West Bromwich Albion 1 - West Ham United 2

Bobby Hope:

Well I give up - almost! But never will I do that. AI, nice bloke, but has to go. He is playing people out of position and WTF is Brunt doing - especially playing as CAPTAIN!!!!! Whatever your opinions may be about the guy, Dorrans is by far the best player this season especially as he is being played out of position. Way way way above anything else we have - he would absolutely shine in a better side. He is working with idiots.

As for Berahino - I'm amazed! We allow a drink driver around at 4 a.m. to swan around as if he's the greatest thing since sliced bread. Why? Because we have no one else!!!

I don't give a monkeys about the players and Peace et al it's you the supporters I really care for because you have the absolute passion and undevoted love for this club. Most of the players and executives are transient mercenaries but you lot are not and that is the real difference. God Bless WBA and their support. I will not post again.

Stuart Russell:

I have supported Albion for 66 years and this is the first time I really fear for their future. Peace I think made dreadful mistakes in the summer, recruiting an excellent coach who had always been a failure in the top job and apparently allowing him little control over the apparently excellent people we signed.

But this is not why I fear for my club. It's because the fans have really begun to turn against JP. Since he took over, Albion have been a model of how a club of their size should be run. They have operated well within their budget and from being a yoyo club - which was part of JP's plan (to accept relegations as long as the club always come back stronger without breaking the bank) - we had established ourselves as a fairly solid Premiership outfit. We had a good academy, a decent first team squad and acceptable coaches. I think Jeremy got it wrong in sacking Mel when he had done what had been required of him under the most challenging circumstances.

If JP suddenly decides he's had enough without a reputable buyer in line, the club could be back to the dark days of pre-Paul Thompson and Gary Megson, constantly fearing a relegation battle IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP. Various clubs should give us pause for thought, Portsmouth being the prime case. Portsmouth over-reached themselves. The owners gave Harry Redknapp his head and he bought players irrespective of size of fees or wages. The result, a club dramatically over-reaching itself. Yes in 2008 they won the FA Cup but at what cost? They are now less concerned with returning to the Premier League and former glories, more with not slipping into the conference, and totally obscurity. So I say to my fellow supporters. Be careful, be very careful of what you wish for.

Mark Koppel:

As Shakespeare once wrote, all is not well in the State Of Denmark.

After the Chelsea Capitulation I said Irvine needs to go if we don't win one of the next 3 games. We have now lost the next 2 so Irvine will go if we lose to Hull. But it will not matter a jot if Irvine is sacked until Peace (aka JFP) does the following things:

1. Appoint a Manager, not Head Coach, who is responsible for player recruitment. This is what Stoke did under Pullis. West Brom have been in the PL longer than Stoke, and had more Sky Money, but Stoke have built a much stronger squad.
2. Allow the new Manager to appoint his own Staff.
3. Give the Manager a decent budget every January. Injuries, suspensions, African Nations Cup, loss of form, drink driving all mean you need to refresh your squad in January, all other PL Clubs do.

The worrying thing is that thick-headed JFP will not do any of these things because they will cost too much money and quite selfishly he wants to retain total control like a North Korean Dictator.

Alan Irvine is correct, the system at West Brom, where a Head Coach is totally divorced from player transfers, only works if you have a genius doing the recruitment. We had one in Dan Ashworth for a while, now we don't which ends up with us wasting £10million on crap unknown strikers.

So selfish JFP if you cannot change things as above, sell up to a real West Brom Fan. By the way, I don't believe there is no one out there who wouldn't buy the Club. The fact is JFP is still holding out for £10k per share. If he wasn't so greedy, he could sell at £3k a share and that would make the Club much more affordable to a potential Buyer.

Player ratings:

• Foster 5 - Just like Arsenal game, good in patches but also now starting to be vulnerable at times.
• Wisdom 2 - The bottle of champagne I will open when he blocks his first cross this season still remains on chill. Don't think Downing could believe his luck tonight. He is also colour blind, as every forward pass went to a player in claret & blue.
• Dawson 5 - Great goal and good block in the first half. Went missing for their winner.
• Lescott 6 - Solid and should be made Captain on Saturday.
• Baird 4 - A player well past his best. To make things worse, Irvine plays him out of position.
• Brunt 3 - If one more TV Pundit talks about Brunt's great left foot I will put my left foot through the screen. His "great left foot" is only effective about once per season. Additionally he is very slow and has a terrible right foot. Captain???
• Berahino 5 - Played like he was up all night travelling down the M6. To be fair though, all strikers go through sticky patches so he cannot be expected to score all the goals.
• Sess 5 - Flapped about a bit but caused no threat to West Ham.
• Gardner 4 - Only realised he was on the pitch when he got taken off.
• Dorans 3 - The player we have been trying to sell for 2 years, and the last few games have shown why.
• Big Vic 5 - Started well, but still has not played a good whole 90 mins for us in 18 months now.

Subs -

• Mulumbu 5 - Half the player he was and still looks fat.
• Varela 7 - Best player by some distance, but only given 29 mins by Irvine and only played because of fan pressure.
• £10 Million Flop 0 - Not sure he touched the ball. Is he the football equivalent of the Fake Sheikh?

Brendan Clegg:

Time for Irvine to go - it looks like it.

There is no real defence for playing Brunt in the centre in a 442 with Gardner or making Baird play left back again. There were just so many other options - 3 at the back, play Brunt there, give Davidson a go (if he is not good enough for the squad by now, get rid - I am astonished we went to the effort we did to get him), play Gamboa there as at least he has pace to carry the ball forward on his wrong foot.

We started well enough for 10 minutes and got the goal but pretty soon our inability to keep the ball cost us - Brunt, Gardner and Dawson giving it away cheaply or heading it straight back to the opposition, Wisdom (because he had no winger in front of him) and Baird (because he was constantly on his wrong foot) having to always go back to Foster who'd pump it up the pitch to West Ham.

Going behind seemed inevitable in the first half and so it proved - we are brittle at the back. If we are ahead and most teams need a goal they stand a chance of getting one by cranking up the pressure. And the 2nd goal before half time is criminal. I thought this guy was a great coach?

Brunt's injury just before half time brought Mulumbu into the centre and we immediately improved - at least he tried to come and get ball of the centre backs, turn and pass the ball forwards. We were certainly more in control. Answer this - in an open market are you going to get higher bids for Mulumbu or Chris Brunt in centre midfield?

I thought Varela improved us further because we could give him the ball and he'd occupy a couple of players without losing it. He even did this thing where he dribbled round a couple of players and put the ball into the box. Amazing. I wish Poc had been there to support him with a natural left foot instead of the willing but limited Baird. To me all his performance confirmed was that he should have been in the squad getting minutes 3 or 4 games ago building up to a start tonight. If Brunt's injured he may now actually get one having only played 20 odd minutes of football.

I also thought Dorrans was much better in the centre than Gardner had been - where Gardner would honestly 'deal with' the ball by blocking it and hurrying it away or heading it for percentages, Dorrans and Mulumbu tried to control it under pressure and keep it. It didn't always work, but it enabled us to sustain pressure on the West Ham goal for the 2nd half. In the end, West Ham shut up shop and although we had lots of pressure the goal never came - even with us going for it with 3 at the back.

Can Irvine win 2 or 3 in a row and save himself for now? I can't see it. Even if he does, we'll be looking over our shoulder all season trying to sneak another 4-5 wins when I still believe we have a good enough squad to breathe a bit more easily. Even the changes that he made seemed to be in reaction to the demands of the crowd.

• Foster - 6 A couple of good saves but some dodgy kicking again.
• Wisdom - 6 Ok defensively, nothing going forward, surprised he kept his place.
• Lescott - 7 A class act. One or two bad passes tonight but strong, quick and composed.
• Dawson - 6 Defensively he can put in great challenges and blocks but he keeps giving the ball away so cheaply it kills us. I can't ever see us having a stable defence with him in the centre of it.
• Baird - It's not even fair to mark him. Defensively he surprised me how well he kept Morgan quiet and that's commendable but offered no balance, out ball, width or anything going forward apart from a dragged shot. You can't get away with playing him where we did at this level.
• Dorrans - 6 Managed to steal a set piece off Brunt to claim an assist and was decent in the middle but struggled again out 'wide'.
• Brunt - 4 Offered nothing.
• Gardner - 5 A sort of fitter, quicker, tougher Andy Johnson. Loads of effort, no real net result and gives the ball away cheaply. Being found out a bit - he's been the midfield stalwart in struggling/relegated teams like Blues and Sunderland. Great to have in the squad but not a guaranteed starter in my eyes.
• Sess - 7 Again our only player capable of a bit of magic but lacks support. I'd have him on the wing causing problems every week.
• Berahino - 5 Started brightly but faded and probably needs a break.
• Anichibe - 7 I'm far from his biggest fan but actually ran himself into the ground, caused them problems, gave us a focal point and challenged for everything.

Subs

• Varela - 7 Promising, good use of the ball, rarely lost it and put in a couple of good crosses.
• Mulumbu - 7 Looked much more like his old self
• Ideye - 6 Difficult to judge but at least looked lively. You can't imagine him being afforded the amounts of minutes Berahino gets when not at it. Needs game time and like Varela this should've come way sooner.

Have to find a way to win on Saturday - Irvine or not.

Takapuna Baggie:

Sorry Bobby Hope.
Lights have gone out.
Ship has sailed.
PULIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Didcot Baggie:

What a miserable night! Freezing cold and almost nothing on the pitch to warm you up. This was Championship football and Albion clearly look like a Championship team. Wisdom and Baird leave us exposed at the back, the midfield still toils hard to no purpose and Sess and Saido flatter to deceive. I'm no fan of Big Vic, but at least playing him up front gave Saido more opportunities. We need to start Valera and Ideye now and see what they can do in a full game and use Gamboa and Davidson, they can't be a worse option than Wisdom and Baird. Can we get Billy Jones back?

Clearly the system at West Brom is broken - a "manager" (= Coach) who doesn't rate the players his Chairman brought for him. Until we have a manager in the old classic sense we are going to struggle. If we survive this year it will only be because somewhat incredibly there will be 3 teams even worse than us, not because we deserve to stay up.

Big Frank:

Apart from some amusing banter with the WHU supporters there was a noticeable change in attitudes in the Smethwick last night where instead of booing and groaning they went for ironic p taking in large doses.

The second half turned into one big verbal "bashing of Irvine" session where there was chanting for Varela and Brown, to which he duly obliged then cheering every touch of the ball they received which I personally didn't have a problem with although Browns couple of touches were pretty poor. Some of the other chants included "Alan Irvine's a football genius", "Alan Irvine get out of our club" and "we've got Father Ted". Some asked him for a wave and then after he waved, they followed it by booing him. Also heard were "can we pick the team for you?", "We pick our own team", "can we pick the team next week?". After Irvine made the changes, bowing more or less to the chants sections of the Smethwick chanted "Alan Irvine - he's under the thumb", "you're just Downing's number two" was another as was "It’s better than watching Brazil".

We all know by now he usually opts for Samaras and Gamboa as his subs, Samaras coincidentally was getting ready to come on until another few chants from the crowd after which Brown Ideye took his tracksuit off and Samaras sat down. I have no doubts about it, the supporter pressure made those two substitutions and unsurprisingly Varela looked very good. He made a big mistake last night in bowing down to the chants. It has made him look weak. His position amongst the supporters (as they demonstrated tonight) has now become pretty untenable and I doubt he can win them back.

Derby Bernie:

Despite the doom and gloom, I thought there were a number of positives from last night's match:

1. During his time (too short) on the pitch Valera showed that he has the ability to beat players and provide decent crosses. The first time we've seen that ability (from one of our players) this season. Very encouraging.
2. Mulumbu got better and better as the second half wore on. Not at his brilliant best yet but he's getting there. We need him as a regular in the team because he is potentially our best midfielder.
3. Our second half performance was good and probably deserved a point or three. The driving force of Valera, Mulumbu and Vic caused West Ham lots of problems. It was only their goalie and luck that kept us out.
4. Lescott was brilliant. He was everywhere on the pitch, organising defence, encouraging and supporting midfield and winning balls up front. A near faultless performance. He would make an great captain.

Negative - I am concerned that the current manager isn't aware that tactical substitutions can be made before the 60th minute!

oshawabaggie:

So everyone wants to sack Irvine? Albion management had plenty of time last spring and summer to hire a coach and Irvine was what they came up with. This was the same management team, more or less, who hired and fired Mel and Clark. It is also the same management group, more or less, who have assembled 75% of the current squad, many of whom are now deemed to be not up to Premier league calibre, including perhaps the most curious record signing in the history of the league.

Would this management group have the balls to admit yet another mistake by pulling the trigger on Irvine already? I doubt it.

And who on earth do we think we could get to come and coach under current management? Perhaps some third or fourth tier hot shot willing to give it a whirl, but would he be any better than Irvine with the players available? Furthermore what would another coaching change do to the already fragile psyche of the players?

Sorry lads, but we are stuck with the coach and players we have for the foreseeable future. Two things which would help would be a statement from Peace in support of his coach (but probably won't happen) and unconditional support by the fans. Three big games coming up. 2 wins and a draw and the heat will be turned down. 2 losses and a draw and I might be eating my words.

David Allen:

Hello. When was the last time we won a match in the evening? On the 5th November 2012 we beat Southampton 2-0 and Odemwingie scored both. I have no memory of the game but it is my best answer. I do not keep records of kick off times. The only other non weekend winning games were on Boxing and New Year's Day.

[ Technically, 24th September this year when we beat Hull in the League Cup. In the Premiership it was Monday 11th February 2013 when we beat Liverpool 2-0. It could, perhaps, be argued that there are so few midweek evening games compared to weekend games that it's not that relevant a measure anyway. ]

5 home wins in a season and 4 months. What martyrs the season ticket holders are, or do they need to be more vocal in SUPPORT?

Could you remind me of the 11 that were voted as the worst players to play for us a few years ago on this website? Perhaps we could do another fun vote as there is so very little to cheer at the moment.

Finally is the Bobby Hope who contributed THE BOBBY HOPE?

[ No. ]