[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?

[DanTheSmethwickMan]

Well I have no clue what team is going to be put out....

Rose
Chester Dawson Olsson Brunt
McLean Gardner Morrison Gnabry
Rondon Anichebe

Maybe something like that?

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Adil Nabi was left out of the squad for tonight's U21 game, so there's a chance we might be seeing him. Hope so.

[Dingle-Dingle]

Be afraid ....... Be very afraid. Ossies Barmy Army. Attack Tora Tora. DD

[Stairs]

I am a tad worried. I know I shouldn't be. But I am ?

[aries22]

Ska'd, you mention 1995 - did you mean 1992/93? And do you have a caption for the main photo? Great pic.

[BaggieMan]

Aries, in the main picture, do you recognise the lad in black standing in the front row with a Baggies scarf draped over the fence in front of him ? Slightly left and below the ball. Aaah, those were the days !

[betterthanbaird]

I expect 11 changes since it's only two days after the Chelsea game but a strong bench is important and we need to try to win this. Even with all the changes it should be a decent team but I have no idea what will happen in centre midfield.

[wba_1996]

Trying to think of a line-up for this match just shows how weak our squad depth is. Rose is the only fit back-up keeper, we have no fullbacks to replace Brunt and Dawson (Poco and Gamboa are out of the picture), Lescott looks set to go so he probably won't come in, Gardner is the only fresh central midfielder we can bring in, Gnabry is the only winger we have who didn't start on Sunday, Berahino is out of the picture and no idea what is going on with Sess. The only area we have sufficient cover is up front with Lambert, Anichebe and Nabi who can come in.

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Ska'd, you mention 1995 - did you mean 1992/93? And do you have a caption for the main photo? Great pic.

Nah, what I meant was that if the team deliver a 1995-style performance (i.e. lose to Port Vale on a cold rainy night in front of a small crowd), we can console ourselves by all pretending to be twenty years younger.  When I mention the 1990s to a lot of Albion fans nowadays, they always seem to get dewy-eyed about how much "closer" to the club we felt back then, despite the team being shite the vast majority of the time.

The picture is from the 1954 FA Cup semi-final at Villa Park, and Jimmy Dudley is scoring Albion's equaliser at the Witton End.  Ronnie Allen got the winner with a penalty in the second half.  Here's a shot of the crowd that day: