New hope for goals as Owls visit the Hawthorns

Brummie Road Ender

·7 February 2025

New hope for goals as Owls visit the Hawthorns

West Bromwich Albion v Sheffield Wednesday; The Hawthorns, Saturday 8th February 2025, 12.30pm

While we are three games into Tony Mowbray’s second spell at the club, the transfer window seems to have given the club a new reset and Saturday’s game with Sheffield Wednesday has the feeling of being the first of a new chapter of the season. New signings always provide a little excitement, but the arrival of two strikers to help overcome Albion’s biggest problem of the campaign is huge, and Baggies fans are now rethinking what might be possible this season.

There will be inevitable changes to the starting line up, not least because of the departure of Alex Palmer, and I wonder whether Mowbray will stick to his rule of not putting new signings in the starting line up. When Mogga signed for Celtic as a player, he was injured on his debut which he put down to trying too much to impress on his first appearance – as a manager, he has always tried to give new players their debuts off the bench to reduce that temptation. Having said that, can he really resist putting Adam Armstrong in the starting line up on Saturday? Without a fit striker, other than his other new signing, and knowing the player so well, it would be a difficult choice to leave him out. Having said that, Mowbray is a man who sticks to his principles so I’m not sure which way this will go.

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The other big decision is who to start in goal. Joe Wildsmith, who has been number two all season, is an experienced ‘keeper but has made just two appearances in cup competitions this season and he hardly covered himself in glory at Bournemouth last month. Josh Griffiths, on the other hand, has just ten Championship appearances to his name when covering for an injured Palmer two years ago, but has been playing regular football all season, albeit in League One, and is credited by Bristol Rovers as being the only reason they are not in the bottom four this season. Surely, he deserves his chance to become Albion’s number one? Mowbray would not commit either way in his press conference on Friday.

As for Tammer Bany, I certainly don’t expect him to be anywhere near the starting line-up having not played since 1st December due to the extended winter break in Denmark – I’m assuming the reason he did his medical in Spain was because he was on holiday there. The Danish league isn’t due to recommence until next weekend so he may need a few days training to get match ready and he only actually arrived in West Bromwich on Friday morning.

Other news from Friday morning’s press conference was that an unnamed player will miss the game through illness. I may be being mischievous, but maybe Karlan Grant will sit out having apparently been upset to learn from Mowbray that he is no longer a first choice player given the form of Mikey Johnston?

Wednesday boss, Danny Röhl, has had a fairly quiet window in terms of signings only two new faces coming through the door. One of them will be very familiar with one of Albion’s new signings as the other Armstrong from Southampton, Stuart, has joined Wednesday – the 32-year-old Scottish international was released by the Saints at the end of last season and moved to MLS side Vancouver Whitecaps in September but evidently didn’t settle on the other side of the pond and has returned to the UK. Their other new signing is winger, Ibrahim Cissoko, who has joined on loan from Toulouse, having spent the first half of the campaign on loan at Plymouth Argyle.

Perhaps the biggest positive for the Owls was their ability to come to a new agreement with Southampton for the loan of Shea Charles who had been recalled by the Premier League club. He has been one of Wednesday’s stars this season and he would have been a huge loss had they not been able to renegotiate the loan.

Having miraculously escaped relegation last season by taking 14 points from their last six games, Wednesday have enjoyed a much better campaign so far and sit in 10th spot in the table. Their away form has been particularly impressive with six wins on the road although their win at QPR last weekend was their first on the road since mid-December. However, one of their away games since then saw them come back from 3-0 down at half time at Middlesbrough to draw 3-3, so they should not be underestimated.

Most of the Albion squad will remember the 3-2 defeat at Hillsborough in late September which ended the Baggies’ spectacular start to the season, and will hopefully be determined to exact revenge. Albion didn’t play well that day, at least not in the first half, but that has been the exception this season as they have dominated games only to fail to find the net often enough. Assuming Adam Armstrong does start the game, perhaps we will see what this side can do with a proper goal poacher in place – no pressure, Adam!

With Tony Mowbray at the helm, I’m expecting to see chances, probably at both ends, but I’d like to think the Baggies have the better players and that the quality will tell in the end.

History

Albion’s record against Sheffield Wednesday is not great – Wednesday lead the head-to-head record with 55 wins to Albion’s 39 while the Owls have won as many games in West Bromwich as they have lost. The Baggies have held the edge in recent years, however, and enjoyed a nine match unbeaten run against Wednesday until losing both games at Hillsborough in 2024.

Albion haven’t lost a home game against the Owls since April 2007 when Deon Burton scored the only goal in a game which ended with two stoppage time red cards for the Baggies’ Darren Carter and Neil Clement. The hosts have won three of the five meetings at the Hawthorns since then, with the other two ending all square.

The Throstles’ biggest ever win over The Wednesday, as they were then called, was way back in April 1895 when the hosts won 6-0 at Stoney Lane as revenge for the first ever league meeting between the clubs when Albion were beaten 6-0 at the Olive Grove in January 1893.

The best home win in living memory was in March 1975, a rare goalfest under the stewardship of Don Howe. It was goalless at half time but a Tony Brown penalty put the Baggies ahead just after half time before goals from John Wile and Ian Edwards made the game safe. Bomber added his second late on to make the final score 4-0. That scoreline was matched in November 2009 but at Hillsborough when Roberto di Matteo’s team ran riot scoring three goals before halftime through Simon Cox (2) and Jerome Thomas. Chris Brunt scored the fourth with five minutes left.

There have been plenty of high-scoring encounters between the sides but none more so than another encounter at Hillsborough, this one on Boxing Day 1952. Dennis Woodhead put the hosts 1-0 up early on before Ray Barlow equalised for Albion, only for Wednesday to regain the lead through the delightfully named Redfearn Froggatt. Ronnie Allen’s shot was then turned into his own net by Norman Curtis before the hosts were ahead once again when Woodhead scored his second to make it 3-2 at the break. Derek Dooley put the hosts 4-2 up just after half time before a second own goal, this time Eddie Gannon deflecting home a cross from Reg Ryan, reduced the arrears for the Baggies. Albion then took control – Johnny Nicholls made it 4-4 from a corner before Ronnie Allen got his inevitable goal to put them ahead for the first time. Wednesday battled for an equaliser but the Baggies held out for a 5-4 victory. The two teams met at the Hawthorns the following day for the return fixture but it finished in something of an anti-climactic 1-0 win for the Owls!