Our trip to Portman Road Saturday afternoon may be the first that Tony Mowbray could be our manager - or at least will be running the rule over the Albion. If he is to be announced tomorrow (Friday) then my guess is Pearson will run the team Saturday, then Mowbray will be on the bench Tuesday at Palace. The next fortnight will provide one of our toughest stretches of the season. Two away matches against promotion contenders Ipswich and Palace, then two fierce derbies with our West Midlands neighbours on either side of a Carling Cup tie with Arsenal. I would love for us to get eight or more points from the four league matches, but I could see us easily come out with NONE if we can't put together some decent performances. It would be great if we could turn over Arsenal (even a mostly reserve Arsenal side) at home in the Cup. Most of the team have rested during the international break, apart from Koumas (scored for Wales Wednesday), Gera (played in both qualifiers for Hungary) and McShane (MOTM for Ireland in their draw with the Czech Republic, but banned for our next three).
Ipswich Town 1 West Bromwich Albion 5 One of the best away performances for the Baggies in a long time. Ipswich may have once been considered West Brom's bogie team, but that was hardly the case today. Albion sliced open the Tractor Boys' poor defence from start to finish. Kevin Phillips completed a hat trick in injury time, and Diomansy Kamara had a brace of his own. An own goal from Chris Perry was the only blight on the scoresheet. Jason Koumas has also been excellent since his return to the fold. He set up three of the five goals this afternoon. Today showed what we are capable of doing when we play attacking football. Unless we are thoroughly thrashed by Palace Tuesday, I would say that Pearson has done an excellent job as our caretaker manager. I don't think he will be part of the new regime, but I suspect that he'll find a new job in football straight away. Perhaps Leeds or Hibs might give him a chance? Albion move up to fourth place in the table on goal difference, tied with the Dingles on points.