Tony Mowbray Meets His Former Club Today As He Makes Some Inciting Statements Relating To…
Having already returned to the Hawthorns as manager of both Blackburn Rovers and Sunderland, popular former Baggies boss, Tony Mowbray, will be back at the Shrine on Saturday in charge of Birmingham City.
He recorded his first win at the Hawthorns as an opposition boss last season when Sunderland ended the Baggies’ 13-match unbeaten home run in April and, while Albion were beaten at the Hawthorns in the FA Cup last weekend, they are still an eight-match undefeated streak in the league that I’m sure Mowbray will be hoping to end.
Having been surprisingly sacked by Sunderland just before Albion’s visit to Wearside in December, Mowbray took the reins at St Andrew’s in January and has so far presided over four matches with Blues.
City came back from 2-0 down at home to Swansea City to earn a point in Mowbray’s first game in charge, and this was followed by back-to-back victories, in the FA Cup at home to Hull City and away to Stoke City in the league.
Blues lost 3-0 at Leicester City in the FA Cup last weekend and now Mowbray, at the fifth time of asking, finally gets to manage Birmingham City against a team that doesn’t end in City!
The general feeling from observers is that Mowbray has had a positive impact at St Andrew’s with Blues looking more like the play-off challengers they were under John Eustace earlier in the season, and I’m sure they will present a stern test for the Baggies.
They have been boosted this week by the signing of midfielder, Alex Pritchard, who has followed his former boss from Sunderland to St Andrew’s. Pritchard had a brief spell on loan at the Hawthorns from Spurs under Tony Pulis, making just three substitute appearances, and also played under current Baggies boss, Carlos Corberán, at Huddersfield Town.
The Spaniard is well aware of the qualities of the 30-year-old midfielder who could make his Blues debut at the Hawthorns, not only from their time together in West Yorkshire, but also because he was involved in both of the Black Cats’ goals against the Baggies at the Stadium of Light before Christmas.
Corberán himself has a few more options available to him this week. Daryl Dike has recovered from the minor calf issue that kept him out of the Black Country Derby, while new signings Callum Marshall and Mikey Johnston will both be available for selection.
I’d be surprised if any of them start barring injuries to any other attacking players, but I expect them all to be on the bench.
I suspect that the starting line up to be changed from last weekend only by the recall of both Alex Palmer and Tom Fellows in place of Josh Griffiths and Nathaniel Chalobah, but Corberán may well choose to mix things up a bit.
Two defeats in Albion’s last three Championship games has seen them drop away from the top four but, with the chasing pack also dropping points, they have hung on to fifth place.
That is unlikely to continue unless the Baggies continue their impressive home form in the league and significantly improve their form on the road.
Saturday’s match is an opportunity to remind the rest of the division that a home defeat by Premier League opposition is nothing more than a blip – bag three points and they can turn their attentions to another tough away trip to Ipswich.
Looking further ahead, February is a challenging month with Southampton to come to the Hawthorns, along with Cardiff City, and away trips to Plymouth Argyle and Hull City.
Eleven or twelve points from the six games would be a decent return and would surely be enough to keep Albion in the top six. And surely the Baggies should be good enough to do that?