Rovers V West Brom Preview

[Alan75]

Match Preview by CN174

Rovers now sit in 12th place having beating Man United at Old Trafford for the first time in 43 years!! The mood is certainly different to just a few days ago when we was all worried sat on just five points, what a difference 90 minutes can make!

West Brom haven’t had the best of starts to the season and they fell to another defeat yesterday, this time by Charlton. They sit 18th in the table with five points and a goal difference of –5.

Their only victory so far has been against Portsmouth, whilst they have also suffered defeats to Chelsea, Birmingham and Wigan.

West Brom’s big signing of the summer was Nathan Ellington for £3m from Wigan. West Brom look to have quite a decent set of strikers – Earnshaw, Kamara, Horsefield, Campbell, Ellington and Kanu. They also brought in Chris Kirkland on loan from Liverpool as he looks to regain his England squad place. Their major outgoing player was Jason Koumas, a player who Rovers were rumoured to be interested, who went to Cardiff.

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[Alan75]

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What happened last season??

The last day of last season saw the end of the most dramatic relegation battle since the start of the Premiership. Four teams, only one could stay up and West Brom started bottom of the league.

Norwich started in 17th place but they were overtaken by Southampton early on, and Norwich went on to lose 6-0. Geoff Horsfield scored for the Baggies and they were then in poll position.

Palace got a penalty to overtake the Baggies, before Richardson scored! The Baggies’ game was won, but they still weren’t staying up. A late equaliser from Charlton against Palace saw West Brom move back up into the safe 17th place causing huge celebrations from the fans after a nerve-jangling last day.

This time last season??

Rovers played West Brom on the opening game of the season – it ended in a 1-1 draw after Craig Short equalised for Rovers. However Rovers fans left Ewood confused after our lineup contained not one, not two but three left backs and a left winger in some sort of 4-1-3-2 formation! We also saw our one and only glimpse of de Pedro in a league game (and how ace he was!).

Another 1-1 draw followed at the Hawthornes with Emerton getting the equalising goal for Rovers.

Players for both teams??

I can only think of one player who has played for both clubs and that is the one and only Simon Garner! A hero of the blue and white halves, he left for West Brom after Rovers gained promotion to the Premiership, being replaced by Alan Shearer. He scored 9 goals in two years for West Brom before moving onto Wycombe.

Anything else about West Brom??

Both Rovers and West Brom were founder members of the football league in 1888.

West Brom were the first team to use the ‘deanocard’ season ticket system, Rovers followed the year after.

Altogether Rovers have recorded 49 victories against West Brom, Albion have won 41 times and there have been 27 draws.