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.

Team news and it’s pretty much our first choice side with Charles and Stewart returning for Jander and Larin and Matsuki gets the nod over Fellows on its return to the Hawthorns.

It very quickly becomes apparent what West Brom‘s tactics are which is to sit in two deep banks of four, try and hit us on the break and then rely on set pieces. As basic as it gets. The first of these tests is a long throw hurled into the box which is met by Heggebo in the six-yard area and his flicked header has to be shovelled over the bar by Peretz.

As usual, Leo is the first creative spark for us, exchanging passes with Azaz before finding Stewart who runs into traffic but the ball rolls to Charles who skips round O’Leary in the West Brom goal but can’t work an angle for a shot and eventually the chance disappears through West Brom crowding us out

Scienza skins Imray down the outside before crossing it perfectly onto the head of Stewart about eight yards out but he can only direct his head straight at the goalkeeper. Has to be a goal and the expression on Stewart‘s face says the same. The cross was maybe a tiny bit too high to get full power on it, but Ross will certainly think he should’ve scored.

As usual, Leo is the way to go for us and Manning plays him in the ball, complete with siren and a blue flashing light on top of it and he gets challenged man and ball by Imray and West Brom attack, leaving Leo in a heap on the ground. The attack eventually peters out after a great recovery tackle by Stewart but West Brom recycle it and go down the right hand side and a cross flicks off of Manning towards the back post and Peretz has to adjust well to push it away. Meanwhile, Leo isn’t getting up and the physios make the universally recognised rolling fingers gesture to signal that he needs to come off. Shit. Tom Fellows is the man and he comes onto an appreciative round of applause for all the four sides of the ground, which is classy from the West Brom fans, illustrating that they don’t blame the player for the move, more so the club.

Saints have got into the mode of knocking it around at the back and not going anywhere with it, allowing West Brom to press us and forcing us to ultimately clear the ball aimlessly out of play. Styles takes the most obvious foul throw you’ve ever seen from out on the left, it’s flicked on and Price lashes wide of the fire post.

As we approach half-time, Imray plays a ball down the line for Jed Wallace to chase. Wallace is 35 and Charles is comfortably in front of him but Shea makes a bollocks of it by being too casual and knocks it off for a corner, which was absolutely needless. In it comes, West Brom win the first knock through Dike and Peretz has to shovel it out, they then win the second knock through Dike again and the ball ends up with Molumby about 3 yards out who takes a touch turns and lashes it into the net. Absolute bullshit and completely preventable.

Half time and to be honest that has been complete shite. West Brom have had more desire to win the challenges than we have and with Leo off, we don’t appear to have much of a spark about us at all. Tonda tries to change things at half-time with Canada Cyle coming on for Stewart and it looks like Fellows has been switched to his favourite right side, with Matsuki going left.

There is no reaction. In fact, West Brom are actually starting to play now and a decent move down the right sees the ball come in from Wallace and Dike goes flying in for a header which Peretz takes two efforts to grab hold of.

There then follows about twenty minutes of boring nothing and it’s beginning to look like one of those games where we are just not going to get anything going and Downes and Matsuki are replaced with Edozie and Bragg. Bragg‘s first contribution is to pick up a yellow card for dragging down 35-year-old Wallace who he surely should’ve been able to outpace. This leaves Bragg unable to drag down Heggebo as he barges through midfield and the West Brom striker eventually tees up Price on the edge of the box and his low shot is comfortably saved by the keeper.

Sam Edozie is beginning to cause a few problems and he burns past Imray, who picks up the yellow card he should’ve got about an hour ago. Bree puts in a lovely free kick from the left wing right into the danger area, all the heads go up and a West Brom defender heads it behind so of course, that’s a goal kick. With time running out, we are at least trying to pay a little bit of urgency now and Azaz finds Charles in the centre of the pitch and he advances to 20 yards out before dragging a horrible effort well wide.

90 minutes up and time for another substitution and usually when a striker comes on for a defender, you get a bit more optimistic but it’s Archer who is coming on for Bree. Memories of the Leicester performance with Shea Charles kind of going to right back.

We patiently build up from the right back area all the way over to Edozie on the left, who chops back inside his full back onto his right foot before putting a cross into the mixer and up goes Larin with a defender and directs a header of over the keeper and in off the bar. Get the fuck in there. Out of fucking nowhere.

Now the game is completely completely flipped and it’s all Saints, with Edozie at the centre of things finding Azaz on the edge of the box who knocks onto Larin who should go left to Fellows but doesn’t and gets crowded out. Archer tries to smash it but in the end, boots a defender but the ref has given us a corner. Nothing comes of it however and a clearance up into the Back Country sky by O’Leary, brings the game to an end.

And so it came to pass that we got a point. We absolutely got away with murder in that one. The weird thing was we were the only team that was going to win it in the last few minutes and that would’ve been the travesty of all travesties because West Brom basically outworked us for 90 minutes. They played with more heart, more endeavour and more direction and we played at about 50% of capacity as a team. It’s easiest to pick out players who weren’t complete shite. On that list, I have Daniel Peretz, THB and Ryan Manning. Cyle Larin and Sam Edozie get a pass for combining for the goal but everyone else, fucking hell – nowhere near the level to win games in the Championship.

The frustrating thing is that even in the first half, you could see that West Brom’s makeshift defence was there for the taking as whenever we got the ball into dangerous areas, they were all over the place, only we didn’t get the ball into dangerous areas until Sam Edozie put the cross in, in the 92nd minute and then we score, and then West Brom felt a bits. If we had shown just a little bit of adventure in the preceeding 10 minutes, we would’ve won that game, let alone if we’ve done it earlier on.

The bad news from today’s of course the injury to Leo Scienza and if he can’t play against Coventry then it absolutely has to be Sam Edozie who comes into the team because the choice is him or Tom Fellows, and Fellows is an absolute disaster at the moment. You would’ve thought that going back to West Brom, where he was for the opening ten years of his career, would’ve given him the lift to try and do something but he’s turned into Ryan Fraser, only interested in going backwards or cutting infield. Not once did he face up the full back and drive towards goal.

There was some players out there who had no excuse for heir lethargy, because they didn’t feature much against Fulham. Ross Stewart missed the only decent chance we created in the first half and obviously wasn’t feeling right because he came off at half-time. Cam Bragg came on to pick up the midfield and was all over the place, with heavy touches featuring very heavily. Shea Charles had a complete rest against Fulham and from the opening minute to the last, was not at the pace of the game at all, taking too long on the ball and being dispossessed on about five occasions. Jack Stephens and James Bree barely won a tackle or header between them. Jack in particular had one of those games where he was there but not actually participating. Bree played the whole of the second half with a bandage on his head and must have been relieved that his hair stayed in place, whilst Flynn Downes was not at his dynamic best and Kuryu Matsuki barely seemed to touch the ball. Azaz played the odd perceptive pass but it was one of those games where you spent a lot of it wondering who on earth he was trying to pass to.

Tonda picked the team that I think most of us would’ve picked but it really should’ve been Edozie that came on on the left-wing instead of Fellows when I went off injured, so I don’t think he had a great day either. West Brom’s tactics, as stated, were as limited as it gets, but we didn’t deal with either side of their game plan – the low block or the set pieces. Shea Charles gave away a totally unnecessary corner which led to their goal and we just didn’t move the ball fast enough or incisively enough to cause them any problems until the 92nd minute.

Positive performances today came from Ryan Manning, who was at least trying to put passes into the forward players, THB who stood up well to the threat of Heggebo and Dike – with no much help from Jack Stephens and Daniel Peretz again had a decent game and then you have Sam Edozie who ultimately made the difference, putting in a great cross into the box for the big man in Canada Cyle to head into the net. Good Cross, Good header, Good goal. Simple. Why the fuck didn’t we do more of it?

So, all in all, we were pretty shite, but we got away with it and in a round of fixtures where a couple of teams above us dropped points, this is a good point to have got from a shit performance. I have a feeling that West Brom will get out of it if they work as hard as that in every game between now and the end of the season. They are obviously going for the maxim of simple is best, and I hope it works out for them as I would much rather see Leicester or of course our nearest and dearest neighbours, take the drop into League One.

There was some bizarre refereeing today, with a couple of West Brom players avoiding bookings for 100% nailed on yellow card defences. The first was when full back Imray got beaten by Leo and dealt with it with a two armed shoving his back. The second was as Canada Kyle burst forward from the Centre circle with Gilchrist holding onto his shirt before being shrugged off and an advantage being played which came to nothing a second later. Though play went on, you have to go back and book the player who committed the yellow card offence.

A game that won’t live long in the memory and we have to go again on Saturday lunchtime with a trip to league leaders Coventry, to see if Frank Lampard is still a bell end and see if he’ll pay our £22,500 fine we got for the issue he instigated.