Albion are traveling up to Yorkshire tonight to face Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough. Wednesday are 10 places below us in the table at 17th, but are a mere five points behind us; they are closer to us in points than Cardiff! We could take a massive tumble down the table should we continue to be inconsistent and fail to win matches against the likes of the Owls. We must perform better than we did against Stoke on Saturday.
I missed the match as I was working today, but from various reports it would appear that we are as likely for relegation as we are for promotion.
Unfortunately i went to the game. What i saw was beyond words. If i said the performance was totally unacceptable, a disgrace, a calamity - then i wouldn't be doing it justice. They were shocking for 90 minutes and it seemd that they stayed in the same mode that saw them lose at Stoke. I went up there fully expecting the players have had a hot poker shoved up their arse and to come out fighting. Instead we got a lack lustre display that was devoid of any passion, fight, skill, urgency or tactics. Mowbray is equally to blame for not being able to gee the players up and for being totally outdone tactically by Brian Laws. At 2-0, Laws was still on the touchline gesticulating and pullin his hair out while Mowbray sat in the dugout. Lets remember we were playing a poor side too and it's this that makes it that much harder to understand. At half time they were justly jeered off and we all thought the 2nd half would be an improvement. Although we pulled a goal back we didn't deserve there was nothing to shout about. What kept most of the fans going was the appalling game that the ref had - you could call him a 'homer' for the decisions he was giving but he didn't lose us the game. We'd have lost that game no matter what. We conceded more soft goals, and the only glimmer of light was in Paul McShane who come on at half time for Perry and actually showed some grit. He's got to play against Derby. Curtis Davies deserves a mention. He was dire. I don't whats happened to him but he hasn't impressed in a long time now. At the final whistle they were again jeered and we sang 'What a load of rubbish'. However, recognising this, the players shook hands with the opposition and went back to the changing rooms without even looking at us the fans which was a disgusting gesture. The only players who clapped us were Davies and McShane and so, the fans took out their frustrations on them. Personally i made 'w@nker' gestures and jeered them off and i'm glad at least those 2 saw how we felt. We were fully justified in slaughtering them. However either Davies as captain or Mowbray should have forced the rest of the players to come to the fans and applaud us and accept the barrage of insults because they deserved it. They were just to cowardly to do so. To round off the evening, the coach broke down just outside Sheffield meaning we had a two hour wait until the breakdown crew got there to change the tyre. I didn't get home until going 3am. But of course, the likes of Greeing and Carter will have travelled home in luxury ready to get their £10,000 a week while i forked out over 50 quid for the whole trip - money that i can't ********in afford.
I'm sorry to hear about your miserable away day experience, A&E. We all hope that the football club we support will give us value for money... in footballing terms, this means giving a good showing every time they step on the pitch, whether home or away. Unfortunately, it appears Albion are guilty of lacklustre performances fairly regularly, particularly when we are away.