Baggie Decision

I’m going to let the players from my home-town team, West Bromwich Albion, decide where I will go for groundhopping on New Year’s Day.   I hope that other Albion fans might try out this idea for everyday decisions (where to go, what to wear, who to marry, which takeaway to order etc etc) and it certainly helps to make a typical Albion game just that bit more interesting.

At the time of writing, we are 15 minutes away from kickoff against Arsenal at The Hawthorns.

The key question is: Who (if anyone) will score West Brom’s latest goal in the game?

Notice the pre-match optimism, that there might be more than one.  This is also known as "misguided stupidity".

The players are in squad number order except for the “catchall” category at the end.  The fixtures are in alphabetical order of home team.  All of them are Step 4 in the world of non-league.

If a player is substituted, then the substitute takes over the responsibility.  So, if Gareth McAuley is thrown up front in the 98^th minute by Alan Pardew to replace Jake Livermore, then his 99^th minute winner (I wish) would still send me to Carlton Town.  To be fair, this is not strictly random in the sense that all outcomes are not equally likely, so any pre-match prediction will be sending me to Winchester tomorrow, and NOT because Ben Foster has scored his first of the season.

Squad #	Name	Linked Fixture
3	Gibbs	Alvechurch v Romulus
4	Robson-Kanu	Atherton Collieries v Trafford
6	Evans	Belper Town v Gresley
8	Livermore	Carlton Town v Lincoln Utd
10	Phillips	Clitheroe v Kendal Town
11	Brunt	Corinthian Casuals v Walton Casuals
18	Barry	Ossett Town v Ossett Albion
19	Rodriguez	Sittingbourne v Ramsgate
25	Dawson	South Shields v Scarborough Ath
26	Hegazi	Taunton Town v Bideford Town
1 or none	Foster (or no WBA scorer)	Winchester City v Totton

At the time of kickoff, we start at the default position of a trip to Winchester.  Since I would happily take a 0-0 at this point, it's not so bad.

Update: 15 minutes in and an Jay Rodriguez header has been Albion's best chance, but Petr Cech saved me (for now) from Sittingbourne.  Still headed for Winchester.

Update 2.  Half-time and nothing else to report.  I wouldn't be too upset by a trip to Winchester as long as we have a clean sheet too.

Update 3:  5.53pm and no new development.  Steve Claridge sounding very stressed in the radio summariser role.  Even his colleagues are chiding him for the number of times he has said "higgledy-piggledy".

Update 4: WBA have now used all three subs - Phillips, Brunt and Robson-Kanu replaced by McClean, Krychowiak and Nyom respectively.  The last in particular reduces the chances of a trip to Atherton Collieries.

Update 5: Arsenal's deflected goal makes no difference!

Update 6: Jay Rodriguez scores from the penalty spot!  All the controversy is irrelevant - I'm now headed for Sittingbourne v Ramsgate!