The Hawthorns: West Bromwich Albion 1-1 Stoke City

Christmas Trip to North Wales

For this year's Christmas football weekend, we were fortunate enough to get the opportunity to visit Hollywood FC! The perfect trip for myself who has never been to the Racecourse Ground making it my 90th ground out of 92. With the Racecourse selling out most weeks and with a limited capacity whilst they await the rebuild of the Kop, purchasing tickets could've been tricky. However, with previous purchasing history at Colchester United, it only took a quick phone call to their ticket office for us to buy 4 tickets in the away end of the Racecourse. On the day of the match, we set off around 9.30am making our journey through Burton and Stoke on Trent towards the M6. We took the bypass around Nantwich before continuing our journey along the A534 to Wrexham. Whilst travelling in the car, we managed to get 4 tickets for the Sunday early kick off with West Bromwich Albion taking on Stoke City at the Hawthorns. A nice bonus to our weekend! We arrived at our Premier Inn at 11.30am parking the car in their car park before making the short walk to the Racecourse. Following a brief walk around the ground, we decide to pay a visit to the Turf for a few pre-match drinks and to watch the early kick off. Just after 2pm, we we're making our way into the ground via the away end turnstiles. The concourse area must be one of the smallest in the Football League and a half time can be cramped for space. As for the view, for an away end, it’s about as good as it gets on the side just by the dugouts and tunnel. Following the recent demolition of the Kop, plans are in place to replace it with a new all-seater stand however, due to high demand for tickets, they have built an uncovered temporary stand with the capacity of 2,289 behind the goal which is due to open in the next few weeks raising the overall capacity beyond 12,000 seats. Onto the match and Wrexham's promotion push continued as they added to struggling Colchester United's troubles. Elliot Lee fired home from close range in the 4th minute, but before the half was up, the hosts were down to 10-men with George Evans being shown a straight red for a challenge on Colchester's Arthur Read. In the second half, Zach Mitchell's own goal doubled the hosts' lead from a James McClean cross from the left, but the spirited visitors hit back late on through Jayden Fevrier which proved to be no more than a consolation. Despite victory against Phil Parkinson's former team, Wrexham dropped a place to third in the table as Barrow went above them on goal difference thanks to a 3-0 win at Swindon Town while Colchester remain a place off the relegation zone. After the match, we made the short walk back to the Premier Inn to check in before going out in the town for dinner at Nandos and drinks at various bars in the High Street. The next morning we checked out and went for breakfast at The Elihu Yale Wetherspoons pub just after 8am before setting off towards the West Midlands just after 9am. A straight forward journey out of Wrexham following the A525 to Whitchurch then following the A41 to the M54. We approached the West Midlands via the M6 bypassing Walsall and driving past the Bescot Stadium then onto the M5 for West Bromwich. We arrived just after 10.30am parking the car on Sandwell Road just a 10 minute walk from the Hawthorns. Struggling Stoke earned a hard-fought point at West Brom but their winless run now stretches to eight Championship matches. Paul Gallagher was put in temporary charge of Stoke City following the dismissal of Stoke City manager Alex Neil. The hosts seemed in control of the match from the start and Grady Diangana created the first chance. The winger advanced to the byline and crossed to the back post, finding Jeremy Sarmiento whose speculative effort flew high over the crossbar. However, a cross from Lynden Gooch sailed over the head of goalkeeper Alex Palmer and into the back of the net, via the underside of the crossbar, to give the visitors an early lead. Ryan Mmaee had a chance to double the lead just minutes later, but his shot deflected off Kyle Bartley and a foot wide of a post. West Brom continued to dominate possession but were frustrated by the Potters' resolute defence. Then, a moment of quality from Sarmineto required Jack Bonham to make an excellent fingertip save and it spurred the Baggies back into life. Alex Mowatt's corner was headed over by Cedric Kipre, albeit under the close attention of a defender and goalkeeper. Thomas-Asante found West Brom's equaliser after 35 minutes, striking a fine volley into the bottom corner of the net after Darnell Furlong did well to keep the ball in play. Furlong pulled it back to Okay Yokuslu whose shot was blocked on the line, but the ball fell kindly to Thomas-Asante to level the scores. Stoke continued to set up to frustrate after the break and the hosts were struggling to create any chances of note. However, Jed Wallace's curling goalbound effort was diverted off target by the head of Michael Rose. Rose also made a superb last-ditch tackle to deny Tom Fellows when the substitute was bearing down on goal and ready to shoot. Josh Laurent came close twice to restoring Stoke's lead, firstly when his shot deflected off Kipre and narrowly wide before shooting a good chance over the crossbar. Thomas-Asante had the chance to win it for West Brom late on, but Bonham reacted well to his effort. The goalkeeper then pushed over Pipa's close-range shot to preserve a point for Stoke. After the match, we walked back to the car on Sandwell Road and headed towards the M6 then onto the M42 making our way back to Leicestershire getting home around 3pm. With Wrexham’s Racecourse Ground ticked off, this now only leaves Barrow Town’s Holker Street and Tottenham Hotspur’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium remaining to visit in order to recomplete the 92 again!

West Bromwich Albion 0-3 Tottenham Hotspur

The last time both myself (Ross) and Adrian visited The Hawthorns was back in March 2008 when a struggling Leicester City beat high flying West Bromwich Albion 1-4 in The Championship. As we had a free Saturday, we decided the best fixture to see was West Bromwich Albion vs Tottenham Hotspur. For myself, this will be the second time I’ve seen Spurs in a week following my visit to White Hart Lane last weekend in the FA Cup 4^th round.

We left at around 10:30am travelling down the M42 southbound. With time in our favour, Adrian showed me where he normally parks when visiting Villa Park ahead on Leicester City’s FA Cup visit (which I’m hoping to get tickets for!).

We then made our way to the One Stop Shopping Centre in Perry Barr. We went to ASDA but unfortunately they didn’t seem to have a cafe so we went to a Wetherspoon pub called The Arthur Robertson which seemed to be a Villa supporter owned pub with scarves behind the bar.

When we finished our chilli con carne and ham, egg and chips, we made our way to West Brom going through Handsworth and parking off Island Road.

We made our way up Island Road towards The Hawthorns making a brief stop at Morrisons supermarket to use their toilets. We then continued our walk up to the highest football ground in England taking photos upon our arrival.

The Hawthorns has a capacity of 26,850. The oldest stand is the Halford Lane stand which was constructed between 1979 and 1981, the Birmingham Road End followed in 1994, the Smethwick End (where the Away supporters are housed) was constructed between 1994 and 1995 and finally, the East stand was constructed in 2001.

A comprehensive win for in form Tottenham who completed January 2015 with 9 wins in all competitions. For West Brom a first defeat under new manager Tony Pulis and a disappointing performance.

We needed something to warm us up on a bitterly cold day at The Hawthorns and we got it immediately.

Christen Eriksen’s brilliant free kick on the 4th minute put Spurs ahead. This followed a foul by Yacob on Dembele.

On 14^th minute it was 2-0, Dembele again involved finding space in midfield spotting young Harry Kane who quickly controlled the ball leaving Wisdom wrong footed and shot powerfully past Foster.

For the first 25 minutes, Tottenham dominated the possession and Albion couldn't get out of their own half, but when they did, they almost scored. James Morrison testing Hugo Lloris with a left foot shot that was tipped over for a corner.

Moments later the French international keeper denied Claudio Yacob getting down low to his right to push away a goal bound shot.

Lloris was a spectator prior to the break as Morrison’s free kick was met by the head of Craig Dawson watching as the effort cannoned away off the cross bar.

Albions failure to score meant that Tottenham were comfortable and played without pressure, Eriksen, who was constantly involved, firing a left foot shot just wide at the beginning of the second half and then provided an assist which led to a penalty. The Dane finding Kyle Walker on the right and his cross hitting the arm of make shift left back Lescott giving referee Kevin Friend no other choice but to point to the spot.

The confident Kane sent Foster the wrong way as it was very much game over at 3-0 and he could have had a hat trick Foster denying him a treble pushing away a free kick moments later.

West Brom couldn't get into the game at times they were far too slow in their reactions and turned in a very unlike Pulis type performance. If they could have scored with one of their first half chances things could have been different.

The home support were drifting away well before the final whistle, many would have missed a late opportunity for a consolation. Berahino forcing a save from Lloris and left back Danny Rose getting in a last ditch tackle to prevent a goal for the very expensive summer signing Ideye.

Tottenham are playing some excellent football at present, they have a world class player in Eriksen and on current form the best English striker in Kane. How he has developed since we saw him on loan at Leicester City a couple of seasons ago.

West Brom were disappointing, it's no disgrace being beaten by a more talented team however certain basic things like organisation, leadership and desire appeared to be missing. Indeed everything Tony Pulis stands for! Pulis has never been relegated in his managerial career, it's a remarkable stat. Many more performances like that and that could change, he has much work to do.

Following the game, we made a quick dash back to the car and down Island Road, past One Stop Shopping Centre and Villa Park before eventually finding our way onto the M42.

Following a quick McDonalds, it was up to Loughborough University to watch Basketball’s BBL Trophy Quarter Final between Leicester Riders and Worcester Wolves, the Riders winning 80-71.

West Bromwich Albion 1-4 Leicester City

The Hawthorns is home of West Bromwich Albion (The Baggies). Both teams needed to win. West Bromwich Albion fighting for promotion to the Premier League and Leicester City fighting to avoid relegation to League 1. The Halford Lane stand was constructed between 1979 and 1981, the Birmingham Road End was built in 1994, the Smethwick End where the Away supporters are housed) was constructed between 1994 and 1995 and finally, the East stand was constructed in 2001. West Brom scored first by Koren then went down to 10-men. Leicester took the advantage and scored 4, one by McAuley and a hat-trick by Howard.

The Hawthorns

Sunday 4 February 2024

West Bromwich Albion 1-1 Stoke City

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