History of West Bromwich Albion F.C.
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This page is about the history of West Bromwich Albion F.C.. For more general detail about the club, please refer to West Bromwich Albion F.C..
[edit] Early days (1879 - 1888)
The club was founded as a result of the dissolution of an earlier football club, West Bromwich Strollers. That was started in 1878 by several of the players who went on to form the Albion in 1879 -- including Bob Roberts and the Bell cousins -- who wanted to extend the activity of the cricket club that they had formed. The Strollers were assisted by the encouragement and the connections of Old Etonian, the Reverend William Carter, later Archbishop of Cape Town, who was doing missionary work in West Bromwich. He was able to provide the youngsters -- who were no more than 14 and 15 years old at this point -- with a pitch and a meeting place in the Church. When Carter left West Bromwich in the summer of 1879, to take up a position in Bakewell, the Strollers folded. The players collected cash for a new football and portable goals, and the new West Bromwich Albion club played its first two games against a team from the White Hart public house, which was to become the Albion's first HQ. They won those two games with an aggregate of twenty goals for, and none against.
For the first two seasons of their existence, Albion played local sides on parks pitches throughout West Bromwich, Smethwick and Wednesbury, occasionally travelling as far afield as Stourbridge to get a game. The real breakthrough came at the start of the 1881-82 season, when they decided to pay a subscription to join the Birmingham & District Football Association, thus becoming eligible for their first competition: the Birmingham Senior Cup. It was their run to the quarter finals of that tournament -- beating, as they did, established sides such as Elwells FC (from Wednesbury) and Calthorpe (Edgbaston) -- that made their name in the Birmingham press. Suddenly, the local papers began to take notice of the little club, and began reporting on their games.
By 1882 they had also joined the Staffordshire FA, and after another good run in the Birmingham Cup, they won the Staffordshire Cup -- their first trophy -- by beating Stoke City 3-2 at the Victoria Ground. That was the catalyst for national success. At that time, every county had its own cup competition, and the various cup holders were welcome visitors all around the country; so it was that Albion began to arrange choice fixtures against the likes of Preston North End, Bolton Wanderers, Blackburn Rovers, and Wrexham.
They also moved ground. They had spent a season in their own enclosure, The Birches, but the drainage there was poor and so the club rented Four Acres from their former rivals, West Bromwich FC, where they would remain for three years. The conditions of the lease allowed them to play home games on Saturdays and Mondays only, but not in the summer as the ground was used then by the Dartmouth Cricket Club!
[edit] Inter-war and the championship (1919 - 1939)
The war-time diaspora of a promising young team did not stop individuals from playing football in charity matches, amateur teams and regional leagues. When normal competition resumed in 1919, the club was prepared and ready for the new start and achieved its only league title in 1920. Subsequent seasons were a disappointment however as Pennington retired and the side started to break up. The mediocrity was only alleviated by a second place in the league in the season 1924/1925 when they were narrowly beaten to the title by Herbert Chapman's phenomenal Huddersfield side.
The following year, 1926, brought relegation to the second division, but this ironically led to an achievement which is, as of 2006, still unique in English football. In 1931 the club won both the FA Cup and promotion back to the top flight. Only the goal-scoring exploits of Dixie Dean of Everton F.C. deprived Albion of the Second Division championship.
Though the same players who had won promotion performed creditably in the first division during the 1930s, (in 1936 William Richardson scored 39 league goals, still a club record), the death of Billy Bassett in 1937 marked the end of a footballing era. As the team again entered a period of reconstruction, Albion were relegated in 1938. With the 1939/1940 season only a few games old, World War II broke out and football was suspended.
[edit] Post-war renaissance (1945 - 1963)
Once normal league competition was resumed in 1946 (the 1945/46 season had been organised on a regional basis) Albion remained stuck in the Second Division. The turning point arrived with the retirement of Everiss in 1948. Unlike most other contemporary clubs, Albion had yet to implement the modern role of coach or manager. Everiss, who was the club's administrative secretary, delivered the pre-match talk; the board of directors, which had replaced the old Club Committee, selected the team. Kicking a football played no part in training, which was for fitness alone. Albion's first modern manager was Jack Smith who took the team back to the First Division in 1949. As England emerged into an era of post-war prosperity, a talented new squad started to develop, marked by the arrival of Ronnie Allen in 1950, scoring against Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. on his home debut in front of a crowd of 60,000.
However, the board were frustrated by the lack of trophies and Smith was dismissed in 1952. Radically, Smith was replaced by Juventus F.C. coach Jesse Carver who introduced football into training. Though Carver was soon to be seduced back to Italy by S.S. Lazio, (although domestic household pressures were a paramount factor) his eight months in charge were a defining moment for the club. His replacement, Vic Buckingham, recruited from the amateur leagues, inherited an intelligent, well-co-ordinated team, playing a flowing syle of attacking football that he was to build upon. The season 1953/1954 saw Albion win the FA Cup and finish second in the league, behind Wolverhampton Wanderers, narrowly missing out on the first English double of the 20th century.
In terms of results, the next couple of seasons were an anticlimax for the club. However, they also saw the arrival of players Don Howe, Derek Kevan and Bobby Robson. From 1957 to 1961, the team played an attractive, imaginative and stylish brand of attacking football that never quite materialised into a trophy. In the season 1957/1958, Allen, Kevan and Robson scored 78 goals between them. Following Buckingham's departure to Ajax in 1959 the club saw another decline, and Jimmy Hagan was recruited to arrest the slide in 1963.
[edit] Astle and after (1964 - 1977)
In September 1964 a young striker was signed from Notts County F.C. who, over the next decade, was to become the club's most iconic player ever: Jeff Astle. The club was already feeling the effects of the dramatic social changes of the 1960s, in the form of falling attendances and the end of the players' maximum wage. Hagan, despite the spirit of the times, was a martinet on the training ground and frequently bred conflict with a playing squad that was beginning to enjoy the new economic and social freedoms. However, he shrewdly built the team in personnel and skill, leading them to a League Cup triumph in 1966.
During this time the club's attack was built around the strike duo of Astle and Tony Brown, with Bobby Hope prompting from midfield and Clive Clark on the wing.
The following season was a hollow disappointment, with Albion losing in the final of the League Cup to Third Division Queens Park Rangers F.C., making an early exit from their first European campaign and struggling to maintain their place in the First Division. Had Hagan had more friends at the Hawthorns, he might have been given time to fix the problems but, in 1967, he was replaced by Alan Ashman. Ashman led Albion to FA Cup victory in 1968, Astle becoming the first player to score in every round of the competition; but subsequently, despite some exciting cup runs, the manager could not deliver the trophies the club craved.
Don Howe seemed the perfect replacement for Ashman when he arrived as manager in 1971. A former Albion player, he had just coached Arsenal F.C. to their League and Cup double and was regarded as one of the game's foremost theoreticians. However, theory proved no match for practice and the club was relegated to the Second Division in 1973. Failure to achieve promotion back the following season and the departure of Astle in 1974 seemed to presage a gloomy future. Somewhat fortuitiously, Albion benefitted from the leaderships of Johnny Giles and Ronnie Allen, who began the work of rebuilding the team. Sadly, the club seemed to lack the ambition and prescience to work hard at securing the services of either in the long term.
[edit] Atkinson's Albion mix it with the best (1978 - 1981)
When a relatively unknown young manager named Ron Atkinson arrived at the club in 1978, he inherited a team that already included youth-team graduate Bryan Robson and the young, gifted and black pair of Laurie Cunningham and Cyrille Regis, both acquired inexpensively from lower divisions.
Aware that he had the makings of a great team, Atkinson augmented it by bringing Brendan Batson from his former club Cambridge United F.C.. Never before had an English team simultaneously fielded three black players, and the Three Degrees, as they became known (in reference to the contemporary vocal trio of the same name), challenged the established racism of English football. Their success in the Albion side marked a watershed that allowed a generation of footballers to enter the game who would previously have been excluded by their ethnic background.
For many Albion fans, the club's greatest game during the Ron Atkinson era was the 5-3 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford in December 1978.
Atkinson's team played some of the most exciting football in England during his term at the club but, as early as 1978, the board allowed the playing talent to start slipping away; Cunningham's move to Real Madrid marked the start of the trend. The club managed 3rd and 4th places in the First Division, and twice reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup, but trophies continued to elude them.
Following the tragic death of director Tom Silk in a plane crash, the club fell again under the conservative leadership of Bert Millichip. Atkinson, despairing of the support he needed to build and maintain a winning team, took the vacant manager's post at Manchester United F.C. in the summer of 1981.
[edit] Atkinson goes and Albion slump (1982 - 1986)
The surprise choice to replace Atkinson was Ronnie Allen, returning for a second spell in charge. When Atkinson made a bid to take two of the club's prize assets, Bryan Robson and Remi Moses, to his new club for a combined fee of £2.5million, the board immediately encouraged Allen to sell. Their replacements were Martin Jol and Andy King; for a while things looked rosy, as Albion reached the semi-finals of both domestic cups. But the usual post-Christmas slump left the side needing to win its final home game, against Leeds United, to stay up; the game was won 2-0, and Leeds were relegated instead.
At the end of the season, Allen was 'kicked upstairs' and Coventry City coach Ron Wylie took over. He halted the slide, for a while, but resigned in 1985 after falling out with his head coach, Mick Kelly, and his players. A trio of high-profile names was recruited to take over: Johnny Giles, Norman Hunter and Nobby Stiles, and hopes were high; but their first game in charge -- at home to Third Division Plymouth Argyle, in the FA Cup -- resulted in a disastrous defeat. Plymouth reached the semi-finals, but meanwhile at The Hawthorns "the A Team" reversed the sinking trend in the 1983-84 season and things improved the following year.
The seeds of collapse were being sown however. Financial difficulties forced Giles to sell players to lighten the wage bill, beginning with Cyrille Regis, and the replacements were generally inadequate. By October 1985 it was looking grim; Giles resigned, and his assistant (also his brother-in-law), Nobby Stiles, reluctantly took up the reins. Stiles lasted only a few months before being replaced by Ron Saunders. By this time, Albion were bottom of the table and certain to be relegated.
[edit] Back in the Second Division (1986-87)
The Albion directors kept faith in Saunders after their relegation and he tried to put the club back on track by building a new team. But these changes did little to halt the rapid decline at the Hawthorns and he was sacked after they finished in the bottom half of the Second Division in 1987.
[edit] Atkinson's return (1987-89)
Atkinson returned to Albion in the summer of 1987 and halfway through his second season at the club they led the Second Division table, looking all set for promotion. But Atkinson was lured away to Atlético Madrid and midfielder Brian Talbot, 35, took over as player-manager.
[edit] New depths (1989-92)
Talbot was unable to maintain Albion's good form and they were unable to claim even a playoff place at the end of the 1988-89 season. 1989-90 brought even more frustration as Albion finished 20th in the Second Division - their lowest final position up to that time.
The Albion board finally lost patience with Talbot in January 1991 after they lost 4-2 at home to non-league Woking in the Third Round of the F.A Cup. He was replaced by Bobby Gould, who three seasons earlier had guided Wimbledon to FA Cup Final success, but he was unable to prevent Albion from being relegated to the Third Division for the first time in their history.
Albion just missed out on the Third Division playoffs in 1992, and shortly afterwards Bobby Gould moved to Coventry City. His successor was Ossie Ardiles, whose playing career had yielded two F.A Cups and a UEFA Cup with Tottenham and the 1978 World Cup with Argentina. His managerial spells at Swindon Town and most recently Newcastle United had been less successful.
[edit] Wembley playoff glory (1992-93)
Ardiles was in charge at Albion for only one season, before being lured away by Tottenham, but he guided them to victory over Port Vale in the 1992-93 playoff final of the new Division Two - their first successful season for more than a decade.
[edit] Burkinshaw blows it (1993-1994)
Following Ardiles' departure, Albion promoted his assistant, the former Tottenham manager Keith Burkinshaw. He had guided Spurs to success in the FA Cup (twice) and the UEFA Cup in the early 1980s, but his spell at The Hawthorns was a huge disappointment. Albion survived relegation back to Division Two at the end of 1993-94, but only because they had scored more goals than their nearest rivals, Birmingham City. Burkinshaw was sacked soon after that, and replaced by Alan Buckley -- who had impressed the Albion board with his achievements on a strictly limited budget at Grimsby Town.
[edit] Buckley steadies the sinking ship (1994-1997)
Albion's form under Buckley was consistently below average, but just enough to avoid relegation. In October 1995 they were second in Division One and hopeful of automatic promotion, but then came a drastic loss of form which saw them lose 13 games, draw one and win none: one point out of a possible 42. They looked set to be relegated to Division Two, but a big improvement in form during the final four months of the 1995-96 season saw them climb to mid table. Had it not been for that dreadful mid-season slump, Albion would surely have achieved automatic promotion.
[edit] Harford and Smith keep Albion afloat (1997-1999)
Buckley failed to transfer his success at Grimsby to the larger stage at The Hawthorns. He was sacked in January 1997 and replaced by Ray Harford. Harford had previously been manager or assistant manager of Fulham, Luton Town, Wimbledon and Blackburn Rovers. He had won the League Cup while manager of Luton Town, and was assistant manager of the Blackburn side which won the 1995 Premiership title. He led Albion to Division One safety in 1996-97, and in the following season the side established itself in the top six. Harford then stunned Albion by moving to QPR after less than a year in charge, making way for Denis Smith, who struggled to maintain the momentum created by Harford, and Albion could only finish 10th.
[edit] Relegation scare under Brian Little (1999-2000)
Smith, a former manager of York City, Sunderland and Oxford United, guided Albion to two successive mid-table finishes, but it was not enough for the Albion board and he was sacked in the summer of 1999. They appointed Brian Little as manager. Little had achieved promotion success with Darlington (twice) and Leicester City (once) as well as winning the League Cup with Aston Villa. But he failed to make any progress at The Hawthorns and was sacked in March 2000, with Albion in real danger of relegation.
[edit] Megson rescues Albion (2000 - 2004)
Gary Megson was named as the new West Bromwich Albion manager in March 2000. He had previously been in charge at Norwich City, Blackpool, Stockport County and Stoke City, but (apart from leading Stockport to their highest ever finish) had never achieved any real success. Many Albion fans were disappointed with the new chairman Paul Thompson, wanting a more "proven" manager.
Megson's first objective was to keep Albion in Division One. He signed six new players as the transfer deadline approached, and despite losing to nearest rivals (both geographically and in the league standings) Walsall in April, a last-day win over champions elect Charlton Athletic meant that Albion were safe and Walsall were relegated.
Megson's rejuvenation of the side continued in the 2000-01 season, which ended with Albion qualifying for the Division One promotion playoffs - their highest league finish since relegation in 1986. They lost to eventual winners Bolton Wanderers in the playoff semi finals, but the fans had plenty of hope for the 2001-02 season.
With nine games to go before the end of the 2001-02 season, Albion were 11 points behind neighbours Wolves in the Division One table. But while Wolves lost five vital games during the run-in, Albion won seven out of nine fixtures (including the notorious Battle of Bramall Lane) and secured automatic promotion on the final day of the season by beating Crystal Palace at home, while Wolves could only manage a draw away to Sheffield Wednesday.
[edit] The promised land?
But the promotion dream, having come true, quickly turned into a nightmare. Chairman Paul Thompson left the club after falling out with manager Gary Megson, and new owner Jeremy Peace was unable to provide adequate transfer funds. So Albion began the 2002-03 season without any significant new squad members. They lost their first three games of the Premiership campaign, but victories in each of the next three left them in eighth place in the table by mid September. This gave Albion fans hope of Premiership survival, but the side won only three of their remaining 32 Premiership fixtures and were eventually relegated in 19th place with just 26 points -- 18 points adrift of safety.
The 2003-4 season was overshadowed by the legal action brought against striker Lee Hughes, which ended with him being given a custodial sentence, but it ended with Albion returning to the Premiership as runners-up to Norwich City.
This time everyone involved with the club was hopeful of staying up, but Albion won just one of their first 11 games of the 2004-05 Premiership campaign. Megson, amid rumours of dressing-room unrest, announced that he would not be renewing his contract when it expired at the end of the season. The club's board interpreted this as a resignation, and placed Megson on gardening leave.
[edit] Robson's return and the great escape (2004 - 2006)
On November 9, 2004, the appointment of Bryan Robson as manager was announced. His immediate task was to maintain the club's Premiership status; at the time of his appointment Albion stood 17th in the table, the final "safe" spot. By the end of November however they were in 20th (bottom) place, and they would stay there until March. It was a well-documented fact that no team had ever avoided relegation from the Premiership after being bottom at Christmas.
Albion's first win under Robson came against Manchester City on 22 January 2005. The first away win of the season - 4-1 away to Charlton Athletic on 19 March - was the start of a four-match unbeaten streak, but going into the penultimate game of the season, away to Manchester United, Albion needed at least a point to have any real chance of survival. Miraculously, they kept hopes alive with a 1-1 draw. With one game to play Albion were bottom of the Premiership, but only two points below Norwich City who were 17th.
On a dramatic last day of the season, Albion beat Portsmouth 2-0, while Crystal Palace, Norwich and Southampton all failed to achieve the results they needed. Albion therefore became the first team in the history of the Premiership to avoid relegation after being bottom at Christmas. (The last top division team to avoid the drop after being bottom at Christmas was Sheffield United in 1990-91.) But Albion's tally of 6 wins and 34 points made them statistically the worst team ever to avoid relegation from the top flight, and Robson knew that a repeat of this form in 2005-06 would probably not be enough to secure survival again.
Prior to the 2005-2006 season, Robson brought in young Liverpool goalkeeper Chris Kirkland on loan and bought strikers Diomansy Kamara from Portsmouth and Nathan Ellington from Wigan Athletic. These new signings gave Albion hope of securing a third successive Premiership campaign.
Supporters had voiced their concerns, via the local media and fans' websites, at the apparent lack of incoming transfer activity during the January transfer window. It was clear that in the event of relegation, chairman Jeremy Peace would be under pressure to explain his actions in selling two forwards (Robert Earnshaw and Geoff Horsfield) and bringing in only a central midfielder (Nigel Quashie from Southampton), plus the loan signings of another midfielder, Jan Kozak from Artmedia Bratislava and Urugyuyan centre half Williams Martinez.
Bryan Robson and his players would have been looking to get at least 40 points by the end of the season, this being usually the minimum target for clubs hoping to avoid Premiership relegation. However, a poor run of results following the turn of the year left them close to relegation, and on 29 April 2006 Portsmouth's 2-1 victory over Wigan Athletic left Albion nine points from safety with only six points to play for. They were relegated to The Championship.
Local rivals Birmingham City were also relegated, and in the 2006-07 Championship campaign the rivalry with Wolverhampton Wanderers -- probably Albion's most intense ever -- is renewed.
[edit] Back to the drawing board: 2006 -
The decision to sack Robson (few had much doubt that this is effectively what had happened) seemed to come as a shock to the players, and also to Robson's assistant Nigel Pearson who was immediately appointed as caretaker manager. On Friday 13 October 2006 it was announced that Albion's new boss would be Tony Mowbray - the appointment to take effect on Wednesday 18 October. In the intervening five days Albion played twice, Pearson's Albion beating Ipswich Town 5-1, their biggest away win for over a quarter of a century.
On Monday 16 October Pearson announced that he was leaving with immediate effect, two days before Mowbray took up his post, and within days he was appointed assistant manager of Newcastle United. This left reserve team coach Craig Shakespeare to take charge for one game, against Crystal Palace (a 2-0 victory).
Mowbray was known by fans of British football as a tough-tackling centre back with Middlesbrough and Ipswich Town and Celtic. Mark Venus, who had been Mowbray's assistant at Hibs, was appointed to the same role at Albion on the day that Mowbray took charge. In his first game in charge, The Baggies beat Wolves 3-0, their biggest win over their Black Country rivals for over 25 years. Albion's form dropped however, picking up one point from the following four matches and being knocked out of the League Cup by Arsenal, before beating high flying Burnley 3-0 at The Hawthorns.
