I also note the following:
- the state of the bridges at motorway services is shocking. Sun bleached plastic cladding is poor look.
- a photograph I can't take because it's a view from the motorway of a canal winding through a demolition site. Birmingham. It really is *just like Venice*
- A scrapyard with a surprising amount rusting and part disembodied camper vans, above which flutters a dirty Union Jack.
Life. Oh. Life etc.
Let's have some football...
Yeah, yeah, industrial estate. The slowest subway on earth. The phrase 'sandwich artist' for fucks sake. A copper with mad Jesus tattoos. Baggies fans really love a retro shirt, they're all wearing them. Laminate flooring in the away concourse. Laminate flooring. In the concourse.
Gary Madine and Andy Carroll on the same pitch. Let's fucking do this. Sunshine. Shirt sleeves. Life is a game. It's all a dream.
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They've got a weird fridge mascot. Human evolution has led to this. Well done everyone.
A nice move. Gaz round the corner to Lavery, out to bowler. Across the box. Gaz is taking not looking like scoring to a new level as he runs away from goal. He wins a free kick. Keshi takes Tipped over. Lavery snaffles, he's through, he squares to Madine... It evades the gaol machine.
WBA come into it. Hubby flicks a header away but they pick up the pieces and bring a good stop from Maxwell. They test us with balls into corner.
Bowler races free. He goes left,he goes right. The ball stays where it is. Maxwell catches a cross. A great throw. Little toe poke from Gabriel. Bowler marauding and crossing, behind everyone... There's a pattern starting to take hold.
Lavery to Keshi. Keshi does exactly the same thing as Bowler. A lovely move from a Gaz hold up. Jimmy belts it against a defender. It comes back, hits him and rolls out. Another sweeping move finishes with Jimmy. His cross is flicked out. Bowler twists and goes up the middle. His shot is blocked.
Gabriel goes down. Carroll left one on him earlier. Virtue on, Connelly to right back. WBA cut through us alarmingly easily. Maxi makes a solid stop. Then they score. Carroll stooping to nod home in a panicked area. They go close again, only Connolly's block rescuing the situation.
Carroll has 5 minutes where he looks like an England striker. His control on the run of a ball over the top is ridiculous. Don't like him any more though.
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We've been the better side. We're losing.
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A few kick. We can't take free kicks. Pointless. We might as well just roll it to their keeper. Hang on.. Kenny puts a pearler across. Everyone just misses it.
They don't miss the next one. Connolly is fouled. The ball in... Madine heads... Marvin! He's a goal machine!!!
A great open game ensues. Steve Bruce looks ancient as he stands in what looks to me like a no brand catalogue lesuire jacket and slacks like your grandad on a trip to a Brewers Fayre.
Pool have good go at winning. Jimmy and Gaz are surprisingly the players who exchange very sexy passes and then the big man shimmies through. Wow. Gaz. Calm down mate! His square ball for Bowler is sliced wide.
Owen Dale comes on. He doesn't do an awful lot. Bowler is having one his more 'lightweight' afternoons until, with Pool having a spell of sustained pressure, he finally gets a shot on target then gets hooked for CJ immediately afterwards.
Virtue slips in Lavery but he's offside. Madine doesn't quite win a dangerous cross. The final ball or shot is just not quite there all game. CJ bursts through but pulls it behind everyone again.
Matt Phillips comes on. The Baggies hit the bar. Jimmy puts in a terrifically violent challenge on the touchline. We break. They break. They score. It's at the other end and it just seems to fly back and forth in the box till it goes in. Fucks sake!
It's over. We sing anyway. Critch stands and watches us singing for ages.
Allez Allez Allez.
I can't be bothered with a post mortem. We played well, we could have scored more than them but we didn't. It was sunny. We're staying up.
We made plenty of chances and we put plenty of pressure on but we're not clinical. We need that bit of quality. Which sounds like a 606 caller cliche and I didn't start this blog to sound like a 606 dickhead.
"Robbie - didn't see the game, but I want to state the obvious."
We all know what we need. This was a loss, but it showed what we have as much as what we don't and in my humble opinion, recruitment next year should be about quality, not quantity.
"Robbie, never mind Harry Kane. Gaz Madine and Andy Carroll up front in the World Cup mate"
Onward!
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