[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

On Friday night we venture up to Teesside for a fixture few will relish. For the first time since he was given his marching orders from the Hawthorns, Tony Pulis will go head to head with Albion, and I suspect the way we struggled against his sides in the past will be nothing to the fight we'll be facing now he's got a point to prove.

In spite of last year's playoff heartbreak, Boro have started the season well, and are perhaps a bit more swashbuckling in attack than many would give them credit for. Whether they'll persist in that approach in what's effectively an early promotion six-pointer remains to be seen, but one way or another this will be a big test for Big Dave, who's pitting a few months of tactical experience against the decades to the name of Tony Pulis.

It was around the same time of year in our last promotion season that we came up against Boro under Gareth Southgate in 2009, and inflicted a crushing 5-1 defeat at the Riverside from which their campaign never recovered and ours never looked back. I doubt it'll be such plain sailing this time round, but a draw would be a good return from what amounts to a serious bogey fixture.

[drewks]

I remember - mid 70's? - we were trying to get up from the old Division 2, as were Middlesbrough. Their manager at the time was Jack Charlton,  who makes Tony Pulis's brand of football look like an over extravagant Brazil.
Those poor Boro fans - what have they done to deserve that double whammy??

All these years later, I reckon our confidence and new swagger shown in the last 2 league games will be too much for them.
I live in hope.

[bomberbrown1968]

Wasn't the last time we played them in the Championship the 5-0 when Dorrans was strutting his stuff and Brunty scored from close to the halfway line, I'd love a repeat of that scoreline Friday

[Beefy 1965]

Whatever happens we NEED Dawson big time in this one, I just hope Big Dave has bee keeping him for this game,
They have a couple of big Lads and have just signed Flint from Bristol who normally scores from set pieces and with TP as their manager you just no he will have looked at our goals conceded and think blimey we can have a set piece bonanza against this lot !!!
Given WBA's record V Pulis this game worries me a lot, id take a point now to keep the momentum going .......

OOOpppppsss Stoke, Saido , Fletcher & McLean 0 Wigan 3

[Alouion]

Beefy - nobody enjoys playing against a Pulis team. I think we will lose tomorrow night by 2-0. Our defence is far from ready yet. Dawson may well be the answer but he appears to believe he should be playing PL football this season. The last 3 home games against modest opposition. Coventry, Bolton and QPR have seen us ship 5 goals and there was some awful defending against Norwich.
On the plus side we do look quite good going forward but I do not accept the "if they score 3, we'll score 4 mentality" we have to learn to defend better. QPR look to be the worst side in the division but at half time last week at 1-1, I thought we had another Bolton result on our hands. Our goalkeeper has big shoes to fill for Foster. We dither at the back and better teams may take advantage. Defending the post from corners seems to be a thing of the past. Defenders need to be miles better at stopping crosses and when crosses come in, we need to be miles better at challenging opposition forwards and denying them space.

It goes without saying that I hope I am wrong and we are all celebrating a spectacular Baggie performance tomorrow night.

[WBA-Josh]

I'm looking forward to seeing how Big Dave does tomorrow night. We all know what to expect from a Tony Pulis side but with them on a good run and scoring goals, they will probably look to attack us.

In my opinion, the way to always beat a Tony Pulis side was to sit back and let them have the ball. We were notorious under Pulis for being poor on the ball and over-reliant on corners and free kicks. We had our spells of decent football but generally it was overly cautious and poor to watch. Now he's at Boro and needs to get promotion the football, based on what I've read and seen snippets of, has been decent but I still think we should look at giving Boro the ball and tell them to break us down. They won't get through us centrally if we play a narrow 4-1-4-1 shape, so we should look to make them go around us and direct into the box where Adarabioyo, Bartley and Hegazi can win headers.

Johnstone
Adarabi - Bartley - Hegazi - Gibbs
Brunt
Phillips - Livermore - Barnes - Rodriguez
Gayle

In possession we should look to either attack at pace on the counter-attack through Barnes and Phillips if the space is there or, if Boro put men behind the ball, play it more patiently with fluid movement from Livermore, Barnes and Rodriguez who would be playing a sort of left wide forward role where he can join Gayle in the centre or move into a wide role to link up with Gibbs. If we have to be patient then Adarabioyo would tuck inside to make a 3 and Gibbs would push up to the left wing.

That's what I would do. Big Dave and Graeme Jones will have their own ideas.

[Baggiebob(BBB)]

It's a win win for the Albion, however it will be tactical with Pulis trying to prove he shouldn't have been sacked and Dave wanting to prove he's a better replacement.  Gayle and Rodriguez for a 2-0 win.
I hope I've now not put the mockers on our winning.

[silverbaggie]

It was said earlier that Pulis has a point to prove.

Couldn't that also be said of those of our existing squad who played under him.

I know that it was often said jokingly that Pulis would not allow players to cross the halfway line under penalty of a Club fine.

I think that we are more than capable of getting a draw here especially if we score first.

[Baggiebob(BBB)]

has anyone any clues where this match can be watched free on TV?

[WBA-Josh]

Same team as last week. I’m intrigued to see the formation and how Big Dave is going to adapt to Tony Pulis.

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Boro look like a 532 or 541.