Blog: West Brom can now afford an FA Cup run

In a week of cup shocks, Albion weren't entirely spared - the 1,436 Baggies who travelled down will be able to tell their grandkids they saw Kieron Dyer complete 90 minutes of a football match, and somewhat less enjoyably, score the goal that ensured a Hawthorns replay next week.

I've heard one or two fans grumble about the idea of a replay needlessly congesting our fixture list, in recent seasons I may have had some sympathy with that argument, but there are one or two reasons to see it as less of a hindrance.

Not only are we in a less-perilous league position than in previous years, Albion's cup successes in both 1931 and 1968 both involved third-round replays against teams from the South-East. I can also recall despairing at the idea of a replay against Charlton in 2008, we were in the midst of a promotion campaign at the time, yet we went on to reach a Wembley semi-final and finish top of the Championship.

So the omens are good, in some ways the draw has been reasonably kind too. If we can edge past QPR on Tuesday, either Sheffield Wednesday or MK Dons will await at The Hawthorns in round four. While neither represents an easy route, a home tie against lower-league opposition is certainly an opportunity to progress towards the latter stages.

This week's Capital One Cup semi-finals are an example that the cup competitions needn't be a closed book for the big sides, three of the four sides were relatively unfancied and both ties provided shocks as Swansea won away at Chelsea and Bradford only took a two-goal lead into the second leg of their tie!

Saturday sees a return to league action and a trip to the Madejski Stadium- a ground we've seemingly visited more than any other in recent seasons. Reading are obviously struggling near the foot of the Premier League and there may be a temptation for some to see them as easy-pickings.

However their home form isn't particularly bad, they're unbeaten against anybody outside the top six with Swansea, Everton, Stoke, Newcastle, Fulham and Norwich all failing to win there.

You may think I'm scaremongering or being defeatist, that's not the case at all, we are obviously capable of beating them. However in recent weeks, on various message boards and social networking sites, there has been a noticeable shift in expectation from some fans.

The season's slogan for many has been 'We Know What We Are'- a loose reference to our current on-the-field superiority compared to other West Midlands clubs. However, there is a danger of this phrase becoming slightly ironic. Do we know what we are?

There has been audible discontent in recent home games and some expressed frustration at only drawing away at QPR in the cup last weekend.

We are essentially a club of modest resources in a league dominated by the wealthy and realistically have no divine right to be winning every game (or even the majority of matches) in this division. That's not to say we should accept second-best, but of the 92 clubs in the Football League, there are probably only a very small handful whose fans currently have less reason to complain than ours. We only have to glance across at our neighbours from Wolverhampton to see that things could be a lot worse and those whose memories stretch back beyond 2000, should know that it has been a lot worse; these are the good times.

To my mind we've always been a fairly patient, jovial and self-deprecating set of supporters generally-speaking, now that we've had a little bit of a moan about recent performances perhaps we'd be best served doing what we do best and getting behind every player that pulls on the shirt and the club in general.

On a final note it was sad to hear the news that Zoltan Gera has been ruled out for the season. At 33 you have to wonder whether it'll be the last we see of him as a top-flight player for Albion. I hope not, he's been a good servant over the years. Sad also to hear of the passing of Derek Kevan, a player I'm not old enough to remember but was told a lot about as I was growing up.

Back to the weekend and let's get ourselves back on track. Come on you Baggies!!