Thomas hails the bravery of boss
Monday 25th January 2010, 10:40AM GMT.
Albion winger Jerome Thomas has hailed the bravery of boss Roberto Di Matteo as the key to the Baggies’ post-Nottingham Forest recovery.
The wide man claimed the head coach’s changes in the wake of the 3-1 home defeat to Forest have proved crucial to their Championship point at leaders Newcastle and their progress to the fifth round of the FA Cup.
Di Matteo made four changes for the league game at St James’ Park and ditched his 4-4-2 formation in favour of a five-man midfield. That game resulted in a 2-2 draw and an unchanged team beat the Magpies 4-2 in the cup at the Hawthorns on Saturday.
Thomas said: “Monday’s performance kick started us and we carried it on on Saturday. Monday boosted a lot of players’ confidence, because a lot of people were down.
“The gaffer had to re-evaluate things, he changed the formation and changed a lot of the personnel as well. You have to give him praise for that because he is not afraid to change things and it worked.
“Credit where it’s due, but we have to now carry it on in the league now and try to get the points we need for automatic promotion. Automatic promotion has to be our aim.
“The play-offs shouldn’t be an option.”
The Baggies resume their Championship campaign tomorrow at Ipswich, where manager Roy Keane has shown signs of engineering his own turnaround after a dismal start to his first full season in charge.
Thomas is braced for another tough test at the hands of the Tractor Boys.
The wide man said: “It won’t be an easy game for us. They were under pressure at first because they didn’t start the season well but Roy Keane has turned it around, which is what he did with Sunderland.
“He deserves praise for that but we will field our strongest team and we will be going to win, it’s as simple as that. It’s turned into what looks like a three horse race at the moment with a few clubs behind us who could catch up.
“We’ve got a new formation, it shows the strength of our squad that players have come in and done so well in big games.”
UK Sport
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Jerome.
The team will have to work exceptionally hard to beat one of our longstanding bogey teams.
Ipswich always seemed to do a ‘Stoke’ against us when we played them at Portman Road. and Roy Keane has produced a strong team.
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Didn’t we smash them 4 and 5 a couple of seasons ago, I seem to remember KP scoring a hatrick at their place and then demolishing them again at home. I know they were a poor side when we beat them this season, but i don’t see us struggling on such a good playing surface.
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I remember us winning there 3-2 in the last minute under Gary Megson. It was a Sunday, I think Lloyd Dyer’s introduction changed the game (as it did with many games that season), but it might have been Horsfield who nicked the winner.
I think Jeff might be right though, in that prior to those 2, we hadn’t won at Portman Road for a considerable length of time.
Didn’t we get 5 put past us there about 10/12 years ago?
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Not sure Ipswich our a bogey side for us. It’s just a pain in the bum to get to.
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How long does the “bogey” tag last? We DID always lose down there. I remember 7 nil once. But I agree with others on here, we have done well recently.
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Yes guys.
You are right.
I suppose I am living in the past.
Years ago we always got done at Ipswich but recent times have been different.
Guess I’m just getting old and very nervous.
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Give us a decent ref and we can beat anyone on the day and most teams any day. Does anyone know if Ipswich are a footballing team now or bully-boys? Too far for me these days so I shall scan the football sites in case it’s on computer. Someone said it was £33 to get in. Are they insane, or do they think we are?
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Is anyone actually going to the match tomorrow night?
I’d love to go, but with it being a school night and a nightmare to get to and from, I’m going to have to give Ipswich away a miss this season.
P.s. it was the Horse who scored that late winner in our 2nd promotion season after Lloyd Dyer had entered the fray at Portman Road.
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Me and nicole going Ned,i shall give um a shout for ya,aye boing boing
ps,anybody staying over at blackpool.
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Morning Tez,
thanks for that, I take my hat off to you for your undeniable commitment to the cause.
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Only been there once…lost 7-0. Long…long journey on the coach back to Cannock, and we only had a crate of barley wine to drink on board. I was as sick as a chocolate frog the next day.
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