Back on April 12th the time had come for the next in our increasingly long line of football away day pilgrimages. This time we were heading towards the midlands and had chosen The Hawthorns as the venue for our latest first-time football experience. West Bromwich Albion were hosting Watford FC, with just a point between the clubs and both of them still harbouring ambitions for the Championship play-offs. As things have turned out, this would be my fourth time watching The Hornets, home and away, in the past couple of years. Amazingly, by the standards of Gino Pozzo, Tom Cleverley has been the manager of the away side for more than a year now, although it remains to be seen if he survives the coming summer.
On the other hand, it transpired that we would end up witnessing the last win of Tony Mowbray's second tenure as the WBA boss. Just nine days after our trip Mowbray was sacked, a mere two months into his return, following two subsequent defeats that quickly extinguished any resurrected hopes of promotion. All of which shows just how little time there is for sentiment in the ferociously competitive Championship.
Back to our day though and the process of purchasing tickets was relatively straightforward, with the greatest stress being the wait until I could get access (what with me not being a paid member). Even so, despite not being able to confirm our trip until twelve days before the match, I managed to get tickets for the five of us to sit together just two rows back from the pitch in the East Stand.
As for getting there, that was pretty seamless too, with a direct train from Bristol to Birmingham New Street station leaving a short metro trip, north west, to The Hawthorns (at least that was the original plan). Being in central Birmingham, the number of pubs or bars on offer were obviously in plentiful supply, and after one mis-step when it came to finding a watering hole that was showing the early kick-offs, we happened upon a place called 'Head of Steam' which offered an impressive array of good quality beer and ale.
After an extended stay there it was time to think about getting in the vicinity of The Hawthorns, and the metro was quickly abandoned to make up time in a taxi. On the way we were to witness numerous examples of the ongoing bin strikes that have been plaguing Birmingham, and that are now in their seventh week. Black bin bags piled up and spilling off of the pavements made for a grim precursor to the area surrounding the home of WBA.
Not for the first time, we were to be undone by a slight lack of forward planning, as it turns out that the nearest pub(s) to the ground are at least fifteen minutes walk away. Considering that The Hawthorns has housed The Baggies since 1900, it was a surprise to see how much of the place is surrounded by industry and well known fast-food eateries. Our approach went past the closed down buildings of 'European Commercial Pressings Ltd' and we entered through the famous Jeff Astle gates, but you'd have to go around to the opposite corner of the stadium before finding any residential properties.
Outside of the East Stand, I sampled a burger from the 'Smokey Joes' eatery which was relatively cheap and cheerful when compared with the pies inside the stadium. The Hawthorns itself is a decent football ground, steeped in history and with a respectable atmosphere. Off to the right from where we were sitting, there was the famous throstle mascot in the Woodman corner, named after the Woodman pub which sat directly outside that part of the stadium and which was criminally demolished in 2004 to create extra car parking spaces.
On to the game and both sides started confidently enough, considering the pressure that was on it. However, it was only in the eleventh minute when the home side took a welcome lead. A positive run by Tom Fellows, on the right wing, saw him spin away from his marker as he burst from midfield to the edge of the Watford penalty area, before a well measured cut-back found an unmarked Karlan Grant fifteen yards out. His quality one-touch finish was effortlessly stroked into the bottom-left corner of the goal and gave Egil Selvik no chance.
Buoyed by this early goal for The Baggies, it was then that we experienced possibly the oddest moment of any of our previous football away days. One of our group made a wisecrack about streaking across the pitch in celebration, only for a fan in front of us to aggressively question if he was a Watford fan. The accusation didn't make any sense, and this fan clearly had a major sense of humour failure, especially as we had all just been celebrating a goal for the hosts. When another of our clan shared a couple of choice words with the offender, a young teenager a couple of seats down from him started getting upset. Needless to say, everything was seemingly smoothed over, but it made for an unnecessary and bizarre couple of minutes.
Back to the action on the pitch and The Hornets responded well, with Edo Kayembe being the main threat. In the thirty-fifth minute he exchanged passes with Imrân Louza. and after the touch with his right foot caused the ball to sit up, he unleashed a left-footed volley from twenty yards that had Josh Griffiths thankful when it smashed back off of the right hand post. Then, on the cusp of half-time, WBA won a free-kick almost forty yards from goal, it didn't stop Isaac Price from taking a shot and forcing Selvik into a low outstretched save to concede a corner.
The second half began with good intent from both sides, but WBA showed more promise. In the fifty-fourth minute it really should have been 2-0, more excellent work from Tom Fellows on the right saw him win the race for a long ball, twist and turn the defender before surging into the penalty area and drilling a low pass across the six yard box. Selvik got an outstretched foot on the ball which ricocheted off of another defender, and a quick lay-off from Alex Mowatt, into the path of an onrushing Mickey Johnston at the far post. However, his sweeping finish from the six yard line was heroically blocked by a desperate lunge from Jeremy Ngakia.
Watford did not learn from their escape though and just six minutes later, on the hour mark, The Baggies had finally doubled their lead. WBA broke from midfield and Karlan Grant slipped a through-ball into the path of that man Tom Fellows, the winger galloped into the box and cut the ball back from the right to find Mickey Johnston, who opened up his body to guide the ball into the bottom left corner from ten yards out. It was a superbly crafted goal.
West Brom missed the opportunity to emphatically settle the game soon after when Will Lankshear, on loan from Tottenham, was unable to hit the target from another Tom Fellows cut-back to the edge of the Watford area. Of course, the away side then gave a demonstration of the ebbs and flows of football by getting back into the match in the seventy-sixth minute. Imrân Louza surged towards the halfway line and poked an excellent long pass between the WBA defenders with the outside of his left foot. Moussa Sissoko effortlessly won the race to the ball as it drifted inside the box and he drilled it in with his first touch.
Five minutes later and the home fans should have been able to breathe more easily. A swift counter-attacking move led to Mickey Johnston putting a great through ball into the right side of the penalty area, where Karlan Grant had continued his run and found himself one on one with the goalkeeper. He hammered a shot inside the post from just eight yards but was denied by a brilliant reaction save from Selvik.
There was still time for Watford to rescue something from the game, and after some pressure they were to get that chance in the final seconds. Jeremy Ngakia delivered a cross from the right hand side, in the ninety-sixth minute, and found Mattie Pollock climbing highest of all the players in the area. His downward header looked destined for the bottom left corner but Josh Griffiths clawed it away from goal with his right hand, and that was that. An entertaining game that was deservedly won by The Baggies with some stand-out performances from their trio of attacking midfielders. The Hornets had played their part, but it was evident that they were slightly less confident than their opponents.
Unfortunately, as we got up to leave, there was to be one more flashpoint between one of our group and the humourless fan from earlier in the game. Those who needed to be separated were and thankfully everyone departed with their dignity (mostly) intact, although you have to wonder how upset the WBA regular would have been if his team had lost! Thankfully our journey home was without any further drama and we had successfully scratched off yet another new football away day adventure. The question is where we'll end up going next, but that will have to wait until next season...
Click this link to read about our other football away day adventures