Baggies back in action at winless Pompey

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·13 September 2024

Baggies back in action at winless Pompey

Portsmouth v West Bromwich Albion; Fratton Park, Sunday 15th September 2024, 3pm

Albion return to action after the international break with a Sunday afternoon jaunt to the seaside to face a Portsmouth side still waiting for their first win of the campaign. While the Baggies fans will not want to be reminded about their last trip to the the Hampshire coast in their final game of last season, the team’s start to this season will give them an expectation of a much better outcome this weekend.

After a dozen years in the third and fourth tiers of English football, Portsmouth finally returned to the Championship this summer and started the season with three creditable draws before they were comfortably beaten by Sunderland at Fratton Park before the break. The Black Cats are the only side above the Baggies in the nascent league table after four rounds, and there will be obvious comparisons drawn on the relative merits of the two teams based on what result Carlos Corberán’s team can achieve this weekend. Régis Le Bris’s team won 3-1 at Fratton Park, a result that Albion will hope to match.

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Portsmouth manager, John Mousinho, is in his first managerial appointment and it has been an impressive start to his coaching career. When he took over at Fratton Park in January last year, Pompey were languishing in 15th place in League One. He led them to an 8th place finish that season before guiding them to the League One title in his first full campaign in charge. He has had a very busy summer with no fewer than sixteen new signings including Josh Murphy, twin brother of Jacob who was on loan at the Hawthorns a few years ago. They are yet to record a victory this season but were seconds from winning at Elland Road on the opening day and also earned creditable draws at home to Luton Town and away to Middlesbrough before losing their first league game of the campaign at home to Sunderland before the international break. They were beaten 1-0 at home to Millwall in the first round of the Carabao Cup.

While the Baggies fans may be expecting to pick up all three points, they will be intrigued as to who might start the game, and who will be on the bench. A busy transfer window has left Corberán with a good squad and difficult decisions – there will inevitably be players who will feel worthy of at least a place on the bench that will end up missing out.

It would not surprise me if the starting eleven was unchanged once again – the Baggies boss has picked the same eleven to start each of their four league games so far, although the set up was a little different for the visit of Leeds United, and it would be hard to say that any of the eleven deserve to be dropped. Two additional options are available since the last match with Mikey Johnston and Mason Holgate not signed in time to be eligible to play against Swansea City. There may be a clamour for Johnston to start given his performances last season, but Grant’s displays have been strong so far in this campaign and it would be very harsh to leave him out.

The squad will inevitably come into its own as the games ramp up with two midweek rounds in October, but there is no need to start switching players out just yet, and those not in possession of the shirt will need to impress in training or off the bench in order to force their way in. Of course, that could have happened over the international break and we may see one or two changes, but my money would be on an unchanged line-up. The only thing that might scupper that is a minor injury to Jayson Molumby picked up while away with the Republic of Ireland.

As is usual in the autumn, the games come in batches either side of international breaks and Sunday’s game marks the start of a set of five games ahead of the mid-October break, three of which are at the Hawthorns. If Albion can get all three points on Sunday, it will leave them very nicely placed with three of the next four games at home. It won’t be straightforward but, if Corberán’s men can pick up where they left off, there is every possibility of that happening.

History

It has been more than 15 years since Albion and Portsmouth met with the last meeting coming in the Premier League in April 2009. The team that controversially beat the Baggies in the FA Cup Semi-Final at Wembley in 2008, going on to beat Cardiff City in the final, had been expensively assembled and, as it turned out, was way beyond the means of the club and its owner. As the financial realities bit, they were relegated from the top flight in 2010, swapping divisions with Albion, and found themselves in the fourth tier in just three years. More than a decade later, they have finally managed to get back to the second tier having won the League One title last season.

In the 2008/09 season, the last that the clubs shared a division, both games were drawn and Pompey also beat Albion at Fratton Park in December 2005 which was the previous league encounter between the sides, but the Baggies had won nine of the previous eleven encounters including, of course, the 2-0 win at the Hawthorns to secure the Great Escape in May 2005.

Albion’s record over Portsmouth is generally very good – they have won more than 55% of the meetings overall and have even won (17) more games than they have lost (12) at Fratton Park. The clubs first met in the FA Cup in March 1931 when Albion, then a second division club, won 1-0 at Fratton Park on their way to lifting the trophy and winning promotion in the same season. Pompey had been promoted to the top flight for the first time four years earlier as the Baggies had been relegated. The first league meeting in September 1931 also resulted in a 1-0 win for the visitors at Fratton Park and Albion completed the league double with a 3-0 at the Hawthorns the following February.

Albion’s biggest win at Portsmouth was in September 1958 in the great Vic Buckingham’s final season in charge at the Hawthorns. Pompey had actually won 2-1 at the Hawthorns a week earlier but the Baggies exacted revenge in style as David Burnside (2), Ronnie Allen (2) and Derek Kevan were all on target which, with an own goal from Basil Hayward, saw Albion win 6-2.

Portsmouth’s biggest win had come earlier that decade in December 1954 – goals from Jackie Henderson, Peter Harris (2), Mike Barnard, Johnny Gordon and a Len Millard own goal saw them win 6-1 on the south coast – Ronnie Allen scored the visitors’ late consolation.

Perhaps the most significant result that Albion secured at Portsmouth was on the final day of the 1993/94 season. Having been promoted back to the second tier, the Baggies struggled under Keith Burkinshaw after Ossie Ardiles had left for Tottenham. They needed a win on the final day to ensure their survival and an estimated 11,000 Baggies fans watched in the sunshine on the south coast as Lee Ashcroft scored the only goal of the game to send Birmingham City down on goal difference.