With Cardiff and West Brom (WBA) both appearing in this weekend’s FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley, it was probably always going to be cautious game, though West Brom are fighting to keep in the hunt for an automatic promotion place.
It was therefore somewhat surprising that West Brom started with Kevin Phillips and Roman Bednar on the bench. This was one of two games they have in hand over the teams above them, and if they fail to take advantage they could find themselves in a dog fight for a play-off place.
Kevin Phillips and Roman Bednar were called into action in the second half as Tony Mowbray went looking to win the game, though from the outset I’m guessing he was concerned that one of his star strikers may get an injury ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup game against Portsmouth.
In fact, it was Cardiff who had injury worries. Two players went off with what looked like hamstring injuries. Thompson was replaced at half-time by Parry who only lasted 9 minutes before pulling up himself. Both will miss Sunday’s FA Cup tie against fellow Coca-Cola Championship side Barnsley, though Parry was cup tied anyway.
Both teams had chances to win the game late on, the best chance falling to West Brom’s Roman Bednar. But it wasn’t to be. A 0-0 draw was probably a fair result, but now the pressure is starting to mount on West Brom (4th place) even though they appear to still be most critics choice to be crowned champions, come May.
I cannot ever remember a team outside the top division going for a domestic double, but if West Brom bag their remaining points in the league and turnover the favourites Portsmouth on Saturday, an unprecedented FA Cup & Coca-Cola Championship will be well and truly on the cards.
0 comments so far
There are no comments for this post yet. Why not be the first by filling out the form below.