Friday 8th January: Albion 1 Nottingham Forest 3
Thursday 7th January: Tamas gets clearance to play against Forest
Wednesday 6th January: Reid off to Posh on loan
Wednesday 6th January: End of the road for Clem
Monday 4th January: Miller back in action
Monday 4th January: Dorrans signs new deal
Sunday 3rd January: Newcastle or Plymouth (at Home) in the Cup
Saturday 2nd January: Huddersfield 0 Albion 2
Friday
8th JanuaryAlbion beat the freeze to get the televised match against Nottingham Forest on, but it turns sour as Forest win 3-1. Gabriel Tamas has a torrid debut, but he's not the only one to disappoint as Forest go above us into second place in the Championship. The pressure is really on now for Albion's next game, away to Newcastle ...
Click here for our match report.
Thursday 7th JanuaryGabriel Tamas has received clearance to play against Nottingham Forest on Friday.
The Romanian central defender signed for Albion on 2nd January, but was awaiting a work permit and international clearance. Both have now been confirmed. With only Jonas Olsson and Shelton Martis (and possibly Gonzalo Jara) otherwise in contention, he looks almost certain to at least be on the bench.
Wednesday
6th JanuaryReuben Reid is going to Peterborough on loan for the rest of the current season.
RDM was quoted as saying "Peterborough have been chasing Reuben for a while now ... I recommended to Reuben that he go because he will hopefully play week in, week out."
The piece also says that Albion's Head Coach views Reid as "one for the future" - so it seems unlikely that there are any plans currently for the move to be made permanent.
Wednesday 6th JanuaryNeil Clement has decided on medical advice to retire from playing professional football. Despite state-of-the-art treatment, he has failed to recover from a knee injury sustained in Albion's final pre-season game of Summer 2008.
The news comes as no surprise, as Clem has now been out of action for almost 17 months. But of course this makes it no easier to take, especially for the man himself.
Clem was our longest-standing player and has served under four managers. He played exactly 300 competitive games for Albion. He was the club's Player of the Year in 2000-1 and appeared in the PFA's Division One XI in 2001-2. He was the first ever player to be part of three promotion-winning Albion sides.
Click here for our in-depth profile.
Monday 4th JanuaryIshmael Miller tonight played the first 45 minutes of a friendly against Port Vale - and emerged unscathed. The match was apparently arranged especially as part of his rehabilitation from injury.
Albion won the game 4-1, with goals from Sam Mantom (2), Robert Koren and Chris Wood. But obviously the result is of much less importance than the news that Ish is on his way back. RDM said he hoped the striker would be back in February.
Monday
4th JanuaryAs rumours abound of various Premiership clubs (Villa, Blues, Everton) sniffing around him, Graham Dorrans signs a new three-and-a-half-year contract with the Baggies. This comes only eight months after his last contract which was for the same period of time - so this is a welcome sign that the club is doing everything it can to keep him on our books.
Dorrans too is making all the right noises: "I've really enjoyed the season so far and I'm glad it's all sorted now so I can concentrate on playing ... and hopefully get the club back up."
Sunday
3rd JanuaryAfter Paul Elliott (ex-Villa) pulls Albion out of the bag for a home draw in the Fourth Round of the FA Cup, Frank Skinner pulls out Newcastle or Plymouth to provide the opposition.
Ties to be played on the weekend of 23/24 January - just five or six days after we play Newcastle (A) in the League.
The winners will be ball no. 8 in the 5th round draw.
Saturday
2nd JanuaryAlbion just do enough to get past League One high-fliers Huddersfield Town in the Third Round of the FA Cup, with goals from Graham Dorrans and Chris Wood.
Click here for our match report.
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December 2009 |
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November 2009 |