[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

My favourite memory was on the 10 November 1965 when I stood with my mates on the BRE.

It was a League Cup 4th Round replay and our opponents were Coventry City then of the old 3rd Division.

Despite the Sky Blues lowly status we had struggled in the first game at Coventry and scraped a 1-1 draw but, the King had been missing; he had been injured for a few games and, Ray Crawford had taken his place.

The match programme that night showed the same team that had played in the first match but, just before the players came out, they announced over the tannoy, " Only one change from the team shown in the programme............. "In place of Ray Crawford, Jeff Astle."

All around the ground went the biggest cheer imaginable. You would have thought that, at the very least, Jeff had scored a hat trick. Before the game had ended, Jeff did just that and the Baggies ran out 6-1 winners with Dougie Fraser (2) and Bomber Brown the other scorers.

It got better still that season because the Albion reached the final which for the last time would be played over two legs.
Already down 1-2 from the first game at Upton Park, Albion turned on the style to win 4-1 (5-3 on aggregate).

For me another wonderful night in the BRE.

Did you make it for the quarter-final against Villa that year? Apparently the queue for tickets stretched all the way down Halfords Lane!

Here's another classic tune, I believe it was first used for Ally Robertson in 1972 and is still in use for James Morrison over forty years on!