West Bromwich Albion

It seems like ages ago that I started my journey on the glory hunt.  It was in fact way back on 15th August when Morpeth Town took on Dunston UTS in the extra pre-lim round of the FA cup.

Since that date I have followed Dunston, Spennymoor, AFC Telford United, Bristol City and West Ham United.  Now this coming weekend we are at the Quarter final stages and my new glory hunt team is the conquerors of West Ham in the last round West Bromwich Albion, WBA, the Baggies.


This weekend sees the Baggies take on the Villains in a all premier league, Midlands derby.  It is also a repeat of Tuesday nights game at Villa Park where Aston Villa ran out 2-1 winners courtesy of a last minute Christian Benteke penalty.

Benteke puts away last minute penalty on Tuesday night.

After a fantastic win in the last round against West ham West Brom will be hoping to raise their game again and get one over on their bitter rivals, the result in midweek will add a little spice to the proceedings and even though the game ended in  a defeat, I am sure that Tony Pulis and his boys will be fully focused about getting to the last four of the competition and the opportunity of a Wembley appearance.

Pulis looking to progress to the Semi Finals.

The 5 times cup winners haven't been in the cup final since 1968.  On that occasion they lifted the trophy thanks to an extra time goal scored by club legend and former fantasy football regular Jeff Astle.  The team they defeated on that day were Everton, who with a team consisting of such household names as Ball, Kendall, Harvey, Joe Royle and world cup winning full back Ray Wilson, must have been big favourites on the day.

The Three Amigos.  Ball, Harvey and Kendall.

Tim Sherwood looks to be injecting a new lease of life into he's relegation troubled team and maybe after Tuesday nights victory a corner may have been turned in the villains so far pretty poor season. Hopefully for the Baggies though the premier league win was just a blip and the Albion can bounce straight back and Tuesday night's result will be a long forgotten memory as they take their place in the next round.

Is Sherwood turning a corner at Villa?

It is obviously going to be a very close game Saturday teatime and I wouldn't be surprised if this one went to a replay.  It is really a hard one to call but if the Baggies were to get them back to the Hawthorns I would have them as favourites.

When I first started to get into football at the end of the seventies West Brom where right up there challenging Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at the top of the first division, and in 1978 it was a 2-0 win against Nottingham Forest who were going for the treble that booked the Baggies place into the semi finals of the cup year.  West Brom's team that day had the likes of Tony Godden, John Wile, Alistair Robertson, Ally Brown and Tony Brown.  Forest had Shilton, Woodcock, O'Neil, Withe, Gemmill and John Robertson in their ranks but a goal in each half from Mick Martin and Cyrille Regis was enough to put the favourites out and guarantee the Albion a Semi Final showdown with Ipswich Town who went on to win the trophy that year beating Arsenal in the final.

Wow, Messrs Martin, Robson, Atkinson and Ally Brown.

http://youtu.be/KQjEIfq1fxo  Fa Cup Qtr Final West Bromwich Albion v Nottingham Forest 1978.



The Baggies would love to repeat this feat on Saturday against Aston Villa, on that day it was a goal from an Irish midfielder and an England International striker that put them through.  I wonder if on Saturday it might be the same scoreline with  perhaps Chris Brunt and Saido Berahino getting the goals.

Does Berahino the key man on Saturday.

Anyway what ever the outcome I am hoping for an entertaining game and the eventual winners to be the boys in blue and white stripes.

Up the Albion!!

Boing Boing you Baggies!!

Tired Hammers left looking Baggie!!

Saturday afternoonn's early cup tie  between West Brom and West Ham came (according to Sam, Allardyce) a little too soon for the Hammers.

Allardyce bemoaned the fact that his East London boys were feeling the affects of a gruelling run of fixtures and fatigue was blamed for the Iron's lacklustre performance.

Anyone who has read any of my other blogs about football will know my feelings on managers and players blaming results and poor performances on tiredness.   I can't stand it.  At the end of the day everyone is in the same boat including Saturday's opponents, who managed to win a game by 4 goals to 0.  Yes West Ham may have had injury problems but so does everyone else.

Sam Allardyce should know better as he played football in the 70's when the top flight had 24 teams battling it out, the pitches were shit and the squads consisted of less then 20 players.  Playing a full season with just about 16 players including two games a week and cup competitions with their replays that went on and on until a result was the norm and there was never a word said about it.

If your players really are tired and fatigued after a couple of hard matches in a week then maybe these privileged players aren't the complete athletes we are led to believe they are.

I personally think Big Sam is just making excuses for his teams less than convincing performance, if your players can't lift themselves for a chance of getting to a quarter finals of the FA cup then sorry but they do not deserve to be there, end of.

What's up Sam?  Bit tired?

The Baggies started this game on the front foot and other than maybe a 15 minute spell when Morgan Amalfitano was introduced for the Hammers in the second half completely dominated this game, the 4-0 scoreline didn't flatter them.

Although Amalfitano's introduction seemed to make a difference to West Ham his appearance came too late as the Hammers brought him on just after going 3-0 down.  Amalfitano only ended up playing for ten minutes as he was sent off in the 70th for a straight red for lashing out at Chris Brunt.

Morgan went from Amalfitano to Ralph Amalphitano.

Two goals from in form striker Brown Ideye and a one a piece from James Morrison and Saido Berahino was enough for the Baggies to secure a Quarter final place and a derby tie with Aston Villa at Villa Park, and enough for the travelling 5,500 Hammers fans to be leaving the Hawthorns thinking about what might have been.

It maybe the end of the road for the Irons is this years FA cup and for any other silverware this year but for the Baggies it is onwards and upwards.

The FA cup glory hunt continues to roll along and from this moment onwards I become a West Bromwich Albion fan.

This time around I feel a bit like Sam Beckett in Quantum Leap, after no sooner have I jumped into my former self and failing to change history to how I want it, then I am thrown into another underdogs life where I have to hope they are successful.  Just like Sam always does though I won't let my own feelings cloud my judgement and I will deal with the task in hand.

Will my next leap be the leap home?

So long West Ham and thanks for being part of my glory hunt albeit an all too brief part.  Good luck for the rest of the season, especially this weekend against Spurs.

Now into my next team.

Up the Baggies!!

Boing, Boing you Baggies!!  

West Ham United

A little bit of house keeping before we start for anybody who doesn't know what this blog is all about. Back in August whilst the Premier league were kicking off their first games of the season, I picked a team from low down in the Northern Leagues to go on a glory hunt with.

The idea of a glory hunt is you pick a team and follow them until they get knocked out and then you follow their conquerors and so it continues until finally I am supporting the winners at Wembley Stadium on May 30th.

So far I have supported Morpeth Town ,Dunston UTS, Spennymoor Town, AFC Telford United, Bristol City and now here I am at West Ham United.

The thing is I am not supposed to be biased but I really hope this is where my journey ends this year .  The thing is when the glory hunt started on August 15th of last year I was at the Boleyn ground with my son watching the Hammers taking on Spurs in the first game of the season, a game that West Ham undeservedly lost in injury time despite dominating from the very first whistle.

I was also there for the next home game against Southampton a fortnight later which West Ham lost 3-1.  All West Ham fans will be pleased to know that I haven't been since and funnily enough ever since that defeat the Irons home record has been pretty impressive, more good news I doubt very much if I will be going again this season so the superstitious among you needn't worry.

Of course on the last occasion that West Ham won the cup in 1980 they played West Brom in the third round, the first game at the Hawthorns finished 1-1 Stuart Pearson scored for the visitors but unfortunately I can't find who scored for the Baggies that day so we will say that Cyrille Regis did.  Big Cyrille's goal made sure there was replay at Upton Park and as we know the Irons won the replay by 2 goals to 1.  Geoff Pike and Trevor Brooking scored for the hosts and there was a consolation from Tony Brown, who was probably about 46 at the time.  Incidentally it was Tony Brown's last ever goal for the Baggies.

Tony Brown aged 12

http://youtu.be/Pzxwewj0Kqc   West Ham V WBA 1980 3rd round replay.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Saturday's game ended up as a draw and then win for the Irons back at Upton Park under the floodlights, just like that tie 35 years ago.

It doesn't seem possible that it was that long ago the last time West Ham won the cup.  I remember it was the first cup final I had ever watched.

When I was at school in Essex in the 1980's if you were into football you either supported Arsenal, West Ham, Spurs or Liverpool.  It took me a long time to choose a football team as a kid.  My Dad's side of the family were staunch West Ham fans, my Mum's Dad was an Arsenal fan and for the first time in 1980 I had to make a choice of what team to support as the two of them met in the FA cup final.

 At 7 years old this was a really hard decision to make, it wasn't made any easier by the fact that both my grandparents from both sides of the family lived next to each other so on this particular Saturday just like any other Saturday I was popping between both houses.  Both of my Grandad's asked me who I was going to support come 3 o'clock.  After seeing all the excitement gathering in one household were everyone was a Hammer, I made my mind up I would be supporting the mighty Iron's.  When I went next door to see my other Grandad just before kick off I told him my decision, for some reason as a young kid I felt like I was letting him down, next door were all the West Ham fans and here was my Grandad sitting there as the only Gunners fan around.  We left just before kick off to get home and watch the majority of the game on the telly, as we drove home with the game on the radio I saw all the banners and flags hanging out of the windows most of course were West Ham colours.

On that drive home I made up my mind that because everyone was supporting West Ham I was going to support Arsenal just like my Grandad.  By the time the final whistle had gone and Trevor Brooking had stooped to head home the only goal of the game to give the Iron's the cup I had changed my mind again and become a West Ham fan.  Some may say I was a just a glory hunter and I suppose I was really, but to be fair I thought the FA cup was just played between the same teams every year, a bit like the boat race but in football, I had no idea what it was all about.

You have got to remember this was the start of the 80'sand there weren't much football on television I was just a young kid who loved playing it.

So I suppose once a glory hunter always a glory hunter.

I thought the FA cup was like the boat race

As for the opposition on Saturday, I reckon West Brom will make themselves hard to beat but it is obvious that for Tony Pullis and his Baggies survival in the Premier league is going to be their main priority this season, although a cup run is sometimes beneficial to a team near the bottom of the league, I don't think this will be the year that Albion win their 6th FA Cup.

surely Tony Pullis has bigger fish to fry.

West Ham must think they have a great chance of winning it this season as to a certain extent the draw has been quite kind, although the games have all been away ties, they have all been winnable.

I really hope that it is West Ham's name on the cup this year as some people think it might be, it would be great to see the Hammers lift that famous old trophy for a fourth time, not to mention what a great ending it would be to my first ever glory hunt.

Lets not get carried away though, lets get this game out of the way and move onto the quarter finals.

Come on you Irons!!

Up the Hammers!!

Hammers burst plucky Robins' bubble.

Two first half goal line clearances from Mark Noble and Andy Carroll and a second half headed goal from hammers substitute Diafra Sakho was the difference between West Ham and Bristol City on Sunday afternoon.

The first half saw the home side in the ascendency and but for the interceptions of  Carroll and Noble not many eyebrows would have been raised if the Robins had gone in at the break leading in this cup tie.

Mark Noble clears from Matt Smith's header.

It was a bit like De Ja Vu for big Sam and his happy hammers though as for the second week in a row he saw his team play out a lacklustre first half followed up by a much improved and more professional second half, which eventually ended in victory for his team.

Sakho came off the bench in the second half to book the Irons place in the last 16 after good work from Andy Carroll down City's right hand side he put in a cross to the back post where the Senegalese striker was waiting to rise and head home a powerful header into the back of the net via the underside of the crossbar.

Happy Hammer Sakho scores the winner.

It was heartbreak for the league 1 team who had more than matched their opponents for the majority of the game and in doing so showed the footballing viewing public what a decent and good footballing side Bristol City really are.

Steve Cotterill although understandably disappointed at the fact that his team didn't take their chances and punish their premier league counterparts, he will also come away from this game with a lot of pride.  His players should also take pride and confidence from this narrowest of defeats into the rest of the season.

City manager Steve Cotterill will be proud of his team

Although the  FA cup dream is over this season for the Robins there is obviously still a lot to play for for City this season.  The emphasis now turns to the league one title and getting promotion to the Championship, also there is the small matter of trying to win the league trophy which they are only 90 minutes away from as they take a 4-2 aggregate lead into the second leg of the semi final on Thursday night.

Being knocked out at the fourth round stage is no disgrace for a team in the third tier of English football, Bristol City are in good company as exactly half of the premier league fell at the same fence, including title favourites Chelsea and Manchester City.  The Robins should look upon this years FA cup adventure as a success and not a disappointment in what could be one of their most successful seasons ever.

So it is with heavy heart that I have to say goodbye to Bristol City and to this part of my FA cup glory hunt.

Good luck to the Robins for the  rest of the season, and I hope it ends up being as successful as it can be for you and your supporters.

In the meantime the FA cup glory hunt rolls on and I know have the pleasure of supporting a club I know very well in the 5th round against West Brom.

West Ham United.

Come on you Ironsssssss!!

Up the Hammers

Bristol City v West Ham United

For anybody who hasn't read this blog before the idea was that I would pick a team from the extra pre-lim round of the FA Cup and follow them as far as they went.  Being a glory hunt though when the team I was following was beaten I would then follow their victors until they were beaten and so on and so on, until finally I would be supporting the winner of the FA Cup on the 30th May.

My journey started on the 15th August as I cheered on Morpeth Town who lost in the first extra pre-lim round to Dunston UTS.  I followed Dunston until their exit to Spennymoor Town.  Spennymoor were my team until they succumbed to AFC Telford United and now I am a fan of Bristol City after they defeated the Bucks in the second round.



So here we are in the 4th round and the Robins are taking on in form Premier League side West Ham.

The Hammers come into this game off the back of a fine second half performance against Hull City with a 3-0 win.

Bristol City are also in fine form after a 2-0 away win against Scunthorpe which sees them second in league one only behind Swindon Town on goal difference.

It took penalties for West Ham to beat fellow premier league side Everton in the last round, The Robins have a Jay Emmanuel Thomas' strikes to thank for their progress to the 4th round after a replay against Doncaster Rovers.

Two goal Jay Emmanuel Thomas looking to add to his FA Cup tally.

It's going to be a tough game for the Robins playing against a team from the Premier league but in the form that City are in it could be a very close game.  The best chance for the Ashton Gate side to progress will be with their home advantage, if the game finishes as a draw then it will be an even tougher task on  a Tuesday or Wednesday night under the floodlights at Upton Park.  If the Robins are going to pull off an upset its going to have to be in my opinion at home on Sunday afternoon in the live game on the BBC.  The BBC can obviously smell an upset as they have made it their featured game.

What's that smell Gary? Is it an upset in the FA Cup.

Bristol City's main hopes again sit firmly on the shoulders of their strikers.  For the Robins to progress they will need on loan Fulham striker Matt Smith and last round hero Jay Emmanuel Thomas to be firing on all cylinders.

On loan striker Matt Smith is looking to silence the Hammers.

West Ham are playing some nice football this season and they have threats from all over the pitch.  Obviously I have no idea what formation or which players Big Sam will go with on Sunday afternoon but with the players at his disposal the team is going to be packed toi the rafters with quality.  After last Sundays game against Hull the first half was quite slow but Allardyce changed it up in the second bringing on Morgan Amalifitano into midfield and pushing Stewart Downing into the hole behind the strikers.  This ultimately made the difference and I wouldn't be surprised if he set up like that for this game.  Chances are that the Irons will start with Andy Carroll and Ener Valencia up front.

Alex Song if fit will be a constant thorn in City's side at the weekend with his tackling and distribution from midfield he is able to cause the very best problems.  If he plays he will be the one to watch.

One to watch.  Alex Song.

As I have said it will take a monumental effort to topple the Hammers on Sunday but that is what the FA Cup is all about.  There are always shocks and if the Robins come into this game full of confidence and the Irons are off their game you never know maybe Jay Emmanuel Thomas will have an even bigger smile on his face then he did in the last round.

The last time these two teams met at Ashton Gate was in a Championship match on 17/4/2012.

The game ended in a 1-1 draw.  James Tomkins gave the Hammers the lead on 25 mins but the Robins equalised just 4 minutes later through Cole Skuse.

Cole Skuse scored last time these two teams met.

Its going to be a massive game on Sunday

Come on City!!

Up the Robins!!

Emmanuel-Thomas is Robin's reliant.

After a 1-1 draw in the first encounter at the Keepmoat stadium in this FA cup tie, the Robins eventually booked their place in the 4th round after Jay Emmanuel-Thomas hit a brace and secured a home tie with Premier league outfit West Ham United.

An early second half goal from defender Luke McCullough at the Keepmoat gave the home side Doncaster Rovers the lead, before Fulham loanee Matt Smith levelled the tie up with just 15 minutes remaining and in turn forced the replay at Ashton Gate.

Fulham Loanee Matt Smith celebrates his equaliser against Doncaster Rovers!!

Both City and Rovers already knew they would be playing either Everton or West Ham in the next round as they took their place on the pitch for their replay.  They also would know for definite which of the two they would play by the end of the night as the two premier league sides were playing their own replay simultaneously.

Doncaster Rovers were always going to be up against it as the tie switched to Ashton Gate, after all they had slumped to a 3-0 defeat to the Robins away back in September.

Although it wasn't 3 goals this time, a goal in both halves from Emmanuel-Thomas was enough to settle the game and give the Robins a convincing 2-0 win in regulation time.

Jay Emmanuel-Thomas scored twice to put the Robins through!!

As the players came off the pitch they still didn't know who their opponents in the 4th round would be as the game at Upton Park had ended in stalemate at full time and was going to extra time.

Eventually after a 9-8 penalty shoot out after a 2-2 draw in 120 minutes of football it was West Ham who marched on to earn the right of an away tie in the next round against the might of the  Robins at Ashton Gate.

West Ham keeper Adrian scores winning penalty to book place in next round against Bristol City!!

The glory hunt rolls along and my adopted team are still in it, so now its onto the weekend of the 24th of January and the next round.

Come on City!!

Up the Robins!!

Bristol City

After all the fun of the festive season, it is time to get back to be business.  The business of the FA cup and most of all the business of my FA cup glory hunt.

For anyone who doesn't know back in August I decided to pick a team from the extra preliminary round of the world's greatest cup competition and follow that teams progress.  Being a glory hunt I would in-turn follow the winner of each fixture.  It all started with Morpeth Town on the 15 of August, they lost to Dunston UTS who went on a good little run before being defeated by Spennymoor Town. Spennymoor lost eventually to AFC Telford United and now here I am at the third round supporting Telford's conquerors Bristol City.

Going into their FA cup tie tomorrow with Doncaster Rovers, Bristol City are currently top of league one a point clear of Swindon,  just like a red breasted Robin proudly singing atop a snow covered tree.

The Robins needed a very late winner from Kieran Agaard to dispatch the Conference bottom club Telford in the last round and although they are away tomorrow they should be favourites against the Rovers of Doncaster.

City last played Rovers in the league in September where they ran out 3-0 winners at Ashton Gate.
Goals from Aaron Wilbraham, Mark Little and Kieran Agaard secured the points for the home team on this occassion.

My first memories of Bristol City are from the late 70's, 1979 to be exact.  I remember having a football sticker book (not panini) from that year and the Robins were there in the English football's elite league, division 1.  Unfortunately for me Bristol City were one of the teams I didn't complete, but I do remember a few of the players from that time.

Gerry Gow who went on to play for Manchester City in the 1981 cup final against Spurs

Peter Cormack who had played for Liverpool in the 1975 cup final against Newcastle.

Terry Cooper former England full back who represented his country 20 times including appearances in the 1970 world cup in Mexico.

Joe Royle the former Everton and Manchester City striker who went on to score 18 goals for the club.

The Robins finished the 1978-79 season in 13th place with some memorable scalps along the way, most notably a 1-0 win at Ashton Gate against champions elect Liverpool.  Joe Royle the City scorer.


In stark contrast tomorrows opponents Doncaster Rovers finished the 1978-79 season 22nd in the old division four.  This included a 7-1 away defeat to Bournemouth.

Their team of that season featured Glynn and Ian Snodin, probably more famous for their time at Sheffield Wednesday and Everton respectively in the 80's.  They were managed at the time by former Leeds legend Billy Bremner although Bremner was player manager he only played 5 times for the club.

So back to tomorrow and on to the game in hand.

The Robins are obviously favourites and I really expect to be supporting them in the next round of the cup, but Doncaster who sit 14th in league 1 at present come into this game on the back of a 2-0 home win against Coventry and a creditable 0-0 draw at London Road to Peterborough last time out.

 Rovers will fancy their chances at home and a lot of their hopes will be pinned on their Strikers Curtis Main, Nathan Tyson, Theo Robinson and former Aston Villa player Harry Forrester.  In midfield they have Dean Furman and James Coppinger.  In defence Luke McCullogh and Reece Wabara are likely to start.

Defender Wabara can play anywhere along the back line.

Midfielder Coppinger can always come up with a goal.

Former Villa man Forrester is one to watch.

Like the Robins it was a late goal in the last round against Oldham that secured their place in the third round of the cup.  It could prove to be a close game tomorrow but lets hope Marlon Pack pulls the strings in midfield and the Robins can book their place in the next round.

Up the Robins!!