West Brom and Fulham battle it out for the draw.

 West Brom and Fulham battle it out for the draw. 

We are now in what football calls the business end of the Premier League season. The second half of this most extraordinary of football seasons is well and truly underway and it's beginning to look ever so slightly lopsided and unpredictable. There are no clearly recognisable leaders of the pack and the lack of any supporters inside the grounds has meant that most teams aren't quite sure whether they're coming or going. 

Since the beginning of the Premier League season back in September, whole batches of teams are being required to play matches at unearthly hours of the day and then finding that they've hardly had time to digest their evening meal or breakfast. Large clusters of matches have been spread out over the entire week and the schedule, while not necessarily punishing, once again emphasises the needless panic and urgency which has set in. It almost feels as though the FA in their infinite wisdom, can harldy wait for the season to end so that they can tell you, with a notable case of vindication, that football can be played to its conclusion without supporters in the ground. 

Still, there's no turning back now and on a Saturday afternoon at 3pm, football's traditional kick off hour, West Bromwich Albion and Fulham battled gamely towards a 2-2 draw without establishing which team is more likely to be relegated to the Championship this season. There are no crucial six-pointers as they say in the football vernacular but sooner or later one of these teams is going to fall by the wayside, cracking up under the most unbearable pressure and then struggling desperately to keep afloat in the Premier League.

On Saturday afternoon though we closed our eyes and thought back to those halcyon days of yesteryear when footballers had long hair, comparatively meagre bank balances and Chicken in a Basket for tea. We are now talking about the glamorous 1970s when fashion took the wrong turning and vinyl records eventually turned garish shades of punk red, green or orange depending on your personal preferences. 

At the Hawthorns West Bromwich Albion were those hustling and bustling revolutionaries banging on the gates of the old First Division elite and competing for the right to play fluent and attrractive football. Albion boasted a glittering galaxy of competitive and naturally gifted players who just happened to be black. And that was, unforgivably, the sticking point, the main bone of contention. Racism was rampant during the 1970s and Albion just happened to be in the wrong place at what should have been the right time. 

But when the tragically late Laurie Cunningham, an inspired buy from Leyton Orient, Brendan Batson, a hugely dependable full back who would later become involved in the Professional Footballers Association on a campaigning level and the equally as missed Cyrille Regis gave raw power and muscularity to the Albion attack upfront you knew immediately that there was something in the air that had to be bottled for posterity. 

 Laurie Cunningham, all twinkling feet, breathtaking speed on the wing and dashing dexterity had a huge canvas of talent, an oil painting in a footballing world that had been blighted by miners strikes, power cuts and grey 1970s austerity. Cunningham was the most remarkable player who had so much to offer but was suddenly cut down in his prime when his car crashed on the way back from a training session at his new club Real Madrid. 

Cyrille Regis, for his part, was a powerful, stocky and lethal striker with shoulders like boulders and a hungry appetite for goals. Regis was a bruising battering ram of a forward full of snarling menace and a red-blooded bullishness that could never be tamed. He scored prolifically for West Brom but sadly died recently and all we had were those memories of rampaging belligerence and direct running at goal. 

Nowadays of course Albion are like one of those trampolines where athletes bounce up and down hypnotically until they're more or less exhausted. Albion have yo-yoed between the Championship and the Premier League for ages now. They crave stability but then find themselves caught in no man's land, neither here nor there. It is hard to believe that such a gem as former England captain Bryan Robson started his career at Albion when he could have left much sooner than he did. 

Still here we are at the beginning of 2021 and Albion are back in the Premier League for what seems like the umpteenth time. Their manager is one Sam Allardyce, who began his career at Albion as assistant coach at the Hawthorns many moons ago. Much water has passed under the bridge since then and Allardyce's managerial career has now come full circle. 

Now the trouble with Sam Allardyce is that he divides opinion and none of us can quite be sure what judgments should be passed on his playing style. At Bolton he was hailed as a managerial genius, at Newcastle they were just baffled, at West Ham they simply despised him, at Everton they just thought they'd seen enough and when he took the England job he simply dug a hole for himself. 

Allardyce attracts controversy for his outdated and anachronistic style of football, a dinosaur who still believes in cloggers, grafters, toilers, sweating blood for the cause and gritty hard labour. There is nothing of the purist of him, the landscape painter or anything remotely stylish. Allardyce believes in the hard yards, the percentages, the back to basics pragmatism that would much rather play the long, predictable ball rather than the picturesque short pass in the cleverest of triangles. Subtlety on a football pitch was never his forte. 

But when Fulham's Ademola Lookman floated a cunning ball forward to persistent striker Aleksandar Mitrovic, there were panic stations in the West Brom defence. Mitrovic found in turn Bobby De Cordova Reed who latched onto a well -worked movement with a low shot which found the corner of the Albion net in no time at all. Albion were now on the back foot and gasping for air. 

Now though the defensive unit of Kieran Gibbs and centre half Kyle Bartley emerged into the cold light of day and injected a much greater urgency into West Brom's football. Jake Livermore started to look the player who could have fulfilled his potential but now looks as though he may have wasted it at Albion. Conor Gallacher looked both comfortable and composed on the ball, while both Karlan Grant, Matt Phillips and Darnell Furlong all expressed a desire to consider their options rather than be hurried into a series of mistakes. 

For Albion there is still the evergreen Robert Snodgrass who, to all outward appearances may have passed his sell-by date according to some of his critics. But the midfield schemer from West Ham can still run at players, carving out his passes and then still prepared to battle for every ball. Alongside the young and coltish Callum Robertson, Snodgrass still moved very intelligently and Albion still looked in the rudest of health, glowing with the healthiest complexion. 

Half way through the first half Albion were back on level terms. Kyle Bartley, darting in between his defenders smartly, hovered between the last Fulham defender after a neat exchange of passes, Mbaye Diagne chipped the ball into a gaping channel and Bartley flicked the ball home wide of  the Fulham keeper for the Albion equaliser.

Deep into the second half Albion were beginning to re-capture the spirit of Cunningham, Cantello, Batson, Regis, Brown and Regis. Ron Atkinson was still manager of Albion in the minds of some Albion fans and you remembered the photo of soul sisters The Three Degrees posing with Batson, Cunnigham and Regis. It was an iconic image but the current generation of Albion fans may choose to think of the present and what could still be. 

Now Albion began to move forward and attack Fulham with much greater mobility, a sense of adventure, united in their cohesion, impressive in their movements, creating rather than blundering, constructive rather than just sluggish. Diagne, once again hugely influential and instrumental in everything Albion attempted, latched onto a ball, cutting the ball back in one fluid turn of pace and the superbly quick witted Mattheus Pereira sweetly tucked the ball into the net for Albion's second goal. 

Minutes later though just when you thought it was safe to look at Albion again, Fulham were back on level terms. Up until that point the beautifully creative Reuben Loftus Cheek, the neat and nimble Ademola Lookman, the steadying influence of Mario Lemina, Ola Aina and Kenny Tete didn't really look as though they could cope with Albion's more progressive football. 

But then the thoughtful Harrison Reid had other ideas. Reid, with a good deal of hard work and dedication to duty could become Fulham's next Johnny Haynes or Tosh Chamberlain but he does look the genuine article. Reid jinked his way into space and his well flighted cross exposed Albion's rough edges at the back where Ivan Cavaliero burst into the six-yard box to plant a fierce, downward header past the helpless Sam Johnstone in the Albion goal. 

So it was honours even for both West Brom and Fulham who in their contrasting ways are just looking for Premier League survival. At the moment the Premier League season is beginning to resemble a traffic jam at the height of what used to be called the rush hour. Players are crashing into games like exhausted marathon runners, fixtures are being played out against a cardboard cut out of artificiality and games are being crammed together like the proverbial sardines at ridiculous hours and times.

 And yet football will flourish because it always has and always will. Liverpool and Manchester City look as though their season could end in glory and the rest are simply there to make up the numbers. When we reach the merry month of May the chances are that either the side from either Anfield or the Etihad Stadium will be lifting the Premier League trophy. But you never know.