The Diary

19 February 2007: Further Cup Progress - Would It Bring Pain Or Pleasure?

Perhaps it?s just as well for everyone?s physical and mental well-being, that there?s now a distance of approximately 24 hours separating yesterday?s events from those who actually made the arduous trek Oop North. I don?t know about you lot, but after such an emotionally-draining 90 minutes, I?m still feeling so mentally exhausted, it would take something enormously funny to bring a smile back to my lips once more. Yep, football, especially the Albion variety, really grabs you like that, sometimes. It truly is a fickle mistress, capable of elevating you to undreamed-of emotional heights one week, then plunging you straight into a blacker hole than even the most murderous mob of Calcutta Indian Mutineers have ever devised, the next.

And how things have changed for the football team we all like to support: just a few short months ago, both The Fart and I were driven to complete despair by an appallingly-indifferent midweek first-team performance at Hillsbrough, where we found ourselves three goals down in around the time it takes to have a quick wash-and-brush up prior to leaving one?s house for some trivial errand or other. Not so much a side permanently out to lunch as one completely failing to make the table reservation.

If ever there was a time to realise that something was going badly awry with our first team squad in the wake of Robbo?s departure and that of Nigel Pearson, then that game was the moment the penny first started to drop. That, plus simple body-language, told me everything I needed to know that night. It was looking awfully like our board had made a colossal error of judgment when it came to their eventual choice of manager: as good as Mogga might be, it was abundantly clear to me there were some out there who didn?t fancy Hawthorns life working for his kind of dollar one little bit.

Some brave souls were actually screaming for the swift return of the aforementioned Nigel Pearson to the fold, in a futile attempt to persuade our board to rectify things before matters started to get way beyond the bounds of salvation. How times have changed on Planet Albion since then, thank goodness. Our leader has finally won hearts and minds, both on the playing staff and in the stands. (I?ll draw the line at The Bloke In Front Of Me, though: we could be at Wembley, three or four in front, with but a minute or so of normal time still remaining before we claim what?s rightfully ours by tradition. One daft error, however insignificant it might be in the likelihood of not changing the outcome one iota, and the guy would still be screaming at the offending player, in a manner calculated to get me extremely worried about the current state of his coronary arteries: ?RUBBISH! COWIN? GERRIM OFF ? NOW!?)

But in all seriousness, one particularly good thing to emerge from yesterday?s game was the continuing rise and rise of Richard Chaplow. For me, he was in magnificent form the whole way through, that hairless dome of his rising majestically time and time to meet just about everything the opposition could throw at him, and those massively-enduring legs of his covering just about every blade of grass possible over the course of the entire ninety minutes, harrying, worrying, constantly unsettling the opposition to a remarkable degree. He really is getting better with every game he plays, at the moment. Originally signed from Burnley very much as ?one for the future?, we can now sit right back and observe the pleasurable fulfilment of that same prophecy for ourselves.

It?s always gratifying to see a bright young player transformed into a really class act right before one?s very own eyes, and particularly during a game that flashed up the message to other sides that we were a soft touch no longer. Something tells me there?ll be an awful lot of interest developing from other clubs come the close season. Can we hang on to him? That will depend entirely upon what division we find ourselves in next season, of course. Personally, I reckon Chappy?s got it well within him to progress as far as sharing the same dressing-room company with the very best the game can currently offer. Irrespective of whether he achieves this aim with Albion or not, my best wishes will always go with him, wherever his footballing fortunes might eventually lead.

Despite being with us for only a matter of a few weeks, Robert Koren is also winning a huge chunk of my little throbbing heart with great rapidity. He?s another one who likes to expend vast amounts of energy on winning the ball in midfield, and in true terrier style, too. Boro certainly got to know when he was around, yesterday. Must be that whacking great mop of hair he has covering his dome right now, or something. Come to think about it ? wait a minute! He?s got about enough hirsute covering to weave a half-decent shag-pile carpet, should you want one made that way, while just a few dressing-room clothes pegs away, his ex-Burnley team-mate would be exceedingly grateful just to encounter the merest downy covering of fuzz on his currently-frictionless bonce when stepping from the shower every morning. Perhaps someone with the appropriate skills could perform the necessary swap op? I wonder what Doc Rimmer Senior is doing these days?

On a more disquieting note, sure, our draw with Boro was a massive, massive result, and going on yesterday?s delightfully gritty showing, we now have every reason not to doubt our ability to take this wonderful Cup run of ours much further still, given a kind rub of the draw ? but what will be the eventual price we have to pay for the return of such old-style Albion-type fare to The Hawthorns? Not in monetary terms (for once!), but to what extent all this will eventually impinge upon what has to be our main priority for this season, getting out of the Championship at the very first time of asking?

Following relegation, we did awfully well just to keep the nucleus of the side together, the Pole In Goal being the only real Hawthorns defector to date, but should we not achieve promotion this time, then the clamour for the exit gates will be overwhelming. I don?t blame the players, particularly: it?s only human nature to seek financial betterment for both yourself and your family, and where better to flaunt a potentially-lucrative talent than on the world-wide stage of what has to be the most watched domestic competition in the entire world?

These are the stark facts, then: tomorrow?s FA Cup draw at 1.30 pm will reveal our fate should we get past the Smog Monsters in just over a week?s time: we?re Ball Number Seven, by the way. As far as the rest of those still remaining in the competition are concerned ? Sunday?s games had the desirable effect of clearing the custard even further still ? Spurs, Man City, The Arse, Blackburn, Chelski, Man Urinal, Reading, Plymouth and Watford, of that little lot, I envisage possible sixth round encounters with some ending in tears, no matter what we contrive to chuck at them. The Arse, Chelski, Man U, possibly Reading and Spurs, I would place in that category. Yes, the inclusion of Steve Coppell?s mob in that category might surprise, but they really do seem to be on a roll, right now; if half-decent Premiership outfits can go to the Madjeski and get sod-all for their pains, what chance do we have?

Blackburn and Man City? Get either at our place and we might be cooking on gas: certainly, City have quite a well-known reputation for blowing hot and cold from week to week, and we enjoyed quite a good record, when it came to playing them in the Prem. Of the remainder, Plymouth and Watford, God alone knows what a tie with either might bring.

As will be remembered from the other week, the Home Park crew are no slouches when it comes to sticking in the knife and twisting hard: should we end up with them as our reward for getting past our chemically-altered chums from Teeside, our only hope would be the sheer momentum of the occasion carrying us through. And they do have ?previous? of course. How many of you remember the last time we played them at the fifth round stage of the same competition? They were Third Division, and we First ? and we still ended up the losers by the odd goal. From there, they then progressed as far as the semi-finals, much to everyone?s surprise. Of the whole lot, I?d say Watford are our soundest hope of making further progress in the competition. Get them in the draw, and life could start getting very interesting indeed for our bijou squad.

And that?s the point at which you have to start asking yourselves some very searching questions indeed. Would further FA Cup progress on our part simply result in football?s equivalent of a Pyrrhic victory? Let?s be realistic about all this, when was the last time a side from outside the top flight lifted the trophy? Ipswich, back in 1978? Sure, I know Millwall managed to reach the final some three seasons ago, but in their case, Fate must surely have been wetting its knickers laughing at the almighty mismatch it set up for the bellicose East London side, and its equally bellicose followers. And that Final appearance didn?t exactly do club morale much good: just three seasons further down the line, they?re now playing what?s regarded as First Division football, but is really the bargain-basement end of the game.

Come to think about it, when was the very last time a side not in the Prem?s top four emerged triumphant, be it at Wembley or elsewhere? Not all that recently, I?ll wager. Should we do well, make it as far as the semis, could there not be a much more swingeing price to pay in terms of upwards mobility denied, several months further down the line? By all means look at the short term joys of a decent Cup Run, but remember, the price we might end up paying for all this could be one highly detrimental to the club?s very future.

The problem, of course, is fixture congestion. The replay itself now gives us an extra midweek game to fit in, which is going to be particularly hard going for a side that?s been virtually playing two games a week for around the past month. Not only will they have to contend with fatigue, there?s also the double whammies of injuries and suspensions to take into account. Further progress will result in further postponements, further congestion: by the time we do get around to playing these games, demands elsewhere could result in more than one of our key performers ?running on empty?.

None of those Cup ties will be played in an atmosphere anywhere less than boiling-hot, so fiery passions and red-mist tempers are going to be very much to the fore, irrespective of whoever we might end up playing. In short, there?s lots of clubs gone before us that ended up in dire financial trouble as the result, direct or indirect, of taking on something they couldn?t quite handle. Let?s just hope that among whatever further celebrations we do have occasion to make, we never lose sight of that very same primary objective, a swift return to the top-flight. Back tomorrow night, with a look at the draw, and precisely what Cardiff might do to stop us next Tuesday evening, although with Chopra suspended after his red-carding, their remaining attacking options might not now be all they would have wished for.

And Finally?? How many of you lot realise that Kev Phillips has scored in every single round of the competition, thus far? Should we make further significant progress, I?m now left wondering if a certain Royal Personage no longer with us might be getting a tad worried about how long his own posthumous grip on that particular Albion record might last? Oh ? and here?s another little gem to chuck into the maw of your overworked cerebellar tissue. Continuing the 'Anorak' theme with the great man himself, Steve The Miser, he now tells me that the very last time a 5th Round replay was staged at The Hawthorns was way back in 1958, when we beat Sheffield United 4-1 after a 1-1 draw at Bramall Lane. So now you know!

 - Glynis Wright

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