» Latest Sport: The Great Escape
Latest Sport’s Peter Knight takes stock of Albion’s pitch-invading season finale
Phew. That was very close indeed. Two weeks on since surviving on the last day of the campaign, the adrenaline and delight is still racing through our veins as next season’s expectation takes over. That afternoon our eagerness for that game to end literally spilled out with, not one, but two pitch invasions and the relief drained out of us as quickly as the celebration drinks followed in.
Just like the band’s first attempt in the UK singles charts way back in 1971 with Get Down And Get With It, Slade soars us way up there to the dizzying heights of sixteeth in the league – the Albion’s highest position since the promising 4-1 thrashing of playoff-bound Millwall way back on 1 November.
This time last year most of us were scratching our heads following the behind the scenes manoevering that brought us the sudden return of Micky Adams. In these very pages we stated that after the excellent work done by Dean Wilkins the club “have the potential to win promotion next year”! And then we all watched with horror as the season unfolded. With so much going wrong and with charged debates in the stands and on the gossip forums, we’re still trying to put our finger on the reasons for the spectacular decline in fortunes. This time round will probably see a slightly more bottled-up expectation of promotion, although the Russell Slade-relegation-avoiding-effect might have us dancing right through the summer with league title winning dreams for 2010.
Us lot down in the Latest Sport bunker have always praised the youthful backbone our Albion have developed over the recent years. It was partly down to the improvement Slade got out of players like Elphick, Fraser, Loft and the impressive Cox and Hart that has helped us escape the drop. With the return of the ever-youthful Forster, a season-long of fitness for Murray and two or three key experienced signings… We don’t want history to repeat itself here on these pages but, up the Albion!
