Albion’s Promotion Challenge Season Comparison – 3 games

Albion haven’t topped a league table this early in a season since Ossie Ardiles was in charge at the Hawthorns in 1992 – they opened that season with six wins and a draw from their opening seven games. The impact that Ismaël has had on the club is every bit as profound as the one the Argentine had and the Hawthorns was rocking as the Baggies thumped one of the pre-season promotion favourites 4-0.

It is the best start to a 21st century promotion campaign, and the last time that the Baggies had more points from their opening three games was when they won the first three of the 1997/98 season under Ray Harford. The third game of that run was the Black Country Derby when Keith Curle endeared himself to the Hawthorns faithful when he scored an own goal to hand Albion the points.

No Baggies side has scored nine goals in their first three games of a season since Denis Smith’s side did so in 1998 (Sheffield United were beaten 4-1 in the second match of that sequence) while that total hasn’t beaten since the double-winning side of 1930/31 opened the season with 3-0, 4-0 and 6-3 victories. Given that Darren Moore’s side of three years ago scored seven in game four, Big Val’s boys will need to score four again on Saturday to keep up.

Home Away Season End
Pld W D L F A Pts Posn* W D L F A Pts W D L F A Pts Posn Pts
2000/2001 3 0 0 3 1 7 0 24th 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 2 1 5 0 6th 74
2001/2002 3 0 1 2 2 4 1 22nd 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 2 3 1 2nd 89
2003/2004 3 2 0 1 6 5 6 5th 1 0 0 4 1 3 1 0 1 2 4 3 2nd 86
2006/2007 3 1 2 0 3 1 5 10th 1 0 0 2 0 3 0 2 0 1 1 2 4th 76
2007/2008 3 1 0 2 3 3 3 18th 1 0 0 2 0 3 0 0 2 1 3 0 1st 81
2009/2010 3 2 1 0 5 3 7 4th 0 1 0 1 1 1 2 0 0 4 2 6 2nd 91
2018/2019 3 1 1 1 6 6 4 8th 0 0 1 1 2 0 1 1 0 5 4 4 4th 80
2019/2020 3 2 1 0 5 3 7 3rd 0 1 0 1 1 1 2 0 0 4 2 6 2nd 83
2021/2022 3 2 1 0 9 4 7 1st 2 0 0 7 2 6 0 1 0 2 2 1
* Positions are recorded as Albion’s position in the table after all fixtures for that day have been completed.

Results

2000/2001 26/08/2000 Barnsley (A) L 1-4 Hughes
2001/2002 25/08/2001 Sheffield Wednesday (A) D 1-1 Dichio
2003/2004 23/08/2003 Watford (A) W 1-0 Hughes
2006/2007 12/08/2006 Southampton (A) D 0-0
2007/2008 25/08/2007 Sheffield United (A) L 0-1
2009/2010 18/08/2009 Peterborough United (A) W 3-2 Moore (2), Brunt
2018/2019 11/08/2018 Norwich City (A) W 4-3 Rodriguez (2, 1 pen), Barnes, Robson-Kanu
2019/2020 17/08/2019 Luton Town (A) W 2-1 Diangana (2)
2021/2022 18/08/2021 Sheffield United (H) W 4-0 J. Robinson (o.g.), O’Shea, Mowatt, Robinson

Next Matches

2000/2001 28/08/2000 Queen’s Park Rangers (H) W 2-1 Van Blerk, Hughes
2001/2002 27/08/2001 Gillingham (H) W 1-0 Dichio
2003/2004 25/08/2003 Preston North End (H) W 1-0 Hughes (pen)
2006/2007 19/08/2006 Colchester United (H) W 2-1 Ellington (pen), Wallwork
2007/2008 01/09/2007 Barnsley (H) W 2-0 Teixeira, Beattie
2009/2010 22/08/2009 Ipswich Town (H) W 2-0 Mulumbu, Koren
2018/2019 18/08/2018 Queen’s Park Rangers (H) W 7-1 Phillips (2), Gibbs, Rodriguez (2 pens), Gayle, Robson-Kanu
2019/2020 21/08/2019 Reading (H) D 1-1 Zohore (pen)
2021/2022 21/08/2021 Blackburn Rovers (A)

If you cannot see the tables, click here.

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