WBA v. Oxford United [Capital One Cup, 2nd Round] 1-1 AET (7-6 on Penalties)
I started off this blog with an idea to travel to new grounds as a neutral instead of every Oxford game, in the hope of finding something special out about each club and maybe help reignite my passion for my hometown club.
Quite ironic then, that the first two "new" grounds this season, thanks to the quirks of the League Cup draw, were both Oxford away fixtures, and have gone a long way to re-igniting that passion already.
Bristol City was good - but I wasn't expecting much out of the game from the visit of a League Two team to a Premiership club. How wrong I was.
It was quite a giddy decision to go along to this game in the first place, to be honest. Having just started a job in the centre of London last week, to get to The Hawthorns meant taking a rush-hour, £52.00 un-discounted single fare train from Marylebone via Birmingham. I'd then be relying on the kindness of someone for a lift back to South Oxfordshire, hopefully early enough to get some kip before having to get up again at 6am the next day to be back in London.
Surely only someone with an almost pathetic desire to complete a mad list of grounds visited would have made the effort? And so I did.
To make it even more sad - I've actually been to this ground before, but the rules of the 92 Club stipulate that the game you see must be a competitive one. As such, WBA v. IFK Gothenburg in 1995 doesn't technically count towards my 92. So the Hawthorns was on my "Pedantry List" at the side here ->> (and hence why it's no. 5, not no. 67!).
So off I set across the countryside of rip-off Britain, 90 mins & £50 later arriving in Birmingham for my change-over. Their version of the BT Tower not quite as impressive as the one in Fitzrovia, I have to say.
I was amazed how close West Brom is to the centre of Birmingham to be honest - as I've always thought of it very much as a separate entity. Of course, ask any self-respecting Baggie and he will tell you quite forcefully that they are indeed separate places. But when it's only a 3.9mile drive from the centre of Birmingham to the Hawthorns, you do have to wonder how distinct it really is.
It's also not really the prettiest of surroundings. Mostly industrial or run-down residential streets that even the kindest estate agent's eye would say were "in need of modernisation".
One of the fans I asked about their club earlier in the week said he loved West Brom to bits, but would never want to actually live there.
Sadly, I didn't get the time to really explore beyond the immediate environs of the ground, only arriving around 20 mins before KO. Had I done so, the first place I would have headed would have certainly been The Vine - this Pub/Curry House recommended by all the West Brom fans I spoke to for it's cracking Chicken Tikka. Next time, I'll be there.
As it was, I had to make do with a quick spicy hot dog and a bottle of warm Carlsberg in the ground. Mmm, the taste of the Black Country.
Something that does stand this part of the West Midlands out as different from Birmingham - Any Baggie will tell you they are from "The Black Country" - the area between Wolverhampton & Birmingham that became the heart of the industrial revolution in the late 1700s - a continuous urban sprawl of coal mines, foundries and steel mills that sent the air black with pollution. As the wiki will tell you, no two Black Countrymen will ever agree where it starts and ends - but it certainly does NOT include Birmingham, and the heritage of "the worlds first industrial landscape" is a great source of pride to the working men and women of this once vital part of Britain's industrial wealth.
The Hawthorns sits amongst residential streets and an Industrial Estate today, long distanced from the foundries that once filled the streets with soot, but it is still an impressive structure.
Personally, I have to agree with the WBA fans I spoke to that this has the best of both worlds - it's been modernised, but thankfully still retains a lot of original character with distinct "squared-off" stands redeveloped at different times, rather than a brand new built bowl.
The corners weren't filled in last time I was here, and it's amazing what a difference that makes, especially when those filled-in corners don't necessarily have many seats, but just a wall to make the ground feel more enclosed. That is good.
And the atmosphere inside the ground, helped by a couple of thousand Oxford fans of course, was pretty good for a half-full ground. It may not have been as atmospheric at the Birmingham Road end perhaps, but there is a lot to be said by letting home and away fans share an end - and the Smethick End, split 50/50 between the fans, was proof of that.
Even if the home fans seemed to need a drum for much of it. ;o)
The only disappointment was not hearing a rendition of their famous "Boing Boing" chant with accompanying bounces. I guess they save that for big games, perhaps. I'm also ASTOUNDED to read that the boinging only dates back to the 1992-93 season, according to wikipedia. Is that true, Baggies fans? Seems amazing, I'd assumed it was a lucy longer ingrained tradition. This website even says that Radio Oxford's Malcolm Boyden, reporting on a game in 1993, coined the phrase, saying the baggies were "boinging their way to promotion." Very odd.
Speaking of the 'baggies' - the nickname for which WBA are mostly known - another interesting fact (if you are still reading?) is that the origin of this nickname is something of a mystery. There are a few options put forward here, my favourite being it came from the loose baggy overalls that the ironworkers used to wear due to the intense heat to work, which they then walked to the ground in after their shift finished. Well it's a nice idea.
Anyway, there was precious little for the baggies to boing about on the night. Even if I am looking through those rose-tinted spectacles as far from being a neutral on the night, I think Oxford did the Football League proud against the Premiership big-boys.
I would even say that Oxford probably deserved to have progressed to the 3rd round, after a quite magnificent 2nd half where they really took the game to West Brom. Sure, The Throstles (official nickname, there) had class of touch, broke quickly and threatened the Oxford goal a few times, and perhaps should have done better with some of their chances.
But would any West Brom fan begrudge Oxford their equaliser?
In the euphoria of that 85th minute equaliser, I almost forgot that the 30-odd minutes plus penalties to come meant that I would be getting home even later. But I will admit to the sensible part of my brain almost willing the ball across the line in the 90th minute when West Brom had a late corner and goalmouth scramble. My heart was in my mouth, but the thought of only getting about 4 hours sleep before my train back to London in the morning was very much in my head.
In the end though, of course it was worth it. Penalty heart-ache is always easier to take when you've lost out to a team about 80 places above you in the pyramid, and 9 penalties each down and only Crocombe in goal left to take a penalty for Oxford, the L2 side almost had them there too. And frankly, play like that again this season and I've no reason to worry about Oxford's place in the league either.
What a great advert that game was for the strength in depth of the Football League, and why it should not be tampered with. The team currently 92nd out of 92, taking one of the top 15 clubs in the country to penalties. I can't wait to get back on the road for the next new ground!
With thanks to Ian Sheppard (@sli70) & Eolan Allen (@Irishbaggies). Oh, and thanks to Pat (@OUFCPCW) for the lift home!
Next ground on the 92 Club Trail: Doncaster Rovers' Keepmoat Stadium [30th Aug 2014].
Can you help answer a few questions about your club? Please email mefantasticmrox@mail.com
Bristol City was good - but I wasn't expecting much out of the game from the visit of a League Two team to a Premiership club. How wrong I was.
It was quite a giddy decision to go along to this game in the first place, to be honest. Having just started a job in the centre of London last week, to get to The Hawthorns meant taking a rush-hour, £52.00 un-discounted single fare train from Marylebone via Birmingham. I'd then be relying on the kindness of someone for a lift back to South Oxfordshire, hopefully early enough to get some kip before having to get up again at 6am the next day to be back in London.
Surely only someone with an almost pathetic desire to complete a mad list of grounds visited would have made the effort? And so I did.
 |
| HOW MUCH?!!! |
To make it even more sad - I've actually been to this ground before, but the rules of the 92 Club stipulate that the game you see must be a competitive one. As such, WBA v. IFK Gothenburg in 1995 doesn't technically count towards my 92. So the Hawthorns was on my "Pedantry List" at the side here ->> (and hence why it's no. 5, not no. 67!).
So off I set across the countryside of rip-off Britain, 90 mins & £50 later arriving in Birmingham for my change-over. Their version of the BT Tower not quite as impressive as the one in Fitzrovia, I have to say.
 |
| Birmingham: Exciting. |
I was amazed how close West Brom is to the centre of Birmingham to be honest - as I've always thought of it very much as a separate entity. Of course, ask any self-respecting Baggie and he will tell you quite forcefully that they are indeed separate places. But when it's only a 3.9mile drive from the centre of Birmingham to the Hawthorns, you do have to wonder how distinct it really is.
It's also not really the prettiest of surroundings. Mostly industrial or run-down residential streets that even the kindest estate agent's eye would say were "in need of modernisation".
One of the fans I asked about their club earlier in the week said he loved West Brom to bits, but would never want to actually live there.
Sadly, I didn't get the time to really explore beyond the immediate environs of the ground, only arriving around 20 mins before KO. Had I done so, the first place I would have headed would have certainly been The Vine - this Pub/Curry House recommended by all the West Brom fans I spoke to for it's cracking Chicken Tikka. Next time, I'll be there.
As it was, I had to make do with a quick spicy hot dog and a bottle of warm Carlsberg in the ground. Mmm, the taste of the Black Country.
Something that does stand this part of the West Midlands out as different from Birmingham - Any Baggie will tell you they are from "The Black Country" - the area between Wolverhampton & Birmingham that became the heart of the industrial revolution in the late 1700s - a continuous urban sprawl of coal mines, foundries and steel mills that sent the air black with pollution. As the wiki will tell you, no two Black Countrymen will ever agree where it starts and ends - but it certainly does NOT include Birmingham, and the heritage of "the worlds first industrial landscape" is a great source of pride to the working men and women of this once vital part of Britain's industrial wealth.
The Hawthorns sits amongst residential streets and an Industrial Estate today, long distanced from the foundries that once filled the streets with soot, but it is still an impressive structure.
 |
| The Hawthorns. Sponsored by accounting software. |
 |
| I like a nice branded gate at a ground. |
And the atmosphere inside the ground, helped by a couple of thousand Oxford fans of course, was pretty good for a half-full ground. It may not have been as atmospheric at the Birmingham Road end perhaps, but there is a lot to be said by letting home and away fans share an end - and the Smethick End, split 50/50 between the fans, was proof of that.
Even if the home fans seemed to need a drum for much of it. ;o)
 |
| Taken from Smethick End looking towards West Stand. |
 |
| The large East Stand. |
Anyway, there was precious little for the baggies to boing about on the night. Even if I am looking through those rose-tinted spectacles as far from being a neutral on the night, I think Oxford did the Football League proud against the Premiership big-boys.
 |
| Baggy Bird: Happier than his Bristol counterpart. |
I would even say that Oxford probably deserved to have progressed to the 3rd round, after a quite magnificent 2nd half where they really took the game to West Brom. Sure, The Throstles (official nickname, there) had class of touch, broke quickly and threatened the Oxford goal a few times, and perhaps should have done better with some of their chances.
But would any West Brom fan begrudge Oxford their equaliser?
In the euphoria of that 85th minute equaliser, I almost forgot that the 30-odd minutes plus penalties to come meant that I would be getting home even later. But I will admit to the sensible part of my brain almost willing the ball across the line in the 90th minute when West Brom had a late corner and goalmouth scramble. My heart was in my mouth, but the thought of only getting about 4 hours sleep before my train back to London in the morning was very much in my head.
 |
| GOAL! And fingers. |
 |
| Oxford players celebrate a deserved equaliser in front of their fans |
What a great advert that game was for the strength in depth of the Football League, and why it should not be tampered with. The team currently 92nd out of 92, taking one of the top 15 clubs in the country to penalties. I can't wait to get back on the road for the next new ground!
With thanks to Ian Sheppard (@sli70) & Eolan Allen (@Irishbaggies). Oh, and thanks to Pat (@OUFCPCW) for the lift home!
Next ground on the 92 Club Trail: Doncaster Rovers' Keepmoat Stadium [30th Aug 2014].
Can you help answer a few questions about your club? Please email mefantasticmrox@mail.com
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