The Diary

25 September 2007: Up For The Cup, With Ex-Dingle Dave Jones's Bluebirds

Before I start tonight?s offering in earnest, I really ought to warn you that should you start reading this in some more than usually quiet and secluded place, you?ll very likely hear muffled oaths and curses aplenty coming from your PC?s speakers. Fear not, though, that your security firewalls have somehow been breached by a Tourettes sufferer with a penchant for letting others in on the distinctly arcane nature of that particular affliction ? it?s just little old me, trying to churn out my usual stuff, but with the dubious aid of a mouse that?s quite suddenly developed a mind all of its very own.

It all began on Friday night, when I was attempting to put together my Scunthorpe United stuff: no matter what I tried to do in the way of highlighting paragraphs to swap ?em round, etc. there was the bloody mouse, trying to get me to do the precise opposite ? and, by and large, succeeding. Result? What with having to use the arrow keys to move the cursor, or, what that wasn?t possible, spending precious time trying to outwit the bloody thing, it must have whacked at least another 30 minutes onto what should have been an easy transference of ideas to hard drive. Saturday evening? That was just as bad; worse, if anything, ditto the Sabbath, so we?re going to have to invest in a new flaming mouse pretty soon.

What finally clinched it for ?Im Indoors, I guess, was trying to use the blasted thing earlier tonight, then encountering similar difficulties himself. It wouldn?t have been a problem, ordinarily, as we should be in possession of two PC?s by rights, but as I?ve chronicled extensively on this blog, the other one is the cyber equivalent of what British Leyland workers used to dub a ?Friday afternoon car?: put together by assembly line workers with more than half a mind focussed upon what they were going to do in Brum city centre, that very same evening, and for that very same reason, totally unfit for purpose. We?re just about on the point of writing that one off as a bad job, and getting another, so the expense of getting another mouse would be a mere bagatelle by comparison. Look out PC World, we?re coming to get ya!

That?s all the routine stuff cleared away, then, so on with the show. Tomorrow evening, the League Cup, and West Bromwich Albion, in other words. As I?d half-suspected anyway, following his injury-time problems at Glanford Park, Robbo won?t be fit for this one, which is a bit of a blow, but according to the gaffer, he should be OK for the QPR thrash on Sunday, apparently. Thinking on a little, that game taking place 24 hours later than normal should ensure that our man is sufficiently bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to carry on in his normal robust style. The vagaries of competing in Cup football might have only made matters worse.

There are an additional couple of injury doubts for tomorrow?s knockout shenanigans, but nothing particularly vexing. Clem won?t be featuring, as his knee is giving further problems, and neither will the lad Cesar. In the case of the latter, the problem?s not so much multiple stab wounds in the back, just a plain ornery dorsal infirmity brought on by playing those awful Stokies in a reserve game last Wednesday. On the homeopathic principle of ?like curing like? I wonder if he?s tried a ?talking cure?, yet? Well, they are pretty fashionable, right now. If he hasn?t, I can recommend just the bloke to go to: now, let me see, what?s The Noise doing for the rest of the week?

As for Roman Bednar, Mogga doesn?t consider him sufficiently recovered enough to cope with a full-blown Cup encounter, as yet, but he was scheduled to take part in the reserves game at Leicester, earlier this evening. (We lost 3-0, apparently.) Reading what our leader had to say about the lad on the club website, it would seem that given the chance, he would have ideally liked to have seen the Hearts loanee striker?s name pencilled in on tomorrow evening?s team-sheet, but it wasn?t to be. There?s also similarly bad news about the lad Slusarski: he too is not considered sufficiently free of injury to compete in tomorrow night?s thrash.

And, speaking of tomorrow night?? Get past the Bluebirds, and we really are cooking on Cup gas. ?Tis true that, more than likely, we?ll then have to face one or other of the big boys for the first time in this season?s competition, but, hey ? the sexy way we?re playing, right now, the real Premier League supergiants excepted, I?d give us at least a reasonable chance of further progress in the competition. Mogga?s stated Albion philosophy of ?attack being the strongest form of defence? has been like music to my ears, and, no doubt, to the more-than-receptive lugholes of others of a similar generation to myself.

Lest I not become too carried away, though, perhaps it?s now timely to look at what Cardiff will be bringing to tomorrow night?s fun and frolics, so I?ll start with Old Man Oakes, their keeper who, at the venerable age of 33, laid claim to Ross Turnbull?s normal spot between the sticks, the latter having been under the cosh recently, thanks to a cluster of less-than-memorable performances in that position. Brought in for the first time this season, he featured in Cardiff?s 2-2 Saturday draw with Preston, at Ninian Park, so it looks very much as though he?s got the gig; well, for the moment, at least.

They do have one injury doubt for tomorrow night: Glenn Loovens, defender, out with a dodgy foot for their last three, and still not over the worst effects. That could well mean Kevin McNaughton stepping in to take his place in the rearguard. The bloke who is scheduled to partner him, should that happen, Roger Johnson, has also been on sick parade: he was stretchered off in a neck brace during the Preston game, but having since received the OK from their quack, he should be in their starting line-up tomorrow.

Incidentally, it looks as though they?ll be using this tie to give their lesser-lights a bit of a run out also. Tomorrow?s Albion-Cardiff connection? Darren Purse, who else? A lad who, for various reasons, most of them unfair, ended up on the wrong side of some Hawthorns regulars, and, if playing (see below), will be looking to make his mark on tomorrow night?s game, no doubt. According to their website, the lad?s only just got over a knee infection, so his inclusion is not a ?given? by any means.

Albion? OK, here goes. In goal, Kiely?s a shoo-in, with or without custodial back-up on the bench. One slight digression: when I hear supporters expressing misgivings about what is admittedly an unusual state of affairs at this level, these days, I always reserve a quiet smile for myself. Had not that situation been considered completely normal, back in the days when subbings were restricted to just one, or two outfield players?

Just as a reminder to junior Baggies, what you did by way of contingency plan in those days was to identify an outfield player with a secret longing to go between the sticks, and use him as and when necessary ? which wasn?t all that often, as I recall. Given that current policy seems to be that we don?t have a reserve keeper on the bench, I can only assume that Mogga has made similar arrangements, but I?ve no idea as to whom we might use, should Deano get as badly clobbered as all that during the course of a game.

Defenders? Ooer, our central stopping options now seem somewhat more restricted, given the aforementioned injuries to both Clem and Cesar. Still, we do have a choice of three from two, with Alby and Barnett (the latter, hopefully, having previously been given strict instructions NOT to give the ball away at awkward moments!) probably getting the nod.

On the flanks, will Mogga use tomorrow night?s game to give the lad Hodgkiss a further experience-gaining run out? He?s certainly shown more than enough promise in previous outings to warrant inclusion. In any case, any current trainees seeing the lad make the gradual transition to the senior ranks would be considerably heartened by the sight of his name on the team-sheet: stokes up the highly valid thought that if he can make it, then so can they. As for the other vacant berth, we already know that Robbo won?t be participating, so will that be Tininho?s chance to shine?

And so, from paucity to plenty?.. In the engine room, unsurprisingly. Unless I?m very much mistaken, it?ll be a case of ?any four from around eight?. I daresay our leader will ring the changes in order to give established regulars a bit of deserved respite from the various cares and woes of the Championship. That might mean some just spending the hour and a half sitting on the bench, patiently awaiting the call, while the remainder might simply be rested, end of story. Personally, the one lad I would start is young Chappy: this sort of game seems made for him.

As for our main armament, Kev Phillips having sat the previous one out completely, would Mogga consider including him tomorrow night, just to keep his hand in, or simply leave him on the bench, once more? With Sunday very much in mind, then, what odds, in fact, on resting him completely? That would leave the Miller/Beattie/McDonald trio vying for the two available opening slots; whether he?d stick the surplus player on the sidelines in place of Our Kev is another ball-game entirely.

Personally, I?d go for Beattie to be one of the starters, purely and simply because of the fact that if any player ever needed a whopping great confidence-booster right now, it?s got to be him. OK, his brace of late-doors misses at Scunny were truly abysmal, but he won?t be the first striker to suffer in this particular way, and most certainly won?t be the last: as even the most wall-eyed Baggie of my generation would concede, even the much-venerated King wasn?t entirely immune to that sort of thing.

So there you have it. As for Cardiff?s last five games, their record reads like this (their most recent League game first, and including their most recent tie in the competition, last): DLDWW. Ours? Same deal as above, but WDWWW. Sure, I know that current form usually means diddly-squat in knockout football, but it?s all we have to go on, really.

Personally, I quite fancy our chances of further progression, thereby evoking distant memories of other classic League Cup games played under the (yellowy-weak, by our standards, back then) Hawthorns floodlights. Just like now, back in those days, the Albion mantra was always ?Attack! Attack! Attack?.?, just like in the well-known Brummie chant. Wouldn?t it be great if further progression meant the younger generation could get at least some idea of how good it was to be a Baggie, back then? Fingers crossed, then, eh?

And Finally?? ONE GREAT MYSTERY OF THE WEEK ? SOLVED! Remember my parting words, just the other day, about the mysterious manifestation, in our vehicle, of a velvet-type black jacket, complete with ?poodle? brooch on one lapel? And our complete and utter puzzlement as to the origin of this strange garment? Had I not been so trusting of my other half, the sudden appearance of that item of female apparel on the rear seat of our vehicle might well have led to considerable marital strife in the Wright household!

Well, I?m now pleased to report that we?ve finally got to the bottom of the whole affair: the owner is none other than The Fart?s Scouser wife, Dot! Good going, that, considering that she hasn?t set foot inside our vehicle since last May, just before the Derby play-off final, so why should it show up now?

For the definitive answer to that one, I guess you?ll have to ask The Fart. Somehow or other, on Thursday night, he managed to bring with him the garment in question, then leave it behind in our vehicle. The odd thing about all this is that when we asked him about it, just the other day, he hadn?t the slightest clue as to the proprietorship of his missus?s jacket! Now suitably ?outed? I reckon that on the basis of that ?confession? alone, shouldn?t poor Dot be getting out the old rolling-pin, and giving him a few ? erm ? ?gentle reminders? about such matters?

 - Glynis Wright

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