The Diary

18 February 2008: 'Our Luke' - Barnsley's 'Steele' Of The Century?

Oooh, dear. Ever had the feeling you got it badly wrong? Cringe-making, it most certainly is, and yep, the game of ?mea culpa? is to be my lot for the next few zillion days, especially if my other half gets his way. How come? A small matter of somehow getting the name of yesterday?s referee mixed up, if you really want to know. And what a complete and utter stuff-up I made of it. Must have been the last remnants of whatever got to me the other day still exerting a malign influence over the proper workings of my brain!

Thanks to the almost constant attentiveness of my beloved regarding this unfortunate matter, I now know - to the point of almost committing murder: thanks to all those not-so-subtle ?reminders? of his, I?m now firmly convinced no jury would ever convict, on the grounds of prior insufferable provocation endured, then NOT endured, if you get my drift - that Roger Milford, the whistler I credited with handling our game, retired some 15 years ago. Our real ?man in black? at the Ricoh? Mike Halsey, whose surname is shared by famous US World War 2 Admiral ?Bull? Halsey, so I really should have known better! Let?s just put it down to a terminal dose of post-Cup win euphoria, and leave it at that, eh?

It was also rightly pleasing to note that while we were stuffing the Sky Blues something silly, yet another Baggie was busily fashioning an instantaneous career-boosting pathway for himself. I refer, of course, to Luke Steele, former third-choice keeper-turned-star of that magnificent Barnsley win at Anfield.

It just goes to show how profitable a loan move can be for players, sometimes. With our current Hawthorns set-up completely geared up to Deano being first choice, and Czech new boy Danek our second, there was absolutely no way poor Luke would be getting a look in, so it made enormous sense to farm him out to another club for the experience, then take it from there regarding possible advancement.

After featuring on national TV, and making a name for himself in about the most positive way possible, I severely doubt whether the lad would have any difficulty whatsoever finding himself another club, should Barnsley not be in a position to take him on permanently themselves. To play your first game ever for what should have been football?s equivalent of sacrificial offerings, at Liverpool?s place, in a difficult Cup tie where the home side?s right of progression to the last eight is almost scripted, is bad enough.

To do so when you don?t even know how your new colleagues like to play it, then go on to not only defy monstrous odds mitigating against the Championship side, but pull off save after classy save to thoroughly frustrate and brass off an illustrious opposition, is no mean feat. Putting in a performance like that with the Kop literally breathing right down your neck demands not only nerves of steel (no pun intended), but the courage of an entire pride of lions. The ghost of Bill Shankly must have dearly longed to tighten spectral fingers right round the poor lad?s throat! Well done, mate ? and thank the Lord you won?t be between the sticks, should we end up playing the Tykes in the quarter finals!

But let?s not get too carried away after yesterday. Although we demonstrated incontrovertible evidence that the magic of the Cup is well and truly alive, still, it would not behove us at all well to seriously neglect the ongoing demands of trying to shove some additional life into our promotion charge. Because of really indifferent form these last few games, and the taxing demands of the aforementioned Cup run, we?ve not only slipped from our prized perch at the top but vacated that vitally-important second promotion spot in favour of new owners, as well.

Come next Saturday, our main concern should revolve around extracting three points from Hull City. Other issues must be well and truly left to one side for the duration. No slouches either, are Hull, currently resident in eighth spot, and no doubt harbouring serious ambitions of doing much better, and at our expense, preferably. Time to get back into winning ways, then, which, in effect, means finding the way to goal once more. Yesterday?s Sky Blues caper amply demonstrated there?s not that much wrong with our strikeforce: it?s just a case of channeling all that superiority into a few successful ? and match-winning ? strikes.

The return of a fit Ish Miller, morale now presumably boosted enormously by that goal at the Ricoh, will help the cause a great deal: it will now be incumbent upon our engine room to ensure he doesn?t suffer a chronic attack of ?midfield starvation?. And a rested Kev Phillips will be champing at the bit to add to his tally, no doubt, as will Bednar, subbed yesterday: knackered, presumably.

It may be a dreadfully misplaced sense of moral superiority on my part, on a similar plane to that experienced by Victorian explorers meeting the indigenous people of ?Darkest Africa? for the first time, but every single time I look at the current League table, my mind just refuses to believe that at this late stage of the season, an outfit as rudimentary as Stoke City?s can occupy pole position, with not-much-better Watford tucking in nicely underneath. It?s a bit like a town?s resident idiot somehow getting to university, and then graduating ? but hang on a mo! That?s precisely what happened in the case of George Bush! Ooer - there might be hope for Stoke after all.

Put another way, it?s a bit like waking up one fine morning, and finding that the entire rodent population of West Bromwich has not only discovered the manifold pleasures of forming a trade union, but, by way of noisy placard-waving demonstrations in local back gardens, is pushing for direct action against predatory felines as well. Every law of nature currently known to Man dictates that no matter how intelligent they?re professed to be, rats simply don?t act that way, hence one almighty jolt to the senses of this column should they ever decide to break the mould.

No, if only to further the noble aim of the constant pursuit of footballing excellence, I consider it our bounden duty to restore the normal order of things to their proper state for now, which is why it?s so imperative we draw the teeth of the Tigers next weekend.

Before that, though, comes yet another possibly unpleasant gobbet of FA Cup business ? tomorrow?s draw. We still don?t know whether it?ll be Sheffield United or The Smog Monsters that progress to the last eight: that one?s chucked up the only replay to be taken into account this time round, surprisingly enough. As for the other tie played today, poor Preston paid in heaps, courtesy of that tired old footballing adage: ?If you don?t take your chances when they go begging, you?ll get punished for it ? and painfully!?

I didn?t see the tie myself ? OK, before ?Im Indoors lets the cat out of the bag, I plumb plain fell asleep! - but I?m assured by him that PNE spent most of the game playing Pompey off the park. Pompey?s David James, the man they like to call ?Calamity? was anything but, apparently: it was largely down to his brilliance that Pompey not only saved the day, but went on to progress in the fortuitous manner described below.

Preston were even awarded a penalty in the second half, but somehow managed to stuff that up, too. As I said, chuck chances away like that, and you just know you?ll be made to suffer afterwards - and boy, didn?t Preston pay the price! Right at the death, it was, when a Pompey corner, taken more in hope than expectation, soared high into the air, then descended upon the Preston box ? and that?s where an Albion connection comes in, but NOT one either party to the balls-up that ensued, would want to lay claim to.

What happened? From what my beloved told me tonight, it seems that former Baggies Darren Carter and James O?Connor both got horribly mixed up going for the same ball, with the (almost-predictable) result that Carter ended up putting through his own net. When I heard of this tragic ending to what had been a pulsating tie, by all accounts, my sympathies immediately went out to the former Albion man. Preston could have really done with the additional revenue a sixth round appearance would have generated for the relegation haunted and cash-strapped side, but because of one ghastly blunder in an otherwise excellent performance, it just wasn?t to be.

Now almost everything?s resolved, these are the draw numbers to watch out for tomorrow: may your God (and everyone else?s, including mine) be with you!

1 Bristol Rovers; 2 Cardiff City; 3 Sheffield United or Middlesbrough; 4 Barnsley; 5 Manchester United; 6 Portsmouth; 7 West Bromwich Albion; 8 Chelsea.

In an ideal world, The Arse would get paired with the Mancs, thereby ensuring one moneybags outfit only progressing further, but as that would mean one or the other getting booted out, with possible knock-on effects concerning projected revenue streams and corporate sponsorship etc. (bloody hell: I will have to stop sounding like Jeremy Peace ? does the NHS offer any hope of a cure, I wonder?), cynical old me severely doubts whether that would happen - or, even more cynically, be allowed to happen. I leave it to your good selves to work out your optimum pairing for further Baggies progression in what has surely got to be the most open Cup run in years. Maybe, just maybe?..?

Although we don?t take up League cudgels against Hull until next weekend, that doesn?t mean that the Wright household will be depriving themselves of a massive football fix until then. Come Tuesday, we?ll be off to Hereford once more. Given that The Bulls are currently riding high in the League?s basement division ? second spot, and tucked nicely in to challenge current divisional leaders MK Dons, should they so desire, which I fervently DO because, in my book, franchises should have no place whatsoever in British football ? their game versus bottom-feeders Wrexham should prove compelling.

And, as I?m sure you?re already aware, Tuesday night will see me finally getting a decent chance to see how on-loan Sherjill McDonald, better known to we Baggies as ?Shergar?, of course, is faring with the cider-slurpers. It bodes most favourably for our visit that Shergar?s form for the Edgar Street side has been blistering, of late. Scoring two on his debut a couple of weeks ago, and that without even knowing his new colleagues on face-to-face terms, having only encountered them on the actual day of the game, he?s then gone on to greater things.

When at Rochdale?s Spotlands, the other week, he notched up a hat-trick, set up a colleague for another, and when subbed, was not only clapped off the field by his own supporters, but by the Rochdale lot as well. So rare an opposing supporter accolade in these uber-partisan days, it?s a gesture well worth noting. Then, when the action returned once more to Edgar Street, my other half (minus moi, I must confess, still suffering the debilitating after-effects of my recent bout of lurgi) witnessed the lad scoring yet another to grab a valuable three more points to further boost The Bulls? already strong promotion push.

The crazy part is this: when Hereford followers we know, curious as to what they were getting for a month, asked us for an opinion, we gave them what we?d thought at the time was an honest assessment of Shergar?s capabilities. In short: ?Brilliant on the training-ground, wows colleagues frequently with the full extent of his technical skills, but can?t hit a barn door at twelve paces when it matters, sadly, which is the principal reason why you?re getting him on loan!....?

Having had ample opportunity to see for themselves these last few games, the current consensus of popular opinion in the bit of the ground where we normally sit, is that we were simply engaging in a monstrous wind-up with them! Which we categorically deny, of course: how the hell would we know he?d find his natural level, at long last? Anyway, for what it?s worth, I?ll be trundling down there as well, come Tuesday evening, and hope to pass on some more details about Shergar?s performances for the Bulls when I next pen these notes, prior to the Hull thing. Assuming he continues as he?s started, and we go into the final stretch still needing someone to score goals, should our bid for the striking services of the lad Moore fall flat, I wonder whether Mogga might be tempted into bringing him back?

And Finally?.. Tomorrow sees the visit of yet another prospective buyer to our place, at a time previously pre-arranged by me. Er ? for approximately 1.30 pm, actually, which is about the time a certain hand will be groping inside a certain black velvet bag at FA HQ, believe it or not! But fret ye not, there is a fall-back position available to me, viz, the fact the estate agent will be showing these people around, and not myself.

Come the ?magical moment? I shall be retreating into the interior of our office (joined by the more paranoid of my three cats too, no doubt), and tuning the radio to pick up said draw. The estate agents can go hang, as far as I?m concerned: they?ve got keys and can do their own thing! I?ve got far more important fish to fry. Mind you, get their timing wrong, and they might just lead their customers inside our very own ?Sanctum Sanctorum? to discover, in the event of either Chelsea or Man U emerging from the hat, one well-matured lady banging her head against the brickwork, and shrieking ?NO! NOOOO!? very loudly. Either that or this column pogoing around the room in complete unalloyed delight at the ?might-beat? nature of our newly-drawn FA Cup opponents!

 - Glynis Wright

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