[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

And around we go, as another season dawns for Albion under another manager. The board certainly can't be accused of acting hastily in the appointment of Ryan Mason, or indeed in supplying him with a promotion-winning squad: Aune Heggebo, Nat Phillips and George Campbell are the only incoming replacements for departures Ajayi, Swift, Diangana, Cann and Holgate, though rumours around the Hawthorns increasingly have us connected with the towering Belgian harbinger Wim Gewindaan.

We can only hope that it won't be as bad as all that, but Ryan Mason will be in at the deep end, and tomorrow's curtain-raiser against Blackburn will give us a fair idea of where we all stand. Having lost only one of the last seven against us and won their season-opener four years in a row, Rovers have every reason to be confident under Valerien Ismael, but here's hoping we've got something special in store to surprise them.

[Stairs]

Great to have these match threads back in play - the season starts here!

[talkSAFT]

YEEEESSSSS!!! 1-0 15 mins (Price) Top of the League?

[Salopbaggie]

Well off to a winning start, really good first 30 mins but tailed off a little in attack but solid defending, shame about the Furlong red card at the end, headaches already for the next game, perhaps Mason will go with a back 3?

[talkSAFT]

Great result - wasn't expecting that. Good performance as well (apparently).

[4evaabaggie]

Off to a winning start, all you can ask for.
Kept a clean sheet, better than I thought we’d achieve.
Maybe a bit toothless up front.
An early red card ….. last season we kept all our reds for the last quarter of the season, this year first game …….
A little concerned re squad depth at the moment, but I haven’t seen the game and we were apparently quite good. Anyone confirm or deny.

The Mason era is off and running. He has a 100% record as our manager

Come on you baggies, on to Wrexham.

[Slick_Footwork]

To be honest I thought it was a tough watch. Hardly anything in the way of football from two poor sides.

On the plus side, that's 3 points closer to safety. Based on the strength of our squad currently, I genuinely believe that.

In terms of positives, I was impressed with Nat Phillips and Heggebo.

I feared the worst when we signed Phillips because of how poor against us for Bournemouth a few years back. But he impressed me today. His was aggressive, always on the front foot and played some great passes between the lines. Most notably, he made a goal saving tackle after Griffiths dropped yet another clanger by failing to hold onto a simple shot.

As for Heggebo, although he was on the fringes at times, I thought he showed in glimpses that he could become a useful addition. Looks strong, holds the ball up well and can play. He'll need quick players around him though as he's clearly the type of striker who will want to link up rather than run onto long balls over the top. Sadly he didn't get much in the way of support today.

Being brutally honest, unless we bring in at least 4 or 5 more first team players I can't see us playing any decent football this season. There just very little in the way of quality in the squad now.

I think we're desperate for a proper goalkeeper and left back. We need a centre back to replace Bartley. We need competition for Furlong. We need a centre midfielder with legs and at least 1 creative player.

Griffiths looks like a mistake waiting to happen. He always cost us again failing to hold onto a routing shot. Luckily Phillips reacted first so his clanger will be forgotten. Can he go through 90 mins without a cock up? I've not seen him do so yet.

Callum Styles looks awful to me. I don't recall seeing any other full back who is so bad defensively yet can't contribute anything going forward either. He ducks out of every aerial ball when defending the back stick, gets taken on every time someone goes at him and lacks any sort of quality going forward. He reminds me of the quality we used to have in the dark days when I was a kid in the 80s. What on earth any scout saw in him, I'll never know.

In midfield, Mulumby was his typical tenacious self. Mowatt was tidy and Issac Price was impressive. Price took his goal well and really worked his socks off. However, as a trio, the balance doesn't seem quite right. I'm still not really sure what Price's position is. Although he played well today, I don't really see him as a number 10, he doesn't seem to have the vision or passing. Also don't think Mowatt and Molumby will have the legs against the better sides, but I hope I'm wrong. Feels like price could be a number 8 if we had a proper defensive midfielder (Yokuslu type) next to him.

As for the wingers, I thought they were really poor. Going forward we were just not at the races today.

I can't believe after all these years we're still subjected to watching Karlan Grant. Yes, he does work hard, but he'll never beat his full back with a bit of skill or see a creative pass. He's just not capable. If we're going to get anything out of Heggebo we'll need a winger that can jink inside and link up. You know, someone like that Mikey Johnston fella we had on loan from Celtic back in the 23/24 season...

As for Fellows, he didn't have his best game. I still envisage he could be sold (and/or Heggam) because I doubt we've spent as much as we have without plans for that money to come back in. Sadly ever game he plays like that will probably take a couple million off the price tag. Can't help thinking that cashing in during the transfer window back in January could've got us the best fee for him.

But all in all, good 3 points to start the season. Just hope we've got plans to strengthen the squad significantly before the end of the window.