Let's put our relegation battle on hold for a moment and cast our mind back 26 years. In April 1985 West Brom beat traditional arch rivals Aston Villa 1-0 with a goal from, Canadian, Carl Valentine. Little did we know that it would be another 26 years before the blue and white half of this rivalry would taste success. In the interveening years the old foes have only met on 17 occasions and more pertinently, rivalries with Wolves and Birmingham have grown to replace the intensity of this traditional one which over 100 plus years has often been the battle to be the West Midlands topdog. But to a large number of fans, this is still the true derby, both geographically and within their footballing DNA.
However on Saturday April 30th 2011, the Hawthorns experienced such fervour only recently seen at promotion parties and Wolves play off games as the ghost of Carl Valentine was finally laid to rest. Today fans put their modern hatred of Wolves to one side and rekindled the the traditional passion of the 60's, 70's and 80's as West Bromwich Albion finally overcame their richer, more successful and generally bigger neighbours Aston Villa.
The game itself meandered along for 70 minutes heading for a draw that would have finally banished the minimal relegation fears of either side. The turning point was the sending off of Paul Scharner that all of a sudden put the onus on Villa to go for the kill and secure the three points. Instead it totally galvanised Albion to fight, battle and ultimately take the game back to Villa in search of the win for themselves. In this battle of intensity, Albion showed more desire than an increasingly apathetic Villa and fully deserved to get the victory and break the 26 year, 17 game hoodoo.
For the record, goals from Peter Odemwinge, 14th of the season, and Yousef Mulumbu, an impressive 6th of the campaign, cancelled out the 4th minute Meite own goal taking West Brom up to 11th position in the table and past the much quoted 42 point mark. On a day where elegant passing football was missing, key performances came from stand in skipper, Jonas Olssen and the hard working fill in role performed by Simon Cox. The midfield lacked width following the absence of Brunt and Thomas and chances were generally limited to a few speculative efforts.
For the first time since 1999, a West Brom campaign is fizzling out in mid table with no chance or likelihood of the team exchanging divisions. Who would have dreamt that this would have happened when this blog started in February. For the time being, you can say that the yo-yo tag is shelved and attention now turns to one major challenge yearned by those more modern fans, and an opportunity to all but relegate Black Country bitter rivals, Wolves. A team beaten many times over the last 26 years.
However on Saturday April 30th 2011, the Hawthorns experienced such fervour only recently seen at promotion parties and Wolves play off games as the ghost of Carl Valentine was finally laid to rest. Today fans put their modern hatred of Wolves to one side and rekindled the the traditional passion of the 60's, 70's and 80's as West Bromwich Albion finally overcame their richer, more successful and generally bigger neighbours Aston Villa.
The game itself meandered along for 70 minutes heading for a draw that would have finally banished the minimal relegation fears of either side. The turning point was the sending off of Paul Scharner that all of a sudden put the onus on Villa to go for the kill and secure the three points. Instead it totally galvanised Albion to fight, battle and ultimately take the game back to Villa in search of the win for themselves. In this battle of intensity, Albion showed more desire than an increasingly apathetic Villa and fully deserved to get the victory and break the 26 year, 17 game hoodoo.
For the record, goals from Peter Odemwinge, 14th of the season, and Yousef Mulumbu, an impressive 6th of the campaign, cancelled out the 4th minute Meite own goal taking West Brom up to 11th position in the table and past the much quoted 42 point mark. On a day where elegant passing football was missing, key performances came from stand in skipper, Jonas Olssen and the hard working fill in role performed by Simon Cox. The midfield lacked width following the absence of Brunt and Thomas and chances were generally limited to a few speculative efforts.
For the first time since 1999, a West Brom campaign is fizzling out in mid table with no chance or likelihood of the team exchanging divisions. Who would have dreamt that this would have happened when this blog started in February. For the time being, you can say that the yo-yo tag is shelved and attention now turns to one major challenge yearned by those more modern fans, and an opportunity to all but relegate Black Country bitter rivals, Wolves. A team beaten many times over the last 26 years.
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