[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

This year's League Cup campaign begins with the enticing prospect of a home tie against a team we've only beaten once at the Hawthorns in the last 84 years.  For all we moan about our fortunes against Stoke, Port Vale have a record in B71 which their rivals could only dream of.  But it's been a long time since the Valiants last had a chance to exercise their curse; back in 2000, when Vale were fighting relegation from the second tier with us, and were still the higher-placed Potteries club, no one would have guessed they were off for a lengthy - perhaps even permanent - tour of the lower leagues, while we were just a year or two away from reclaiming our place in the top flight.  But nevertheless, it's been over fifteen years since our last meeting, and having sold out their allocation, it's clear that some of Staffordshire's lesser-spotted oatcake-munchers are keen to practise their own rendition of "we always beat West Brom".

The days of John Rudge, Paul Musselwhite and Robin Van Der Laan are long gone; at the moment Vale's priority seems to be cutting costs as much as possible without jeopardising their League One status.  Reliable goalscorers Tom Pope and Ben Williamson departed over summer, so the team are cobbling together a new strikeforce featuring the likes of veteran Louis Dodds and Watford loanee Uche Ikpeazu, while former Newcastle youngster Jak Alnwick is a promising addition in goal.  They remain unbeaten thus far in the campaign, and on the back of a good first round upset over Burnley and a solid 3-0 win against Doncaster on Saturday, they'll relish the prospect of giving us a proper game.

As far as Albion are concerned, it's probably fair to assume that our biggest guns will be saved for Saturday's trip to Stoke.  However, we may get to see a bit more of recent signings like Chester and Gnabry, and there could also be a competitive debut for the twenty-year-old goalkeeper Jack Rose.  It'll be a makeshift side, with all of the weaknesses you'd expect, but ideally there should be enough to see us through.  If not, we'll console ourselves by just pretending it's 1995 again; what could possibly go wrong?