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      MATCH PREVIEW


SWANSEA CITY v WEST BROMWICH ALBION
Barclays Premier League
Saturday 15th March 2014, 3:00pm
Liberty Stadium

MATCH NOTES

The Baggies' last game on March 15 came in 2008 when they suffered a 4-1 Championship defeat at home to Leicester City. Albion's last win on this date came back in 1995 when they beat Wolves 2-0 at The Hawthorns in a League Division One encounter.

City's last game on this date also came in 2008 when they lost 4-2 away at Northampton Town in League One.

Albion have won just one out of their last 19 league and cup games.

The Baggies have kept five clean sheets this season - only Cardiff with three have a worse record.

Albion have won none of their last 10 league away matches whilst Swansea have won just four of their last 19 league home matches.

Albion's last six games: Manchester United (H) 0-3; Fulham (H) 1-1; Chelsea (H) 1-1; Crystal Palace (A) 1-3; Liverpool (H) 1-1; Aston Villa (A) 3-4.

Swansea City's last six games: Crystal Palace (H) 1-1; Napoli (A, EL) 1-3; Liverpool (A) 3-4; Napoli (H, EL) 0-0; Everton (A, FAC) 1-3; Stoke City (A) 1-1.

TEAM NEWS

Albion

Baggies' boss Pepe Mel must cope with a lengthening injury list for the crunch clash in South Wales. Captain Chris Brunt (knee), Steven Reid (knee), Claudio Yacob (hamstring), Diego Lugano (knee) and Billy Jones (hamstring) are all missing for the Baggies.

Meanwhile, striker Nicolas Anelka’s disastrous spell at the club appears to be over with the Frenchman claiming he has ended his Albion contract. Anelka would have been suspended for the game anyway due to his controversial ‘quenelle’ celebration against West Ham in December.

Squad from: Foster, Myhill, Popov, Olsson, Ridgewell, McAuley, Dawson, Morrison, Sinclair, Dorrans, Amalfitano, Mulumbu, Gera, Sessegnon, Anichebe, Vydra, Berahino, Bifouma.

Swansea City

City's star striker Michu could return following a three-month absence with an ankle injury whilst Michel Vorm could also return having overcome illness. Pablo Hernandez faces a late test but should be fit despite his recent hamstring problem.

Jonjo Shelvey and Kyle Bartley (both hamstring) are definitely out whilst defender Chico Flores serves a one game suspension following his sending off against Crystal Palace last week.

Squad from: Vorm, Amat, Taylor, Flores, Williams, Britton, Bony, Hernandez, Dyer, Cornell, Lamah, Routledge, Tiendalli, De Guzman, Canas, Rangel, Pozuelo, Tremmel, Vazquez, Richards, Ngog, Emnes, Michu.

QUOTES

Baggies' boss Pepe Mel:

“What we really need to be now is pragmatic, regardless of how we actually play, what we need to do now is win games. It’s important the players are extremely comfortable in the way in which we play. What’s important now is we need the points, it’s not so important the way we achieve this.

“The supporters really are the heart and soul of the club and I can only thank them. Since I’ve come here to West Brom they’ve been extremely kind to me. I’m extremely indebted to the supporters of West Brom.

"But perhaps this isn’t the best game because Swansea have eight Spanish players! The fact that Swansea have players I know doesn’t matter. The most important thing is that West Bromwich Albion do well. Indeed, Swansea have a lot of Spanish players and I know them very well. Some of them are even friends. But the most important thing is that West Bromwich Albion go on and win.”

www.wba.co.uk

Swansea interim manager Garry Monk:

“You get defining games throughout season, and this is definitely one of them. We want the three points and so do West Brom. It’s a good game, a big game, but we’re in front of our home fans and it is important that we put on a performance to get the win.

"They (West Brom) are under pressure and at the wrong end of the table, while in recent years they have been at the other end. They have got a new manager and I’ve looked at their recent games and we’ll tailor our good plan around that.

“Our performance levels have been fantastic  recently. We had seven games in 21 days so the break was a chance for the players to relax. We’ve had a really good period, the boys have trained well and are up for the game on Saturday. We had a few days off after the Crystal Palace game then we started to work very hard again and put in some more constructive training sessions.”

www.swanseacity.net

MATCH ODDS

Result

Albion Win: 3/1, Swansea City Win: 10/11, Draw: 5/2.

First Goalscorer

Albion: Anichebe 15/2, Vydra 8/1, Thievy 8/1, Berahino 9/1, Sessegnon 9/1, Gera 12/1, Sinclair 14/1, Morrison 16/1, Dorrans 16/1, Amalfitano 20/1, McAuley 25/1, Mulumbu 25/1, Dawson 25/1, Olsson 40/1.

Swansea City: Bony 9/2, Michu 5/1, Lita 6/1, Ngog 13/2, Emnes 13/2, Vazquez 7/1, Dyer 9/1, Hernandez 9/1, de Guzman 11/1, Lamah 12/1, Routledge 12/1, Pozuelo 14/1, Rangel 25/1, Canas 33/1, Amat 33/1, Davies 33/1, Williams 33/1, Britton 33/1, Tiendalli 40/1.

www.williamhill.com

REFEREE

Martin Atkinson (West Yorkshire)

The game will see Atkinson referee Albion for the first time this season. His last game in charge of a Baggies' match came at The Hawthorns in January 2013 when Steve Clarke's men suffered a 1-0 defeat against Queens Park Rangers in a FA Cup 3rd round replay.

The Yorkshire official has refereed one Swansea game so far during 2013/14 - the 3-1 home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in January.

Atkinson has handed out 84 yellow and 3 red cards in the 29 games he has taken charge of this season.

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets for the game are now sold out.

WEATHER FORECAST

Sunny, 12°C

FIXTURE HISTORY

The first competitive meeting of the two sides came in October 1927 at The Hawthorns. Two goals from Joe Carter, along with efforts from Arthur Fitton, Jimmy Cookson and Charlie Wilson helped the Baggies to a 5-2 victory. The return game at Vetch Field in March saw the Swans gain revenge with a 3-2 victory, two goals from Cookson in vain.

The first five meetings between Albion and Swansea saw 33 goals scored, the Baggies scoring 19 of those.

Albion's best league victory over the Swans is a 6-2 win at The Hawthorns in October 1929, Tommy Glidden scoring four of the goals. The Baggies also strolled to an 8-0 win during October 1941 in a Football League South wartime game at The Hawthorns, William 'G' Richardson hitting five of the Albion goals.

Other big wins for Albion include a 5-1 victory at The Hawthorns in September 1928 and the aforementioned 5-2 victory in the first meeting of the sides in October 1927. 

Swansea's best victory over Albion came at the Vetch in February 1929 when goals from Gunn (2), Cheetham, Ranson, Hole and McPherson saw the hosts hand out a 6-1 thrashing of the Baggies.

Probably the most important games between the two clubs came during the 1992/93 season when they met in the League Division Two play-off semi-finals. In the first leg at Vetch Field Albion trailed 2-0 and looked to be heading out of the tie until a late Andy McFarlane own goal gave Ossie Ardiles' men a vital lifeline. The return game at The Hawthorns saw the Baggies clinch a place at Wembley with a 2-0 victory thanks to goals from Andy Hunt and Ian Hamilton in front of a crowd of just over 26,000 who produced one of the best ever atmospheres the old ground has ever seen.

Swansea have had the upper hand in the five Premier League meetings so far between the clubs, winning four of them.

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS

(Click on game to view)

Wednesday 19 May 1993 - Albion 2-0 Swansea City - League Division Two play-off semi final 2nd leg - The Hawthorns
Saturday 25 January 1992 - Albion 2-3 Swansea City - Third Division - The Hawthorns
Saturday 5 September 1981 - Albion 4-1 Swansea City - First Division - The Hawthorns

LAST MEETING AT THE LIBERTY STADIUM

Swansea City 3-1 Albion
Barclays Premier League
Wednesday 28 November 2013, 7:45pm

Swansea City: Tremmel; Rangel, Chico, Williams (c), Davies; Britton, Ki, Dyer (Moore 64), Hernandez (de Guzman 74), Routledge; Michu (Agustien 86). Subs not used: Cornell (gk), Monk, Tiendalli, Shechter.

Goalscorers: Michu 9, Routledge 11, 39

Albion: Myhill; Jones, McAuley, Olsson, Ridgewell; Yacob, Mulumbu; Odemwingie, Morrison, Brunt; Lukaku. Subs not used: L Daniels (gk); Popov, Rosenberg, Long, Fortune, Tamas, Dorrans.

Goalscorer: Lukaku 45+2

Booked: McAuley 13 (foul), Brunt 45 (foul), Olsson 52 (dissent), Jones 90+3 (foul)

Attendance: 20,377

Referee: Lee Mason (Lancashire)

A stunning first-half performance saw Swansea bring high-flying West Brom's excellent run to a crashing halt at the Liberty Stadium. The Baggies were simply overrun in the opening 45 minutes, a ninth goal of the season for Michu and a Wayne Routledge double giving their hosts a 3-0 lead. Romelu Lukaku pulled one back for the Baggies just before half-time but, despite an improved second-half display, that was as good as it got for Steve Clarke' side. Swansea are on a run of just one defeat in their last nine games and manager Michael Laudrup will have been delighted as his side produced their best display of his reign, with the interchangeable trio of Routledge, Nathan Dyer and Pablo Hernandez ripping the visitors apart.

Albion were looking to record a fifth straight win in the top flight for the first time in 34 years, but their hopes of doing so were effectively over when they trailed 2-0 inside 11 minutes. They had a warning when Swansea struck the woodwork inside 90 seconds. Hernandez's exquisite pass played in Michu, but the forward's low shot struck the outside of the near post with Boaz Myhill beaten. Swansea's crisp, incisive passing was causing the Baggies all sorts of problems, and it came as no surprise when they fell behind in the ninth minute. Dyer found space down the right and Hernandez steered his deep cross back across goal for Michu to finish from close range. The lead doubled less than three minutes later with Hernandez again the provider. The club-record signing set up Routledge who, after a poor first touch, found the net as Jonas Olsson's attempted challenge saw the ball ricochet in off his shin. Swansea's dominance was such that goalkeeper Gerhard Tremmel was merely a spectator for much of the opening half, and West Brom's malaise was exemplified when Peter Odemwingie managed to miscue a simple five-yard pass to Youssouf Mulumbu and send the ball into touch. Gareth McAuley blocked sharply from Hernandez after another wonderful flowing Swansea move, and Dyer had a penalty appeal waved away by referee Lee Mason as he went down under pressure from Chris Brunt. But the hosts did not have to wait too long for their third goal. Dyer, Hernandez and Ben Davies worked some space down the Swansea left and the full-back's ball across the box came to Routledge, who smashed home. It could have been even worse for the visitors as Routledge and Hernandez again left the Baggies defence dazzled, but Michu could not reach the latter's far-post cross. Lukaku did at least give the Baggies a glimmer of hope as he fired home with the last action of the first half when Swansea failed to clear a Brunt corner.

The powerful Belgian could have struck again moments into the second half, but volleyed high over the bar from McAuley's pass. Albion were finally showing glimmers of the form that had propelled them to third in the table with Claudio Yacob and James Morrison becoming increasingly prominent. But for all their endeavour it was the hosts who looked more likely to add to their tally. Michu made the puzzling decision to lay the ball off to Dyer after Angel Rangel's pull-back found him unmarked in the box before the forward headed narrowly wide from Hernandez's clipped centre. Myhill got down low to save another Michu effort, before Ki Sung-yeung's curling free-kick flew narrowly wide as the Swans claimed a comfortable victory.

Sporting Life

CURRENT CONNECTIONS

Baggies' on-loan winger Scott Sinclair joined Swansea from Chelsea in August 2010 and spent two successful seasons at the Liberty Stadium before leaving to join Manchester City in in a £6million deal.

Swans' defender Ashley Williams was in the youth system at The Hawthorns during the late 1990s before being released at the age of 16.

PAST CONNECTIONS

Amongst the players to have turned out at various levels for both clubs are: Paul Agnew, Kwame Ampadu, Paul Anderson, Craig Beattie, Harry Boston, Walter Boyd, Fred Buck, Arthur Cook, Ted Crowe, Robbie Dennison, Roy Finch, Jack Haines, Carl Heggs, Ivor Jones, Des Lyttle, Amos Lloyd, Tudor Martin, Luke Moore, Tony Millington, Stewart Phillips, Ronnie Rees, David Stewart, James Thomas, Kim Wassell and Colin West.

Former Swans' boss Colin Addison had two spells as Albion's assistant manager under Ron Atkinson; Frank Burrows, another former City manager, was assistant manager during Gary Megson's time at The Hawthorns; Walter Robbins, an Albion forward during the 1930s, was later part of Swansea's coaching staff.

ALL-TIME LEAGUE & CUP RECORD VS SWANSEA CITY

 VENUE P W D  L F A
 Home 16 9 3 4 37 20
 Away 16 2 4 10 17 32
 Total 32 11 7 14 54 52

LAST TEN MATCHES AGAINST SWANSEA CITY

 DATE

COMPETITION

H/A F-A SCORERS  GATE
 Sun 01 Sep 2013 Premier League H 0-2 Davies, Hernandez  23,395
 Sat 09 Mar 2013 Premier League H 2-1 Lukaku, de Guzman - Moore  24,832
 Wed 28 Nov 2012 Premier League A 1-3 Lukaku - Michu, Routledge 2  20,377
 Sat 04 Feb 2012 Premier League H 1-2 Fortuné - Sigurdsson, Graham  24,274
 Sat 17 Sep 2011 Premier League A 0-3 Sinclair (pen), Lita, Dyer  20,341
 Tue 16 Mar 2010 Championship A 2-0 Dorrans (pen), Miller  17,774
 Tue 20 Oct 2009 Championship H 0-1 Beattie  21,022
 Sat 02 Aug 2008 O'Leary Testimonial A 0-0      5,996
 Wed 06 Sep 2000 League Cup H 2-1 Roberts 2 - Bound (pen)  11,328
 Tue 22 Aug 2000 League Cup A 0-0      4,758
 
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