[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

The goal that was sixteen years in the making; Albion vs Crystal Palace, 21st April 2002

For the first time in nearly three years, Albion welcome a new manager to the Hawthorns on Saturday afternoon, and as always on these occasions, the hope is that we can look forward to better to come. The Newcastle result has to be put behind us, and all of our focus onto what lies ahead.

We are, sadly, in something of a hole. During our current spell in the Premier League, we've never had this few points on the board at this stage of the season. Even Alan Irvine had us on 13 by now, which rose to 17 two matches later. We had the same tally at this time in the season Bryan Robson took us down, and are only one point ahead of where we were in the season we finished bottom under Mowbray. We've been relying on West Ham, Swansea and Crystal Palace to keep us out of the drop zone, and as of this Saturday, that has to stop.

The good news is, of the three clubs who pulled the trigger this autumn, we've probably landed the best boss in Alan Pardew. The bad news is, he's got only three days to get his head round a new team, while Crystal Palace roll into town with an ex-Albion boss settled at the helm, and without an away goal to their name all season.

Hands up those of you who can see exactly what's going to happen here.

In truth, as with the Newcastle game, it's probably going to be an absolute roll-of-the-dice, anything-could-happen game; we can only hope that with a good atmosphere and the fans behind the team and Pardew, we've got enough to make the difference. But this is at the very least a must-not-lose fixture, and we can only hope the players have got it in them, after Tuesday night, to treat it as such.