After another display from Steve Bruce’s side resulted in Albion’s first home defeat to Birmingham City for 17 years, as well as their first home defeat of the campaign, and leaves the Baggies in 20th place in the Championship.
Nine points from the opening nine games is still the worst start to a second tier season since Keith Burkinshaw’s side lost 4-1 at Stoke City on 2nd October 1994 left them second bottom in Division One with just seven points, some sixteen points behind the leaders, Wolves. Only three of Albion’s Premier League seasons have started worse – Slaven Bilić’s team in 2020 had just three points while Megson’s 2004 team and Robson’s 2005 team both had eight points from the opening nine games.
When applying the 3-points-for-a-win rule across the board, only 20 of Albion’s 123 league seasons would have earned fewer points from their opening nine matches. The only slight glimmer of hope is that one of those seasons was 1975/76 when John Giles’ team recovered from an awful start to the season to finish third in the table and win promotion – the nine game record that season was 1-5-3 and Giles’ team had scored just six goals.
So while that season might prove that it’s not too late, such a poor start for the Baggies has resulted in relegation far more often than promotion.
| 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 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 9 | 14 | 6th | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 6th | 74 |
| 2001/2002 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 13 | 7 | 16 | 5th | 3 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 2 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 2nd | 89 |
| 2003/2004 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 15 | 9 | 19 | 3rd | 4 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 2nd | 86 |
| 2006/2007 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 8 | 13 | 10th | 3 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 10 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 4th | 76 |
| 2007/2008 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 19 | 8 | 17 | 3rd | 4 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 2 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 1st | 81 |
| 2009/2010 | 9 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 20 | 8 | 20 | 2nd | 3 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 4 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 4 | 10 | 2nd | 91 |
| 2018/2019 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 22 | 12 | 17 | 3rd | 4 | 0 | 1 | 16 | 6 | 12 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 4th | 80 |
| 2019/2020 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 17 | 10 | 19 | 1st | 2 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 6 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 4 | 11 | 2nd | 83 |
| 2021/2022 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 16 | 8 | 19 | 1st | 3 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 4 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 8 | 10th | 67 |
| 2022/2023 | 9 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 14 | 13 | 9 | 20th | 1 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 3 | ||
| * Positions are recorded as Albion’s position in the table after all fixtures for that day have been completed. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Results
| 2000/2001 | 23/09/2000 | Portsmouth (A) | W | 1-0 | Roberts |
| 2001/2002 | 25/09/2001 | Portsmouth (A) | W | 2-1 | Clement, Dobie |
| 2003/2004 | 27/09/2003 | Stoke City (H) | W | 1-0 | Dobie |
| 2006/2007 | 23/09/2006 | Luton Town (A) | D | 2-2 | Carter, Gera |
| 2007/2008 | 03/10/2007 | Stoke City (H) | D | 1-1 | Barnett |
| 2009/2010 | 26/09/2009 | Crystal Palace (H) | L | 0-1 | |
| 2018/2019 | 22/09/2018 | Millwall (H) | W | 2-0 | Gayle, Gibbs |
| 2019/2020 | 28/09/2019 | Queen’s Park Rangers (A) | W | 2-0 | Ferguson, Pereira |
| 2021/2022 | 24/09/2021 | Queen’s Park Rangers (H) | W | 2-1 | Grant (2) |
| 2022/2023 | 14/09/2022 | Birmingham City (H) | L | 2-3 | Wallace, Thomas-Asante |
Next Matches
| 2000/2001 | 30/09/2000 | Blackburn Rovers (H) | W | 1-0 | Hughes |
| 2001/2002 | 29/09/2001 | Burnley (H) | W | 1-0 | Dobie |
| 2003/2004 | 30/09/2003 | Millwall (H) | W | 2-1 | Koumas, Dobie |
| 2006/2007 | 30/09/2006 | Leeds United (H) | W | 4-2 | Albrechtsen, Kamara (2), Phillips |
| 2007/2008 | 06/10/2007 | Southampton (A) | L | 2-3 | Koren (2) |
| 2009/2010 | 29/09/2009 | Barnsley (A) | L | 1-3 | Brunt |
| 2018/2019 | 29/09/2018 | Preston North End (A) | W | 3-2 | Rodriguez, Davies (o.g.), Gayle |
| 2019/2020 | 01/10/2019 | Leeds United (A) | L | 0-1 | |
| 2021/2022 | 28/09/2021 | Cardiff City (A) | W | 4-0 | Grant, Nelson (o.g.), Mowatt, Phillips |
| 2022/2023 | 17/09/2022 | Norwich City (A) |
