEFA Cup winners Cup, the League Cup and the UEFA Super cup.

In 2000 he suffered a triple compound fracture and after nearly 18 months rehabilitation he was forced to call it a day at the age of just 31.

Key Players

Simon Cox


Former Swindon striker Simon joined the Baggies in the summer in a deal said to be worth £1.5m, he took time to settle but is now looking a bargain at half the price.

Simon began his career with hometown club Reading, making his debut in a League cup tie in September 2005, he went on to make a further five appearances that campaign, all from the bench.

With Reading in the top flight Simon saw his chances restricted and went to Brentford on loan, he failed to find the net in his 14 match spell with the Bees, later that season he joined Northampton on loan and scored 3 goals in 8 league appearances.

In the August 2007 transfer window he was loaned to Swindon Town and his career began to take off, he netted 9 times in his 21 games on loan before the move was made permanent in January for around £200k, he scored a further 6 goals in 17 games to the end of the season.

In the 2008/09 season Cox was in great goal scoring form, notching 32 goals for the Robin in just 50 appearances in all competitions, in his 88 games for the club he bagged 47 goals which gave him a goal ration of a goal ever 1.87 games.

The Baggies took the plunge despite interest from several clubs and despite yours truly pointing out his abilities during his first few weeks at Swindon, he has netted 9 times in 29 games for the club, including a brace at Hillsborough back in November.


Squad Number 31

Robert Koren


Cultured midfielder Robert is in his fourth year with the Baggies after signing on a free transfer in January 2007 under the Bosman ruling, he left Lillestrom in Norway to sign for West Brom.

Robert began his career in his native Slovenia and after coming through the ranks at Celje he made his professional debut with Dravograd where he spent 5 years making over 100 appearances for the club.

In 2001 he returned to Celje where he had an impressive 3 year spell which included 22 goals in 78 league appearances.

Lillestrom in Norway was the next port of call, he joined the Norwegian side in 2004, his three years with the club were a personal success if not a club one, he helped them to the final of the Norwegian Cup and the Intertoto Cup as well as league runners up in 2006, he appeared 75 times for the club before moving to the Baggies.

He made his Baggies debut as a sub in the FA Cup against Leeds before making his full debut against the same opposition in the League a fortnight later, he made 23 appearances that season as the Baggies lost the Championship play-off final, he netted once.

The 2007/08 was his best to date for the club, he helped them to the Championship title and scored ten goals in 46 appearances, last season only Scott Carson appeared more times for the club in their battle against relegation, Robert grabbed 3 goals in 39 games.

He has made 20 starts so far this and a further 8 from the bench, he has netted on four occasions.

Robert is a Slovenia international with nearly 50 caps to his name, he is one to watch out for when England meet Slovenia in the World Cup finals.

Squad Number 7

Jerome Thomas


Jerome is a former Arsenal trainee who signed for the Baggies on a free transfer in the summer after being released by cash strapped Portsmouth.

Despite coming through the Arsenal ranks Jerome actually made his professional debut whilst on loan at QPR in 2002, he had a 1 month spell at Loftus Road at the back end of the 2001/02 season, he made 4 appearances and scored his first goal in a 1-0 win at Swindon.

Jerome returned to QPR in August 2002 for another loan spell, he played six games and netted 2 goals before returning to Highbury, he failed to make another appearance that season.

His Arsenal debut came in the 2003/04, he played 3 league ties for the Gunners, in February 2004 he was sold to Charlton, he made his Addicks debut in May of the same year.

In the 2004/05 season he made 28 appearances for the Addicks and netted his first Premier League goal in a 3-2 win at Spurs, he scored two more in the season. He followed that up with 31 appearances the following campaign, his only goal again came at Spurs.

He played 24 times for the club in 2006/07 season but couldn’t help them avoid the drop, he managed 3 goals as well. With the Addicks in the second tier Jerome made the most appearances in a season to date, he played 33 times for the club without scoring.

In August 2008 he joined Portsmouth initially on loan before signing for free, he made just three appearances for the club.

Since joining the Baggies he’s made 25 appearances, had two red cards and scored 8 times, certainly his best season scoring wise of his career.


Squad Number 14


Team News

Team (possible): Carson; Reid, Tamas, Olsson, Cech; Brunt, Watson, Dorrans, Thomas, Koren; Cox;

(subs from) Mattock, Miller, Kiely, Mulumbu, Morrison, Meite, Moore, Sloury, Nouble.

Head to Head

A 97th minute equalizer by former Baggie Steve Watson earned the Owls a point when the two sides last met in November 2007, the strike came well after the allotted five minutes and cancelled out a Kevin Phillips strike to infuriate the home crowd, the Owls almost snatched even later into time added on through Deon Burton, that would have brought back memories of a famous away win at the Hawthorns in the late part of 1990.

The season prior to the 1-1 draw the Owls had won at the Hawthorns in a game which saw the hosts reduced to nine men, a cross from Chris Brunt was prodded goal bound by Deon Burton on 59 minutes and despite Dean Kiely’s efforts the ball squirmed over the line cue an explosion on the away end as the Wednesdayites celebrated, Neil Clement and Paul Robinson were later dismissed for bad fouls on ex-Wolves man Leon Clarke.
So back to 1990, former Baggies manager Ron Atkinson, he took his high flying Owls to the Hawthorns and saw his side fall behind to a Stewart (brother of Bryan) Robson goal, this lead was to last till the 86th minute as the Barmy Army cranked up the noise, Peter Shirtliff leveled matters from a corner before Tricky Trev won for the Owls in the final minute.

The two clubs first met at the Hawthorns way back in 1892 in an FA Cup match, the hosts won 2-1.


Overall at the Hawthorns:

Owls: 20

Draw: 18

Baggies: 17

Final thoughts

A tough game for Wednesday who need at least a point to climb out of the trap door and against a side licking their wounds, we need to be tactically spot on to grind a result out and the defence must work as hard as they did Saturday.

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