INTRODUCTION

'On Pastures Green'  from the West Bromwich Albion terrace anthem, 'The Lord's My Shepherd, Psalm 23' was the working title of this book that we adopted at the start of the season and agreed to change it if something extraordinary happened during the season. In the end it wasn't an extraordinary season, although we almost changed it in favour of another popular terrace ditty, 'Keith Curle is an Albion Fan', but Wolves fans have suffered enough at the hands of the Albion, so we had pity on them and stuck with our working title!

It had always been an idea of mine to see a book written by as many fans as possible, rather than one or two individuals. This is that attempt. Nearly 200 fans took up the challenge and filled in Opinion Sheets which were distributed at Supporters' Club meetings, and on occasions on the coaches going to away games. The results from of these unique surveys are shown alongside the match reports, giving a great insight into what the average Baggies fans were thinking as the season progressed. Ordinary fans wrote the match reports, none of who are journalists.

The British Tourist Authority has just announced the top three visitor attractions in the country. They are Alton Towers, Madame Tussauds and The Tower of London. It is when you read this that you realise that watching West Brom really is good value for money! You get elements of all the three attractions in just 90 minutes of football at Fortress Hawthorns. Albion's up and down, and down, rollercoaster is far better than anything at Alton Towers. Albion's defenders are perfect at standing around like waxwork dummies. The keepers of the Tower of London may think they've got the Crown Jewels, but surely the jewel in the Baggies crown, Lee Hughes, is far more popular than their glittering little trinkets.

The question about whether Denis Smith should have been sent to the Tower is a hotly debated one. The Albion Board of course made the decision with less than a fortnight to go before the start of the new season. It is of course, all a matter of opinion and there are so many opinions to be read in this book. Many you'll agree with, many you'll disagree with, but whatever your opinion, I think you'll agree it was an interesting season which gave us plenty to write about!

Norman Bartlam July 1999