Dennis and Ciara may have dominated the last two sporting weekends, but West Bromwich Albion are negotiating this stormy season quite serenely as the promotion charge is firmly back on track. While playing conditions were rather tricky both at last weekend's win at Millwall and this latest clash with fellow promotion challengers Forest, it has coincided with Albion largely returning to the autumn form that blew a massive hole in the race for Premier League. Since the last blog post where a long awaited win was recorded, Albion have gone on to amass a further seven points, and have now restored the margin over third placed Fulham to that aforementioned points haul.
If we had clung on to the narrow two-one lead as the added time board was raised, the lead at the top would have been even healthier, almost reaching the point where you can start to cross off the required wins to get over the line. Despite the quality finish that salvaged Forest a point in this two-two draw, it was Albion who made most of the running during the game, dominating play and creating enough chances to more than see off their East Midland neighbours.
There was almost a further unexpected twist at the last kick of the game where Albion had a goal ruled offside. A fitting end to a game which literally rained with controversy, much contributed by some officiating which was deemed questionable at times. Still the most pleasing thing from attending this lunch time televised game was the extent that Albion mastered the conditions and generally played some lovely football on the ground with impressive performances from a number of players in this now settled side.
Manager Slaven Billic named an unchanged eleven for the third successive game which included a midweek win at Reading. It was pleasing to see new on-loan recruit Callum Robinson get on the scoring sheet for the first time as he has hit the ground running since joining the club at the end of January. Punctuating Forest's last gasp equaliser and Robinson's opener were a couple of own goals, mainly the result of quality balls put into the box on a tricky surface ensuring that this game was not going to end goalless.
Later in the afternoon, Albion's promotion challenge was further strengthened by rivals Fulham and Brentford dropping points, a theme from the midweek games as well. In fact only Leeds of the top six recorded a victory, but recent results have contributed to them trailing Albion by four points in second place.
While the recent three game winning streak was halted by this draw, the statement that Albion are now firmly 'back on track' can be confidently conveyed. There are now only thirteen games of the season left and the race is definitely hotting up. Storm Dennis and Ciara may have left destruction in their wake elsewhere, but their winds have blew West Bromwich Albion a lot nearer the Premier League.
