Retro Game - West Brom

So back we go to the 1990/91 season and the 24th November 1990 to be precise. I remember this game very well as my old man tried to get me as the mascot for this game since it was 6 days before a birthday I was very fortunate to see. Well sadly I didn't get the mascot duties but nevermind, I was just very lucky to be travelling to these games. 

Well anyway back then the trains were not known for their shiteness and their franchise bollox. We got the intercity 125 train from London to Birmingham to meet some of dads mates. Once we got there, we ended up getting a train to Walsall for a few bevvies before catching a bus towards West Brom. Walsall and West Brom are not far from each other at all, in fact I would say that's more of a derby game than West Brom v Wolves.

Anyway the baggies were not having a good season under Brian Talbot while Wednesday were looking for an immediate return to the top flight. Wednesday were lining up against a baggies strike force of Gary Bannister and Bob Taylor. Now Bob Taylor is a baggies legend as he played god knows how many games for them scoring a few as well. This game was also the first time Carlton Palmer returned to the club and I think the first time Ron Atkinson returned. Well Wednesday took around 4000 supporters to this game and packed the away end filling the crowd to 16,586.

The sides came out and Wednesday lined up as follows

Turner, Nilsson, King, Shirtliff, Pearson, Harkes, Palmer, Sheridan, Worthington, Hirst, Williams
Subs - Francis, Madden

Unfortunately for all, I cannot remember the full West Brom team but they had the likes of Bannister playing, with Taylor, the experienced defender Graham Roberts, Stewart Robson, but more than anything I'll never forget the moment the tannoy announced the substitute Colin West.

If you were there, you'll remember this well and it still makes me laugh to the day. Subs for West Brom no 12 Colin West - cue Wednesday fans shouting 'DUCK'!!!!!!! and plenty of fans ducked. For the youth of today, if you want to know why this happened ask about a penalty Colin West took in front of the kop.

Well anyway as this is going to be done from memory and I honestly do not remember the game that well to provide a decent write up ( others i've used memory and have used recollections from programmes etc. This time none of this will happen. However on a cold novembers day I remember this wasn't a classic although Wednesday should have taken the lead very early on with Paul Williams missing a glorious chance from a few yards out where the keeper Andy Dibble was no where. West Brom had a young Andrew Dibble on loan for this game and actually had a pretty good game. He then made an excellent save to deny a John Sheridan thunderbolt free kick which Wednesday fans thought had goal written all over it.

Wednesday though had a blip from a set piece. They failed to clear a corner away and Shakespeare crossed the ball back into the danger area for Stewart Robson to lash home to give the baggies the lead giving Talbot a huge sigh of relief. This was right in front of the Albion fans as well and was a kicker to the owls who had failed to defend a corner. Pearson was fuming at his defence and to be fair had every right to.

It could have got worse for Wednesday had Taylor connected with a lovely through ball from Roberts. Graham Roberts was giving Palmer a game and I think this performance earned some interest by us, but this never came off. The final chance of the first half came to David Hirst who's volley went wide of the target with the keeper beaten

The second half started and this started to become a battle of the midfield. You could tell Wednesday were the superior team but they were struggling against a very hard working West Brom outfit. You could tell Brian Talbot had instructed his men to really get at us, not allow players any space and force mistakes for them to penalise us on. Well they should have done as pressure on Peter Shirtliff resulted in Craig nShakespeare playing a ball out to Don Goodman on the right and his ball was perfectly connected by Bannister but Chris Turner made a magnificent save to keep us in the game with Ron Atkinson applauding the heroics of the keeper.

Atkinson decided enough was enough and bought on Trevor Francis for John Harkes in order to add some attacking flair to the team and for Wednesday this substitution changed the whole game. Francis's experience really helped us for the last 15 minutes and almost produced a stunning goal had Dibble not been alert to push his shot over the bar.

Well the clock was running out and some magic stuff from Francis forced Albion to concede a corner. The ball was beautifully delivered in by Sheridan and up rose Peter Shirtliff to power the ball into the net to give Wednesday the equaliser and send 4000 wednesday fans ecstatic. To be fair this was probably going to be the fair result but this really fired Wednesday and came relentless pressure on the baggies goal. You could now tell who were the side on the ascendency and within minutes Williams forced the keeper to make a great save with his shot from 10 yards. The corner came in and Pearsons header was saved again by the keeper before being hacked away. West Brom decided to make a change to run down the clock bringing on Colin West resulting in owls fans ducking - a picture I wish I could have done again as it was a great sight.

However, their tactics and subsitute failed as with seconds to go, the owls attacked down the right and Nilsson put a ball into the danger zone that was poorly dealt with by the baggies and Francis had the easiest of chances and obliged by sending the ball into the corner to give Wednesday the lead with the last kick of the game. What is it with 90th minute winners away from home as these are celebrated more wildly than us scoring a 90th minute winner at home. I actually picked up a bruise from where dads mate Jack accidentally whacked me from going mad celebrating our winner.

When the final whistle went, there were huge chants of Atkinsons barmy army and we are going up as Wednesday took the 3 points back to Hillsborough. This season did not end well for the baggies as not only did they go down on the last day of the season, they also embarrasingly lost 4-2 at home to conference side Woking. As expected Brian Talbot got the sack immediately after that game  

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