[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

The lacklustre cup exit in Bristol last weekend, hard on the heels of a turnaround defeat at Burnley, was a deflating end to January which gave a hint, for the first time since Corberan's arrival, of the magical winter run of form perhaps running out of steam at last. If that's the case, then it will still remain one of the all-time legendary honeymoon periods, and has bought the gaffer all the time, goodwill and leeway he could possibly want to build his own Albion team going forward. But even if we're back down to Planet Earth, and plain sailing is once again a thing of the past, we're still in a position to challenge for the playoffs, and grinding out the 1.5 points per game that'll take us there must be the priority.

We start with back-to-back derbies on back-to-back Fridays, beginning with the visit of Coventry this week. Having beaten us so unexpectedly in December, they stand on the verge of a first double over Albion since 1969-70; but equally, having kept a clean sheet in six of our last seven home matches against the Sky Blues, we're also on a handy little run of consecutive shut-outs at the Hawthorns this winter, and one more will make it six home clean sheets in a row for the first time in the league since December 1977. Furthermore, Coventry have fared poorly on the road of late with defeats at Burnley, Sheffield United and Reading, so there's an opportunity for Albion to get back into the swing of things here.

Having foolishly chosen to be optimistic about last weekend's match, I'll play it a bit safer this week and predict Coventry to emerge 9-0 winners while the ghost of Jimmy Hill clambers forth from the hungry earth to feast upon human flesh. And with any luck, that forecast should see us alright for a 0-0 draw on the night.

[valpayne]

funnily enough Ska'd I was thinking 0-0 as well. One interesting fact I wasn't aware about our new arrival MA is that he is a Tammie as am I
I asked my Dad (villa fan) if he's any good and he said started with a lot of promise at Villa but like so many fizzled out. A good crosser of the ball
he had pace back then don't know if he still does? But doesn't score too many goals. I guess balls into the box for dike to get his head on must be
the main threat then?

[Baggie_One]

Palmer is out injured, time out tbc

NOBODY panic, butterfingers will be solid. Time for Button to come good

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Rumours out for the season

[Baggie_One]

Albrighton looks the part ! Some quality crossed in

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Gradyyyyyyyyy
1-0

[derbybaggie]

What’s happened to Palmer?

[Dingle-Dingle]

I see Mr60 Minutes lasted, well..... 59 Minutes.

DD#No1

[valpayne]

Palmer out for up to 6 weeks! Thats not good news at all. Credit to Button yesterday for keeping a clean sheet but they only had one shot on target
and with all due respect I think there was a damn good reason Palmer became number 1.
Lets just hope CC can work the same magic on DB as he has for most of the rest of the team?