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+----- Thread: WBA vs Hull - Match Thread (/showthread.php?tid=1142)
WBA vs Hull - Match Thread - Ska'dForLife-WBA - 09-01-2015
Tony Pulis couldn't have wished for a better start to life as Albion manager than seven goals and a clean sheet from his new team, however humble the opposition. But now, of course, the real test: getting it done against a relegation rival after scarcely more than a week in charge. Time to hit the ground running.
![[Image: tumblr_lrxtxv_Fn_IT1qk85u1o1_500.jpg]](http://s28.postimg.org/nki9jsna5/tumblr_lrxtxv_Fn_IT1qk85u1o1_500.jpg)
Albion welcome yet another new coach to the dressing room in the form of motivational speaker "Happy" Norman Gorman.
The pundits and the fans are, for once, unanimous: now that Albion have appointed Tony Pulis, Premier League safety is a mere formality, and we can all put our feet up and look forward to the summer. There's only a simple bit of box-ticking left in the form of breezing our way through a few silly football matches with effortless ease, and then it's smiles and sunshine. (In fact, if you get to work lighting the barbecue now, you might even have it ready for the first sausages by July).
Of course, it's never that simple. Tony Pulis - like Alan Irvine and Pepe Mel before him - has inherited a team who've made a nasty habit of bottling the most straightforward games for two whole years, and in that time, wins have become as rare as a five-fingered hand at Molineux. The mentality has to change, the tactics have to change, our talented players have to get their act together, and from the jumble of egos and villains in the dressing room, Tony somehow has to forge a real team spirit.
The signs were good against Gateshead. After a turgid display for most of the first half - presumably courtesy of the now-former backroom staff - Pulis seized control of the situation and got the team to something approaching their best. But we have to get ourselves in gear tomorrow. A slow start could well be punished by a Hull team who blow hot and cold, but have inflicted more than one bloody nose on the road this season. It's time to take the initiative and start pressing the advantage when we have it.
It's still a bit too early in the season to be labelling games as "must-win", but this fixture is an obvious target for points in a pretty nightmarish schedule, and at the very least, we have to consider it a "must-not-lose" match. Let's see what the new-look Albion are capable of.
Classic Match
West Bromwich Albion 2-0 Hull City
Football League, Second Division: 10th December 1988
"Classic" is probably stretching it a bit for this, but two goals from Don Goodman and a penalty save from Stuart Naylor? It's just about the archetypal late-Eighties Albion game!
RE: WBA vs Hull - Match Thread - drewks - 09-01-2015
Still very early days for Pulis Albion; it'll take a good few weeks to get his ways ingrained into our players.
However it's a good first league game for him, and one that we SHOULD be targeting 3 points in without question. I think we'll get them, but a draw wouldn't be a disaster.
A loss, however.......
RE: WBA vs Hull - Match Thread - betterthanbaird - 09-01-2015
Going to this one and I think we'll win, definitely up for it. Went to this one last season and I remember Vydra getting his first goal, I fancy Samaras this time.
I'm not putting the whole team but the standard back 5 and Yacob next to Gardner. Sess behind Berahino with Varela one side and I don't know who on the other side, Samaras or Brunt probably.
RE: WBA vs Hull - Match Thread - talkSAFT - 09-01-2015
Of course, if we win this one, we're only 16 pts off 3rd place. I reckon - if we can go on an unbeaten run till (say) the end of the season - we can be seeing Champions League stuff next season, if everyone else draws all their games.
Get the atlases out.
RE: WBA vs Hull - Match Thread - aries22 - 09-01-2015
The stupid loss at QPR, and the fact that QPR leapfrogged us in the table, makes the Hull match even more critical, and I think this is a must-win game, because if we don't win this one, what game are we going to win? Draws at home against the Hulls just aren't good enough, we need those extra two points every time.
RE: WBA vs Hull - Match Thread - Ska'dForLife-WBA - 09-01-2015
(09-01-2015, 18:26)aries22 Wrote: I think this is a must-win game, because if we don't win this one, what game are we going to win? Draws at home against the Hulls just aren't good enough, we need those extra two points every time.
The same could have been said in our first season back when we played the likes of Wigan, West Ham and Wolves at home, and that was later in the season! We failed to win any of those games, but made up for it with points on the road and against bigger teams, because sides like that will often switch off when they play us, whereas our relegation rivals show up determined to fight.
Obviously it makes life easier if you can win the six-pointers, but I do think fans obsess over these matches a bit too much (to the extent that you see some people labelling these games as "must-win" as early as September and October!)
RE: WBA vs Hull - Match Thread - WBA-Josh - 09-01-2015
My Team:
![[Image: 1179759_West_Bromwich_Albion.jpg]](http://www.footballuser.com/formations/2015/01/1179759_West_Bromwich_Albion.jpg)
Subs
Myhill
Dawson
Baird
Gardner
Dorrans
Samaras
Ideye
I think we will win 2-1 with goals from Lescott and Berahino.
RE: WBA vs Hull - Match Thread - betterthanbaird - 09-01-2015
Mulumbu is at AFCON btw
RE: WBA vs Hull - Match Thread - aries22 - 09-01-2015
I take your point Ska'd but we're now into January, three or four months on from September and October, and I don't want to be going into our final five games thinking somehow that the bigger teams will switch off against us. That is asking for trouble. At least three of those clubs, Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal, will be fighting for Champions League places, and I doubt if Liverpool will take it easy against us. We've played 20 games, so we have 13 games to get the extra 20-22 points or so that will hopefully ensure our survival before we hit those final five games. Hull are around us, they are exactly the sort of team we need to be taking maximum points from.
RE: WBA vs Hull - Match Thread - Ska'dForLife-WBA - 09-01-2015
Yes, I accept that; I just don't think a draw would be a disaster.