[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

The Brummie Road End celebrates Albion's League Cup Final win over West Ham, the Hawthorns, March 1966

After a pusillanimous (or maybe Pulisanimous?) performance at Bournemouth last weekend, it feels like we've entered a whole new era of politics and finger-pointing at the Hawthorns. All clearly is not well, and those involved seem, worryingly, to be more concerned with ducking their share of the flak than actually working to put things right. Did the board attempt to make marquee signings which Pulis shot down? Did Pulis demand marquee signings which the board failed to deliver? Does the blame game even matter at this point?

This Saturday's match is going to be a real barometer of the scale of discontent among fans heading into the autumn. Home performances and results have been unacceptable for a long time, and the 0-0 draw with Middlesbrough in August felt more like it was prolonging the rot than stopping it. Although West Ham seem a little out of sorts at the moment, they remain clear favourites on paper, and the 3-0 win they romped to here in the spring remains fresh in Albion minds. If things go badly, it could be a real tipping point.

The one variable in all of this is the potential influence of Guochuan Lai, with reports abounding that the protracted takeover should be completed at the end of this week. But with the way things currently are, it's going to take some serious diplomacy to smooth over the troubled waters at the club, and at this stage, I'm not sure even Henry Kissinger could manage that.

As the Chinese are reputed to say: "may you live in interesting times".

[Baggievicar]

Whatever happens at the game, I'll treasure that pun.

[Kookiebags]

Morning All,
                 Interesting times indeed!
We need a home win to settle the nerves a little, and for this team to show that they can perform more than running in reverse to park the bus.
West Ham will be smarting after their capitulation to Watford last week, and if we can get an early lead, the nerves may set in and they may become a bit rash, leaving more areas for us to exploit.
I would settle for a 1 nil , but I feel there may be goals in this game, and lets just hope we score more than them, and all in the right net.
Cheers,
             Kookiebags.

[BBB]

It will be interesting times if we were to lose 3-0 again, or even lose - but we won't lose so sayeth Chang hi,
check it out

[talkSAFT]

Can't remember so much excitement for an Albion match!!!

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1-0. Good pen.

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Good finish 2-0

[Salopbaggie]

What the................... 3-0

[Dingle-Dingle]

3-0 24% possession. 1st leg of my accie in in 40 mins. DD

[talkSAFT]

3-0. I'm not going to pour cold water over this performance, but WHam are atrocious at the back, unlike us.

[Dingle-Dingle]

Thank you Citeh. 2nd leg in. DD

[Salopbaggie]

Here we go 4-2