Albion boss Tony Mowbray today braced his players for a battle on two fronts and insisted the FA Cup need not distract them from their Premier League dream.
See also: West Brom FA Cup win - in photos
West Brom 2-2 Charlton (aet)
The Baggies extended their cup run last night with a gruelling penalty shoot-out win over Charlton after they had squandered a two-goal lead. They must now travel to Peterborough in 10 days’ time for thefourth-round clash as promotion rivals including Charlton enjoy a weekend off.
But Mowbray is adamant that the Championship and FA Cup success can go hand in hand.
“The players are all aware of our targets and our goals,” said Mowbray. “We’ve got 19 league games to go and 19 huge games to get as many points as we can to try and take us where we want to be.
“The cup games will come along but the important factor with this one is that it’s scheduled on a Saturday and not squeezed in between league games.
“We’ll be doing our best to win at Peterborough a week on Saturday. We will be trying to win a football match and see where we go.
“We’ve been there this season already in the League Cup and if we can put in a similar performance and get a similar result we’ll be OK.
And Mowbray reckoned the joy of winning last night’s shoot-out could cancel out much of the exhaustion caused by a tiring 120 minutes plus penalties.
“To lose after extra-time and penalties psychologically damages your team a little bit,” he said.
“It takes a lot out of them and their legs feel a bit tired and your brain does feel a little bit more exhausted.
“But when you win I don’t think it’s such a bad impact.
“If we’d lost in 90 minutes I’d have probably said good luck to Charlton and we’ll get on with Cardiff on Saturday.
“But we’re still in the FA Cup and looking forward to going to Peterborough a week on Saturday.”
Mowbray will have a full squad to select from this
Saturday apart from the
suspended Paul Robinson.
He withdrew Zoltan Gera, Filipe Teixeira and Ishmael Miller last night, but later confirmed a clean bill of health. “I just utilised the squad in making changes.”
Meanwhile, tonight’s reserve game between Albion and Leicester at Aggborough has been postponed due to waterlogged pitch.
No new date has yet been arranged.
Loading ...
23 Comments
i agree,this season we have a very strong squad of twenty which he can rotate.getting knocked out would be a poor excuse this season to a lower team.should not effect saturdays game at all.it’s not as if he is playing the same eleven game after game.win the league and who knows maybe we might get to the semi-finals also.
I hope he is still saying the same after the Cardiff game. I am very concerned that this run will stop us getting automatic promotion. Bristol are out and can concentrate on beating blackpool while we are being kicked at peterboro. The fixture list gets hectic anyway without cup games. I hope I am wrong but history says different.
Wins breed confidence, irrelevant on how you get them and in which competition, it also keeps some players in the frame who are’nt appearing so much i.e Texiera last night.
THE DOUBLE IS STILL ON TARGET.
Keep the cup run going, wins breed confidence as Tony (2) says. Was nervous watchins penalties last night, great feeling winning it though. 4 great penalty Kicks from us.
Be nicee to do a double, FA cup winners and championship champions!!! (We can dream)
Keep the Faith
BOING BOING
It will do the baggies good to play a (hopefully) few Premiership teams in the successive rounds of the Cup.
There is a gulf of class between the Championship and Premiership but sometimes people forget about it. By playing some mid-table Prem teams we can get a good picture of how the Baggies will fair next season after promotion.
That will help TM convince the board to invest a bit more. And they can’t easily refuse as the FA Cup brings the cash flooding in.
BAGGIE TAIT.
dont forget albion are the only team to win fa cup and old div 1 in the same year.
think the next game will be a great chance for him to actually start McDonald so we can see what he can do!
the double would be amazing….but highly unlikely….but if we get a kind draw for the next round……u never know! if we beat peterborough that is!
Remember, we played Charlton THREE times in January 1931 before we knocked them out of the FA Cup 3rd Round. Then we went on to do the double, promotion to Division 1 and winners of the FA Cup at Wembley. Is this team good enough? Yes, if we stop passing back to the goalkeeper when not under pressure. Goalkeepers only hoof it anyway and the defender can do that just as easily.
Lucky Lucky Albion
I agree with raywolf were riding our luck alot this season
I think we need to get real, we arn’t going to win the FA Cup but on the other hand we should also try and get as far as we can. We also shouldn’t be talking about promotion as though it’s a given, there is a long way to go yet and lots of football to be played. We have a good chance of going up and we look good going forward it’s the defence that concerns me though, Kieley made another howler last night and both their goals came from crosses. I think we will out score teams and accumulate enough points, but easy, no way!.
Boing Boing
if you check our fixtures you will see we have less games coming up in midweek so having a cup run shouldnt bother us,so yes keep it going tony,,,BAGGIES ON THE MARCH ,,,UP IN STYLE , OH YES
I left the ground last night buzzing after the shoot out - and I’m sure the players did too.
The cup can do us a lot of good as long as we stay injury free.
Its breeding confidence and giving TM the chance to look at players and formations in a real match.
Keep the run going - who knows, if the wolves beat watford (LOL) we may get to humiliate them again !!
I personally don’t think WBA will win the FA cup, though going up as Champions is well within your reach.
It as been 40 long years since the FA cup last came to the Black Country & WBA the winners.
Ref. “The Double” Folks and baggie bonce, my old man keeps telling me that, uniquely, Albion are the only side in football history to get promoted (from old Div. 2 - i.e. where we are now in reality) and win Cup in same season - 1931. Gotta be no more than 33/1 now or what. How great would that be, only team and twice with 77 year gap. Cum on! Get on it. Probably get knocked out by The Posh now I’ve blurted all that! Great season so far though. Great football, best for years. Hats off to Mowbray and Venus (you gotta mention him even if he did play for them lot.) Be there for Cardiff satdeeee!
Ooh Aaarrrr!
Baggie Bonce, minor correction, Baggies won the cup and were promoted in 1931. Everton were Second Division Champions with 61 points, Albion were second with 54 points.Only club to acheive this feat.
9 & 10 Raywolf
Idiot posts a comments and then posts another agreeing with himself - A MINUTE LATER…. some people are sooooooo thick.
If you feel the need to come and talk about a successful club - can’t you at least make it relevent and/or believable ?
(14) Good to hear that you left the ground buzzing but wasn’t it 10 minutes before the end, as always ?
I disagree with mobary that a cup run wont hurt us,let us concentrate on the league and forget about the cup the league is the one and only cup we want this season.We have no chance of winning the fa cup,it is won to many times by the big clubs
we shud b alryt after all they r all professionals. but we ay got past peterborough yet!
19 - better than leaving the ground booing with 25 minutes left.
Raywolf’s entry on here, well up to his usual attempt at a considered, well thought out critique made me think. We’ve recently voted on our top ten Albion players. Why not have a vote at the end of the season for our top ten inane Dingles on our site. The competition will be fierce but Raywolf must be the early favourite, any other nominations?
Kentwolf. We’ve recently had some of your lot on here masquerading as Baggies saying Mowbray out. As you’ve probably guessed they’re much too stupid to be taken seriously. I have my doubts about you, you’re comments are constructive and sensible. Are you really a Wolves fan?