Peter Odemwingie planning Albion goal spree
Monday 23rd August 2010, 11:29AM BST.
The Nigeria international struck the winner against Sunderland on Saturday to give the Baggies their first points of the season just 24 hours after completing his move from Lokomotiv Moscow.
And the 29-year-old is now targeting double figures as Roberto Di Matteo’s men target Premier League survival.
“I can’t say a number but between 10 and 15 goals for a striker, minimum, is a good result and I hope to at least achieve the minimum,” said Odemwingie.
“With that I think the club will be satisfied with my performance, but I hope I can do more.”
Odemwingie struck the 81st-minute goal that saw off the Black Cats after missing a ninth-minute chance. And he believes his finishing will get better as he settles in at The Hawthorns.
“If I was calm I would maybe have put in the first one as well,” he said.
“But when I feel at home I will try to be calm. It is a new league and a new country and there were probably too many thoughts in my mind. I could have taken more time with the first chance but I thought the defender was already coming.
“But I will get used to it, I will watch videos of the teams we will be playing and see how to finish when I am close to the goal.”
Odemwingie will be joined eventually by Cameroon international Somen Tchoyi after he completed his £1.5m move from Red Bull Salzburg on Friday.
But the midfielder will not figure at Leyton Orient in the Carling Cup tomorrow and his likely to miss Sunday’s Premier League trip to Liverpool.
Head coach Di Matteo said: “He’s a bit behind fitness-wise. He’s been travelling a lot to get his move sorted out. It will take him a while to get up to speed. He’s unconditioned at the moment.”
UK Sport
Latest Blog — A week is a long time in football
This time last week we were staring down the barrel, third from bottom with a worse record than at the same stage last year, writes Saddlers blogger Mark Jones.
Saddlers Blog
Business Awards
Book a Business Awards table
Join our celebrations of the region's best in business on Thursday March 22 - book your table now
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Express & Star and Shropshire Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases
OUR NEW APP
Get the new E&S app
Download the Express & Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
expressandstar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
On SKY it says we signed Tchoi for £3 million…… either way he will give us some real presence and power in the midfield.
As for P.O – dream start and it looks like we have found another gem !!
Report abuse
Anyone seen VILLA VILLA today ?? He normally post on a monday to tell us where we are going wrong……
Report abuse
Great debut! Thought the first chance came a little early for him in the game but i was really impressed with his desire and willingness to work hard for the team. It’s refreshing to hear him talk too, he’s no bigtime charlie or one of these with a massive chip on his shoulder, down to earth and wants to work hard. Two good feet and has pace and good strength and i think it’s fair to say no-one is getting carried away but we showed all the attributes we are going to need to survive in this league. Really excited about Tchoyi too, another striker and cover in holding midfield and i honestly think we have a more than good chance of survival which lets be honest would be a successful season.
Really happy today, boing boing
PS Brunt was magnificent on Saturday!
Report abuse
He looked confident on the ball and worked his socks off throughout the game. I’m really impressed with him and believe he will get us 10 goals + this season.
Tchoy well only time will tell but I can see good times ahead!
Report abuse
—”Anyone seen VILLA VILLA today ?? He normally post on a monday to tell us where we are going wrong……”—
LOL :)
Report abuse
This could be a good bit of business – he looks like a decent player.
Great result for you at the weekend.
Report abuse
Hi HB
I think the deal is £1.5m with add ons.
Also Pompey have rejected a £3m offer today for Marc Wilson from us.
I think it could be a busy week in the transfer market, i hope we can benefit from the shake down.
Report abuse
3 Romsley.
Couldn’t have put it better. I know one swallow doesn’t make a summer but I’m really excited about PO. As you say it’s not just that he showed pace and skill but his attitude as well. So refreshing to have someone come in from abroad who isn’t talking about us as a step to a big club.
Report abuse
To the tune of “The Hokey Cokey”
Whooooaaaa Peter Odemwingie!….
Can play up front or even on the Wing he’s…
Whooooaaaa Peter Odemwingie,
He’s gonna score for AL-BI-ON!!
Report abuse
Hi Jarrod – £1.5m is more likely, but on the in/out section of Sky sports news it had Tchoi as £3 mill.
Wilson would be a great buy if we can get him and there should be enough in the kitty still if RDM wants him badly enough – also be interesting to see if we get any loanees in – a striker like santa cruz would be nice….
Report abuse
I have to agree with Romsley Baggie the first chance did come too early and probably caught him by surprise. Brunt was fantastic and could have had a hatrick himself. The whole team looked well up for it and I honestly cant single one player out and say he had an off day. With Tchoyi and perhaps one more striker I will start to believe we then have the making of a squad capable of surviving at this level.
On a completely different note, can anyone explain why the attendances announced towards the end of the game never seem to reflect how many are actually in the stadium? The capacity is supposedly 28000 give or take, Saturdays crowd was roughly 23,500, there didnt look like 4500 empty seats to me from where I sat in the Brummie, and that seems to be the case every home game, any one know why this is???
Report abuse
Has anybody else heard were after Colin kazmin richards
Report abuse
11, Baggie4life
The capacity is 26,500.I sit in the Halfords and there were loads of seats spare down at the front of the Brummie and quite a few down the sides of the Brummie as well. Impressive performance from the new lad up front who worked the channels well with his pace and has good control.Good team performance through out and the only worry was the free kicks we gave away around the box,there were around seven which fortunately for us they did nothing with.
Report abuse
Baggie4Life,
I was thinking the same thing, noway were there were 4500 empty seats
Report abuse
Great attitude good buy Now JP needs to spend 6.5 Million on Diarra from Real Madrid he wants to go to a good sporting Project and i think we are that club if blackburn are linked why cant we be? Nice addition alongside mulumbu.
Report abuse
11.I sit in the woodman and yes there were empty seats everywhere except the smethwick.£100 increase in season ticket prices,plus the recession,plus no big name signing’s,they are all factors i think.
I thought we looked decent on saturday,but in todays sun we got slated for “never getting out of 2nd gear”!!We still need power and a leader in cenre midfield and a good striker.Plus if we can get rid of LM it would be a boost.
Report abuse
checkout tchoys utube vid, he scores a few!!!!
Report abuse
wim guin to liverpool above um in the league,when was the last time that happend ? aye boing boing
Report abuse
cant believe it,just bin outside and guess whats landed in my garden, John carews penalty aye boing boing
Report abuse
If P.O. does score 10-15 this season,he really will be a bargain,after all,wolves have spent around 14 mil. on two strikers who have set a target of getting 10 between ‘em.
Report abuse
I remember me and my dad having the same discussions about the attendance figures in the 70s – they always seemed much lower than the actual crowd and we just presumed they gave out a lower figure and pocketed the difference…. its quite nice to see its still going on !!!!!!
Report abuse
11,21, i can understand few years ago fiddling the attendance figures to avoid the taxman,and as Happy says pocket the diffrence,but now with it being all ticket i cant see what they have to gain and how they could fiddle it,aye boing boing
Report abuse
Just can’t see JP risking those sort of fiddles with every ticket registered and numbered. There was quite a lot of space in the ground overall and that’s down to cost.
How about doing what they do at Symphony Hall?
You turn up without a booked ticket, get a choice of ‘best’ seats at half price about 20 minutes before the conductor lifts his baton. Better 1/2 money than none. The risk is the customer’s.
Report abuse
21 & 22, This has puzzled me for years, I now make it my mission to best guess the attendance every home game and I am always miles out. Streetly Baggie thanks for your response although Im not sure where you get the 26,500 capacity from, all the official sites, WBA, Sky etc confirm it to be 28003 yet you say 26,500. Apart from the usual line of stewards in the Smethwick on Saturday there was no segregation so this cant be the reason for there only “alledgedly” being 23,500 in the crowd, and although Streetly you say there were loads of empty seats in the Brummie could you honestly say there thousands of empty seats. I dont want to get all analytical about this but its bugged me for years and I wouldnt mind finding out why this is. I can remember one very happy season not too long ago when we beat the Wolves 4 times out of 5 (HAD TO GET THAT IN) and when it came to the play off semi at our place, the ground was bursting. Now, yes there was heavy segregation that night but the attendance was about 3000 short of the max and I thought “YOUR HAVING A LAUGH” I know I was at the result. Any one got anything to add?
Report abuse
24, yeah i remember that nite well, i think i can xplain why the gate was 3,000 short that nite,the reason being is they dont actualy count the attendance figures till half time,and by half time 3,000 wolfs had gone home,so there you have it, simple really,aye boing boing
Report abuse
16 Woodman.
You missed the most obvious one. A lot of people are still away on holiday.
Report abuse
9 BB.
I think with a bit of fine tuning, you’ve got something there.
Report abuse
21 Happy & 22 Sir Terry.
Wasn’t it also a well known fact that in the 70s there was a scam being run by some of the turnstile operators?
Report abuse
Anyone else hear ‘honest’ Woy Hodson on the wadio this morning?
Talking about Mascherano and Barcelona.
‘It’s not wight that they can unsettle a player by making an offer far below his worth.’
You wouldn’t do that would you Woy?
For instance you wouldn’t offer £1.75 mill for Greening then up it to £2.25 telling us we weren’t being fair to the player by not accepting this ‘fair price.’ Before eventually edging up to pay £4.5 mill.
So good to know that you’re a man of integrity and wouldn’t stoop to the sort of dirty tricks that only foreigners get up to. Ay Woy?
Luckily for us unlike Mascheralo, Jonno has integrity and behaved like a real man. It’s because of this as much as what he did for us as a player that I will give him a warm welcome when he returns with Fulham.
Report abuse
A good start but the player needs to be realistic. His career stats are not even 1 every 4 games. Admittedly he has not always played centrally but if he scores 10 in the Premier, he will have done well.
Goalscoring for Wolves looks to have been remedied. Doyle, Fletcher, SEB, Hunt and Kites – if ever fit – will all contribute!
Report abuse
Sir Terry (25) what a cracking response to my earlier post I loved it! Well I may not have got to the bottom of my attendance query but your answer to the shortfall at the wolves play semi that night will do for me mate!
Report abuse
Dont worry P.O so u missed the first chance but u have become an instant hero… there are a lot of players who had they missed that on their debut… would have let it effect them and their head would have dropped! But Odemwingie kept going, looked lively all game and got a deserved goal! The first chance came too early but there was no mistake with the next one.
As for the attendance, the reasons for this have already been mentioned by 16 – Woodman baggie
But to clear things uo between Baggie4life and Streetly…
The capacity did used to be 28,003 but at the start of the 08-09 campaign we reduced this to 27,000 to improve the services and space of the facilties in the Halfords Lane stand… hence the new name of the ‘West Stand’ although improving the facilities cannot be faulted… Reducing the capacity of a ground is a very strange decision to make by the board especially on the back of a season which on several occassions in the championship had gates of OVER 27,000!
I think Streetly has sold it slightly short at 26,500 but either way as long as we get the results, dont worry… I dont see this being a problem…
Even if our average gates stay at 23k (which i cannot see happening) we will still be filling more seats than Blackpool, Wigan, Blackburn, Bolton and Birmingham who had 21k at the weekend…. and look what they achieved last season!!
Report abuse
Forgot to mention Fulham in that last list of attendances!
29 – TRBH what has actually happened with Fulham and Greening? I thought it was an initial season loan with a fee being agreed to be paid at the end of the loan. But I haven’t heard anything so I presume Woy Hodson and his chairman coughed up and he is an official Fulham player???
Report abuse