Roll up, Roll up for the Tom Fellows Derby.

If you forget about Sheffield Wednesday for a second, the award for biggest clusterfuck of this Championship season would undoubtedly go to West Bromwich Albion. Whenever they are in the Championship, then they are usually floating around the playoff places and at least threatening to make a return to the Premier League, but not this year. Starting this season with Ryan Mason in charge, who was a risky appointment based on age and inexperience, they had some poor fortune but could barely win a game and eventually they had to sack him. Having done that, in true “definition of madness” style, they then appointed Eric Ramsey, who was a risky appointment based on age and inexperience, who had a CV that included being a coach at Manchester United and managing in the MLS. Again, a case illustrating the point that being young and trendy and tipped for great things by dint of having spent some time at a big club, is really not deserving of a job at the business end of the Championship. Predictably, he was absolutely shit and didn’t win a game before being sacked and now, they’ve gone with the interim manager approach for the rest of the season, in James Morrison, a club legend who will at least have the fans behind him.

In theory there should be no banana skin with this particular match with Saints ten games unbeaten, including the win over Premier League Fulham at the weekend, and West Brom being twelve games without a win, but the fact that this is Morrison’s first home game and the fact that the crowd will be behind him, make this somewhat more difficult than it certainly would’ve been had Eric Ramsey still been in place.

When you look at West Brom squad, you see that they do still have some decent players like Heggbo and Johnston, so this has been a season of chronic under achievement by the playing staff as much as it has been from the managers. That means, that they are capable of putting in a decent performance and we have to rise above any new manager bounce that comes our way today. Morrison’s first match in interim charge saw The Baggies earn a decent point away at Sheffield United, with a last minute equaliser, which is significant because it showed that they didn’t give up and went deep into the game and got their rewards for that.

If West Brom are struggling then Saints are certainly on the crest of a wave at the moment. As I said, 10 games unbeaten and through to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. That improved run of form has seen us fly up to 7th in the league, four points behind the last play-off place, currently occupied by Wrexham and a Hollywood documentary. There is absolutely no point in worrying what they do however and we have to take care of business today.

Tonda Eckert, our very own second inexperienced young manager of the season, has to put a side out today containing no players who are fatigued from Sundays’ heroics at Craven cottage. Having been completely rested for that game, both Shea Charles and Jack Stephens should return in some capacity and the other main questions are whether Ross Stewart or Cyle Larin start up front, and which out of Matsuki and ex-Baggie Fellows start on the right. Two seasons ago when we last played at The Hawthorns, we won here 2-0 in the league fixture when their manager Carlos Corboran managed to get himself sent off for playing the ball while it was still on the pitch, and we got a very decent 0-0 draw here in the first leg of the play-off semi-final. Today we have to achieve something more in tune with the former result and right from the start of the game, we need to give West Brom no encouragement that they are going to get anything out of this game at all and that their quest to stay up starts at the weekend. Play well and we win today, it’s that simple. Play like we did in the first half away at Leicester City for example, and we are going to struggle. Hopefully we can take the buzz off of the weekend and go flying into this game feeling invincible. It’s certainly been nice as a fan to bask in the glory of that win and though I have nothing against Fulham, the crap that has rained down on Marco Silva has brought a smile to my face.

One point of interest today is of course Tom Fellows, who came through the system at West Brom before moving to Saints in the summer for what they considered to be a knock-down fee of about £8 million. Tom’s had his moments this year but the chronic failings in front of goal could do with being sorted out today. Baggies fans will see it as one of those sods law things and be expecting it to happen. We probably won’t be. One thing is for sure though, it will be interesting to see what sort of reception he gets from the Baggies fans when he steps out onto the pitch. West Brom have a Saints loanee at the moment but it’s one that many will have forgotten about… Charlie Taylor. Chances are that given his performances for West Brom and his non-performances for us last season, he won’t be at either club once August rolls around.