Albion’s Second Tier Season Comparison – 12 games

A fourth defeat of the season, and a third in four games, saw Albion drop into the bottom three. That is the first time the Baggies have been in the second tier relegation zone, other than in the first three games of a campaign, since a 2-1 defeat at Walsall on 22nd April 2000 left Gary Megson’s team needing a strong finish to secure their Division One survival.

In 1994, Albion won their 12th game of the season under caretaker manager, John Trewick, beating Sheffield United 1-0 to move onto 10 points meaning that this campaign is now the joint worst start to a second tier campaign in the club’s history. In only seven top tier campaigns have the Baggies achieved fewer points from their opening 12 games and, on four of those occasions (1926/7, 1985/6, 2005/6 and 2020/1), they ended up being relegated. They managed to escape the drop on the other three in 1891/2, 1895/6 and, of course, 2004/5.

No Albion second tier team has conceded more than 18 goals in the first dozen games of a campaign since 1998/9 when Denis Smith’s side pushed their goals against tally to 23 with a 3-2 home defeat to Sunderland – a healthy 25 goals scored that campaign saw them in mid table where they would spend the rest of the campaign. Lee Hughes scored both Albion’s goals that day taking his season tally to 14 – how we could do with a goalscorer of that calibre today!

    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 12 6 2 4 12 13 20 6th 3 1 2 7 7 10 3 1 2 5 6 10 6th 74
2001/2002 12 7 1 4 16 10 22 4th 4 0 3 8 4 12 3 1 1 8 6 10 2nd 89
2003/2004 12 8 1 3 19 12 25 3rd 5 0 1 12 5 15 3 1 2 7 7 10 2nd 86
2006/2007 12 6 4 2 21 11 22 3rd 4 1 0 11 4 13 2 3 2 10 7 9 4th 76
2007/2008 12 6 2 4 25 15 20 2nd 5 1 0 16 3 16 1 1 4 9 12 4 1st 81
2009/2010 12 7 3 2 24 12 24 1st 4 1 1 12 5 13 3 2 1 12 7 11 2nd 91
2018/2019 12 7 3 2 31 17 24 2nd 5 0 1 20 7 15 2 3 1 11 10 9 4th 80
2019/2020 12 7 4 1 22 13 25 1st 3 2 0 13 8 11 4 2 1 9 5 14 2nd 83
2021/2022 12 7 4 1 21 9 25 1st 4 2 0 11 4 14 3 2 1 10 5 11 10th 67
2022/2023 12 1 7 4 17 18 10 22nd 1 3 2 11 10 6 0 4 2 6 8 4    
* Positions are recorded as Albion’s position in the table after all fixtures for that day have been completed.

Results

2000/2001 14/10/2000 Norwich City (H) L 2-3 Clement, Hughes (pen)
2001/2002 16/10/2001 Stockport County (A) W 2-1 Taylor (2)
2003/2004 14/10/2003 Sheffield United (H) L 0-2  
2006/2007 17/10/2006 Crystal Palace (A) W 2-0 Gera, Kamara
2007/2008 23/10/2007 Blackpool (H) W 2-1 Miller, Morrison
2009/2010 17/10/2009 Reading (H) W 3-1 Thomas (2), Mulumbu
2018/2019 06/10/2018 Reading (H) W 4-1 Gayle (2), Barnes, Bartley
2019/2020 19/10/2019 Middlesbrough (A) W 1-0 Robson-Kanu
2021/2022 15/10/2021 Birmingham City (H) W 1-0 Grant
2022/2023 05/10/2022 Preston North End (A) L 0-1  

Next Matches

2000/2001 17/10/2000 Wolverhampton Wanderers (H) W 1-0 Hughes (pen)
2001/2002 19/10/2001 Norwich City (A) L 0-2  
2003/2004 18/10/2003 Norwich City (H) W 1-0 Koumas
2006/2007 22/10/2006 Wolverhampton Wanderers (H) W 3-0 Greening, Kamara, Hartson (pen)
2007/2008 27/10/2007 Norwich City (H) W 2-0 Miller, Phillips
2009/2010 20/10/2009 Swansea City (H) L 0-1  
2018/2019 20/10/2018 Wigan Athletic (A) L 0-1  
2019/2020 22/10/2019 Barnsley (H) D 2-2 Diaby (o.g.), Pereira
2021/2022 20/10/2021 Swansea City (A) L 1-2 Grant
2022/2023 08/10/2022 Luton Town (H)      

If you cannot see the tables, click here.

Related posts