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Cyrille Regis takes the match ball with a hat-trick, Albion vs Swansea, 5th September 1981
On the list of Things Every Albion Fan Could See Coming A Mile Off, there's no doubt that Swansea earning themselves a morale-boosting win while Albion slid to a heroic, exhausting defeat right before our head-to-head encounter was always high up the list. We now go into this Wednesday night fixture a full eight points and ten places above the Welsh side, and you could be forgiven for fearing that the team who are fighting for survival, who have a fresh boost of confidence, who've had an extra day's rest and who have a nasty habit of always getting results against Albion, are not suddenly going to roll over for the team who've reached the halfway mark a few weeks early and have one eye on the Christmas pudding trolley.
It doesn't help that there will have to be a shuffling of personnel to work around the suspension of Craig Dawson; we'll most likely see Nyom switch over to the right and Brunt drop back into defence on the left, unless Galloway is preferred. This will hopefully also free up space for the long-awaited return of Nacer Chadli in midfield, and if he comes back firing on all cylinders then we may yet have a good game to look forward to.
Three points from this one aren't imperative, but given the look of our remaining fixtures in 2016, it really wouldn't hurt to get that win and keep the pressure off for a good few weeks to come. There's a good Albion team in the making here, but sooner or later they need to shake off the ingrained habit of botching matches against struggling teams, and to begin on Wednesday would be a fine resolution for the new year to come.
"I would rather spend a holiday in Tuscany than in the Black Country, but if I were compelled to choose between living in West Bromwich or Florence, I should make straight for West Bromwich." - J.B. Priestley
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Nice one yet again Ska'd - perfectly encapsulated all our hopes and fears!
Which Albion will turn up? That's the big question.........I'm the eternal optimist, and I 'd like to think there's both a resolve and a more attacking purpose behind us at the moment; I'm backing us to upset HRH The Queen and cause mayhem amongst those swans!
2 - 0 to us 
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With our right back problem tonight, I wonder if Nyom will be moved to play in his preferred position and who knows maybe make it hard for Dawson to get his place back? Will Brunt go back in at left back or will Galloway get another shot, maybe taking the starting place away from Nyom?
An interesting night on the cards!!
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Good preview,Ska'd.
I don't think Daws need worry about his place even if the new fullbacks combo perform brilliantly.
Swans will be right up for this one and it could be a scrap. With ManU on the Menu (get it?) I'd prefer a full-blooded Albion tomorrow than on Saturday - we've really got to prioritise 3pts off our relegation rivals than the BigBoys.
Start every day off with a smile and get it over with
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We'll need to score to ensure a draw is my usual view of most Albion games. I get a feeling we will need to score 2 goals to get all of the points from this one.
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Good post, Ska'd, as ever.
I almost feel confident about this. I think the last time I felt confident about a win was when we had Oxford or someone in the league cup and we lost, so it's not a great sign.
My main worry is if we see Evans at left back, as Llorente seems to be on fire and I think we need the centre of defence to be as strong as we can.
The other burning question is why the spellchecker on here thinks we're in the US rather than England. Stairs?
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Does anyone know if Nyom does any training at right back? I know it's meant to be his specialist position but I imagine he could get a bit rusty at it if he trains as well as plays all the time on the left.
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14-12-2016, 21:03
(This post was last modified: 14-12-2016, 21:03 by WBA-Josh.)
Albion team v @SwansOfficial: Foster; Nyom, McAuley, Olsson, Brunt; Yacob, Fletcher ©; Chadli, Morrison, Phillips; Rondon #WBASWA
Subs: Palmer; Robson-Kanu, Gardner, McClean, Galloway, Harper, Leko #WBASWA
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All right going forward, question of whether back and front can link. Evans presumably unfit, which is a pest.
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Nice to see both Mozza and Chadli in tho - I'm sure TP would've chosen 1 plus McClean or Gardner a month or so ago 
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