Another calendar year is soon to end, and it’s been another year that Albion can class as progress made.
We’ve seen a change in management, whilst the exit of our sporting director is imminent. Despite the worry of the notorious ‘second season syndrome’, Roy Hodgson guided the Baggies to tenth place, bettering the previous season of eleventh.
It has been a year of breaking hoodoos for Albion. Opponents such as Chelsea, Stoke and Liverpool were beaten for the first time in many a year. We claimed victories at Ewood Park, St. James’s Park and Villa Park while arch-rivals Wolves were demolished home and away. The ‘pride of the midlands’ title belonged firmly to the team from B71.
This achievement clearly didn’t go unnoticed, and the FA came calling in the spring. And so Jeremy Peace and Dan Ashworth went about naming Roy’s successor. Claudio Ranieri, Ralf Rangnick, Ray Wilkins, just to name a few, were mentioned. But the ultimate appointment would have caught many off guard. Steve Clarke, an experienced novice if ever there was one.
The Scot, after a successful playing career most notably at Chelsea, had assisted under heads such as Mourinho, Dalglish and Sir Bobby, and hoped to combine the best of each to the job in hand. Continuous consolidation.
In his first interview, Clarke made clear his aims for the season. He wanted 50 points and a cup run, with Ashworth and co about to assemble a squad capable. First farewells were exchanged as Nicky Shorey, Joe Mattock, Paul Scharner, Keith Andrews and Somen Tchoyi were all released. Simon Cox was sold to Nottingham Forest also.
To replace these players, Albion brought in free transfers Markus Rosenberg and Claudio Yacob. Loan deals were sorted out for trio Romelu Lukaku, Goran Popov and Yassine El Ghanassy, while Ben Foster’s loan from Birmingham was made permanent.
As usual, the fixture list threw up a more than a tricky curtain raiser. After travelling to Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge and the Emirates in recent seasons on the opening day, Liverpool were visiting the Hawthorns- Clarke’s old club. It’s fair to say the Baggies eased past the Reds, Gera, Odemwingie and debutant Lukaku with the goals in a convincing 3-0 win.
After equalising late against Tottenham, Everton were swept aside. But the Baggies suffered defeat for the first time at the Cottage, as Odemwingie saw red and Berbatov ran the show. They bounced back with a narrow 1-0 victory over newly promoted Reading, and their home form read: P3 W3 and 3 clean sheets to boot.
After taking points of Villa and QPR, the stripes’ mettle was to be tested after back to back late heartbreaks at the hands of Manchester City and Newcastle. How they responded. Southampton, Wigan, Chelsea (again) and a wonderful performance up at Sunderland reaped 12 points in November and head coach Clarke was awarded with the manager of the month award.
A midweek trip to Swansea proved one step too far, however. The Swans blew Albion away in a first half blitz that more or less settled matters. Stoke came next, and we all know what happens when that lot from the Potteries come to visit! A ludicrous penalty decision at Arsenal and a goalless draw at home to West Ham meant Albion had collected only a point and scored one goal in four matches.
Once again, the players stepped up to the plate. High flying Norwich were brought back down to earth when Lukaku scored his sixth of the season late on to seal a 2-1 win. A stroke of fortune (or strike of Fortune) was the difference as Albion edged past Qpr for the second time this season.
And a fantastic performance that went unrewarded from a depleted squad at Old Trafford brought the footballing calendar year to a close.
Just out of interest, Albion played 44 competitive matches in 2012. They won 19, drew 7 and lost 18, scoring 64 and conceding 57 in the process.
Let’s hope for more of the same in 2013, starting on New Year’s Day at home to out-of-form Fulham. It can only be better viewing that January 1 2012!
Happy new year and boing boing!!
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