As West Bromwich Albion seem to find themselves stuck in their first relegation battles in since England manager Roy Hodgson was at the helm, we take a look back to where it all began. The 2002/03 season was the start of Albion’s on and off affair with The Premier League over the last 12 years.
After being promoted on the last day of the 201/02 season (Pictured right), Albion endured a frustrating pre-season in the transfer market but still managed to capture 4 players before the season started, with no first team players leaving the club. Ronnie Wallwork and Joe Murphy both came in on free transfers whereas Sean Gregan signed for £2million from Preston North End and Lee Marshall looked a steal for £700,000 from Leicester City.
The Baggies opened up their campaign by travelling to The Theatre of Dreams, Old Trafford. They were backed by thousands of Baggies with 8,000, not lucky enough to get tickets, watching the game from The Hawthorns. In what was a tough start to The Premiership, the 10-man Baggies held out bravely until Ole Gunnar Solskjaer settled the tie in the 78th minute with a neat finish after Derek McInnes was given his marching orders mid-way through the second half.
The Baggies had a disappointing Hawthorns start to the Premiership life as they lost 3-1 to Leeds United, despite having and missing chance after chance. The Baggies seemed to throw everything but the kitchen sink at Leeds. The only conciliation from the game would be the bright start that Albion had to the game and a debut goal for Lee Marshall to get Albion off the mark in the Premiership in injury time. Sadly, as we now know, this was one of Marshall’s only contributions in an Albion shirt as he only made 10 appearances for the club and was forced to make an early retirement whilst on loan to Hull City after a career ending Injury occurred.
The third game of Albion’s terrifically hard start to the season was Albion’s 5-2 mid-week defeat to Arsenal with Albion going into the half-time break 3-0 down thanks to goals from Cole, Lauren and Wiltord. Despite goals from Dobie and Roberts giving Albion fans something to cheer about, a second from Wiltord and an injury time goal from Aliadiere settled the tie.
In light of these consecutive defeats, Albion broke their transfer record twice in one day. Jason Koumas was eventually signed from Tranmere Rovers, after months of speculation, for £2.25 million with add-ons. Megson also decided to re-sign Lee Hughes from Coventry for £2.5 million, the player they had sold for double that price just 12 months before. The signings were completely different as Jason Koumas won player of the year after scoring and ceeating several goals from midfield whereas Striker Hughes failed to score a single goal, despite featuring heavily throughout the season.
Hughes and Koumas were both given instant debuts against big-spenders Fulham at The Hawthorns. In a succession of three corners, Darren Moore gave The Baggies a second half lead against Fulham at the second time of asking after his first header forced a good save from Van Der Sar but his second alluded the Dutch keeper.