SYNOPSIS

A match-by-match look at West Bromwich Albion’s 1998-99 season.

FOREWARD

Welcome to the first edition of the Albion Review. I started supporting the Albion back in 1969, and I was struck by the fact that at the time, the club did not bother to issue the yearbooks that so many clubs, such as Tottenham, Arsenal and, over the way, Aston Villa had been publishing for over half a century.

It always felt to me that there was no proper record of the season unless it was put down in black and white and, a few years later, when I was writing my first history of the club, I realised how valuable such publications would have been to me in compiling a detailed history.

Now that The Baggies newspaper has been in existence for nearly seven years, it is time that the club had its yearbook, the Official Baggies Annual, as it were. As it is, The Baggies tries to cover every aspect of the club that it can, and I can honestly say that it has succeeded in all its original aims: but it is still, ultimately, an ephemeral publication on newsprint, sold often in the wind and rain. The Albion Review gives Albion supporters the opportunity to acquire a permanent record of every season that they follow their club: a book to read and for reference in years to come.

Not only have we covered every match, week by week. The Review also serves as a day to day diary of the 1998-99 season, from mid-July 1998 right up to mid-July 1999, so that it includes coverage of the recent dramatic EGM. It looks at the Reserves and the Youth sides, the friendlies and all the minor cups that the club is involved with: it’s all here, I hope. What’s more, unlike other attempts at such yearbooks in the past, this one will run and run: the Albion Review 2000 is already in preparation, and the series will continue into the foreseeable future - I sincerely hope you enjoy this first offering.

Glenn Willmore
July 10 1999