West Bromwich Albion v. Southampton (10 Feb) [R]

[DevilDave]

Albion face a massive test at home against promotion rivals Southampton Saturday afternoon.

It was a goalless draw early in the season at St Mary's between the two teams, but both have since shown they are capable of scoring goals in bunches. You need look no further than their deadly Polish striker Grzegorz Rasiak, who has 17 league strikes. He currently shares the top of the league goalscorers list with Diomansy Kamara and Rob Earnshaw. Keeping Rasiak and his comrades quiet will be the task of the Albion back four, who have shown somewhat good form of late.

Jonathan Greening will miss this match due to receiving a late yellow card Saturday at Hull (his ninth in the league this season :mad: ). Otherwise, we should be fine for squad selections barring any knocks the lads on international duty may have suffered.

[DevilDave]

A draw is probably just what we deserved after a match which saw many goal chances squandered by both sides. Kenwyne Jones gave the early lead to Saints, but Kevin Phillips tallied at the start of first half stoppage time to bring us level at the break.

After Albion dominated the early part of the second half, Southampton controlled the possession in the final half-hour. We frustratingly gave the ball away time after time in the second half, and Saints mounted tremendous pressure on the Albion goal. We were lucky however, that Southampton missed a few chances and Dean Kiely was forced to make some decent saves to preserve the draw.

The referee's miserable performance today was partly to our benefit, as Kiely blatantly handled the ball outside the Albion penalty area, but the ref waved play on. A few chances where Southampton defenders might have had handball were not called either.

W***es won at PNE which brings us level points with Preston and into second in the table on goal difference. Of course, the Dingles are now only six points behind us, and Blues can jump ahead of us again with a win against Stoke tomorrow. We did miss a golden opportunity to pass PNE on points and gain ground on Derby, who drew at home to Hull.

[DevilDave]

Of course, the Dingles are now only six points behind us, and Blues can jump ahead of us again with a win against Stoke tomorrow. We did miss a golden opportunity to pass PNE on points and gain ground on Derby, who drew at home to Hull.

I rarely if ever quote myself in a new post, but I just thought that there's still a great possibility that three Midlands clubs could be promoted to the Premiership next season. Of course, one of them may well be EAST Midlands side Derby County, but I certainly think the Rams may yet be caught by the teams below them.

The ideal scenario, of course, would be Albion winning the league, Blues second and the W***es somehow scrapping through in the play-offs.