The last time Albion won at Stoke City Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger was at the top of the charts and a 19-year-old Tony Mowbray was making his Football League debut, marking a certain Kevin Keegan.
Now Mowbray celebrates his 45th birthday with an uninviting trip to the Britannia Stadium.
The Baggies boss, who made his first appearance for Middlesbrough on the same night that Albion last tasted victory at Stoke, is hoping to kick off his celebrations with victory for beauty over the beast.
The Albion boss refuses to criticise Tony Pulis, despite the Potters boss approaching the Premier League in a diametrically different manner to the Baggies.
Mowbray is braced for a true clash of styles in the windswept Potteries.
He said: “Both managers have stuck to their principles and their styles of play. You do what you do and time will tell which team survives, prospers and moves on. If Stoke do that I genuinely wish them good luck.
“We talk about developing, building and trying to move things on, so we can attract world class players somewhere down the line.
“That might be too strong, because we might never be able to afford the salaries of world class players. You can attract top footballers to your club by playing a brand of football that they like and that they see themselves fitting into.
“That’s what I am trying to build. I have no agenda whatsoever with any other team, because every manager and every club have their own identity.
“But when I manage clubs I like to stick an identity on them. I like to say ‘this is what we’re about, this is what we do and this is how we try to go forward’.
“That is my philosophy but that’s nothing against any other club. Other clubs do things different ways.
“There were a lot of big clubs trying to get out of the Championship and Stoke were not one of the top four or five in size.
“They over-achieved and did very well to get out of it and now they are making a good fist of trying to stay in the Premier League, so they have to be given great plaudits for the success they have achieved.
“Time will tell whether they can ‘do a Bolton’ by staying there for a number of years, on a different philosophy to the one I try to preach.
“As I say continually, there is no right way or wrong way to play. Watford got relegated playing a more direct, physical style.
“That doesn’t necessarily make it wrong, because the year before it was the way forward when they romped the league with lots of energy and young players, playing off a big striker and getting forward.
“It was great to watch in some people’s eyes but they didn’t manage to continue in that mould in the Premier League because the didn’t have enough of the ball and they kept giving it back to good teams.
“Good teams won’t give it you back and they got hurt.”
Mowbray admits that the stunning long throw of Rory Delap gives Stoke the edge over other sides, who have tried and failed to survive in the Premier League with a similar style.
He said: “Stoke, with the extra weapon they have got, are finding it easier to do, because when they are in the attacking half of the pitch they can always put teams under pressure. I’m not sure whether Watford had that.
“I understand that you have to win football matches, because if you don’t you leave yourself vulnerable to people saying what’s right and wrong.
“I don’t really care about anything other than doing what I do. That means trying to play good football, trying to breed good habits and trying to improve players.
“I’m also trying to win games along the way and create a vehicle, where better quality players want to be a part of what we’re trying to build as we move on.
“As I said last week, if we fail and don’t manage to stay up, it will be a setback but we would have to go again.
“You can only work within the means you’ve got and we’re working very hard every day trying to come up with gameplans to win matches.
“We are falling a bit short at the moment but it’s still very early and we’re still in touch with a lot of teams. If we win the next two matches we will probably be in the top half of the table.”
Albion, who are searching for their first win since the victory over Fulham at the start of October, will be without their Scottish midfielder James Morrison.
Morrison picked up a medial knee ligament injury in the defeat to Chelsea last weekend but hopes to return at Wigan in a week.
Abdoulaye Meite is set to continue in the heart of defence to cope with Stoke’s aerial threat but Felipe Teixeira is likely to again be on the bench, despite an impressive second half showing against Chelsea last weekend.
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