I decided on the Friday, before the day of the match, to actually make the hasty decision and purchase a ticket for the West Bromwich game. I went in to the ticket office at The Walkers Stadium to discover there were a few hundred spare seats from an allocation of two thousand and decided in an act of spontaneity to buy a match ticket. I also booked a ticket on one of the official club coaches to the game, only to discover I had bought the last one, so I felt extremely relieved and in some ways fated that I should make the effort to go.

I had never been to The Hawthorns before, although I had been to visit the ground of their Black Country neighbour's and arch-rivals
Wolverhampton Wanderers a few seasons back when we were contending for the Championship title. I had a few pre-conceived expectations of the ground and its supporters from watching it on television and from opinions from other visiting fans that it had a decent atmosphere, the fans are passionate and the ground charismatic.

The coaches set off from The Walkers Stadium at 12.30pm and we were advised that due to maintenance work on a stretch of the M6 that affected our route to West Bromwich that delays may be incurred. However, despite the warnings and dire forecasts the traffic maintained pace and we still managed to get to the stadium in just short of an hour and a half.

The away coaches are parked behind the Smethwick End of the ground, where the away fans are housed. We then walked up a small, sloped gangway that led directly to the back of the stand and it seemed oddly that there were no supporters around, a part from the hordes from Leicester. It soon dawned on me that this was due to the whole area being cordoned off for away fans and this allowed for
the Leicester masses to freely congregate outside without antagonising the natives with this game branded a "Midlands" derby of sorts.

I entered what can only be described as one of the most tightly-packed, cramped and over-crowded concourses of any that I have had the privilege of venturing into. It was quite simply awful and far too small for the stand and any away team with a healthy following. Attempts to get from the turnstiles to the entrances of the stand were met with confrontation and frustration as people queued for beer and tried (in vain) to watch the Merseyside derby on the television screens that most people were fixated to. I had managed to bump in to a good football friend before we set off for the game and we decided that we would attempt to sit together if at all possible with the entire away allocation not sold out. We scaled the stairs and sat towards the back of the stand near to what I can only presume is the Police Control Centre.

There was a large and unnecessary police and stewards presence separating both sets of fans in the stand with the police and stewards forming two cordons just in case of disorder or the ludicrous thought that the Leicester fans (en masse) would charge at the fans behind the goal. As kick-off approached, it was apparent the ground was not going to fill up to anywhere near full capacity. It later emerged that the attendance was just over 19,000 and this was noticeable, although there was a healthy number in each stand. Leicester supporters had been designated half the stand behind the
goal and populated two-thirds of it with a "no-mans land" in-between the two sets of supporters.

The ground is charming enough and seems rather compact and intimate, but shockingly smaller than what I had expected, despite the domination of the stand on the near side to the Leicester fans, which was quite sparsely filled.

The first half was rather a dreary affair in the pleasant sunshine with no team dominating or bossing proceedings, although an Albion player had crashed a shot against the woodwork and Leicester had carved no real opportunity of their own. The atmosphere seemed rather subdued with the only real noise from the fans next to us in the Smethwick End who occasionally roused themselves for some friendly banter and encouraging chants. The second half was a totally different game altogether. Leicester City were holding their own and defended stoically, but still failed to contrive any real goal scoring opportunities with the strikers unable to poach a goal. Whilst Leicester defended bravely, there is only so much defending a team
can do before wilting and capitulating, which the Foxes have a habit of  doing. The frustration of the Baggies faithful translated in to passionate song with the Birmingham Road stand opposite showing their vociferous support to the sarcastic response of the Smethwick End supporters who were generally loader and created the only real atmosphere to that point.

Seven minutes from time, cue mayhem and pandemonium in the Leicester box, and a Foxes player apparently bundles a header in to the back of the net with Henderson stranded. It was difficult to determine what had happened from our vantage point, as it was at the other end, but on the television scoreboard it was accredited as an own goal. Leicester then decided to press the self-destruct button and completely collapsed by conceding a penalty to allow Keven Phillips to clinch the victory to send the Baggies in a "boing, boing" frenzy. The Hawthorns is capable of generating a magnificent atmosphere when it decides to lift itself from its slumber, otherwise it can be frightfully quiet. The Blue Army contributed to the noise just before the initial goal with verbal sparring and thunderous cries of "Leicester, Leicester, Leicester!" from the noisy away contingent, but again it was all for nothing as we left empty handed.

After the game, the area behind the stand for the away masses still remained cordoned off and the Blue Army filtered away down the gangway that we had originally arrived through and back to the coaches. We were then informed, despite the good organisation to empty the Leicester fans from the stadium that coaches would be delayed for 45 minutes to allow all fans to disperse from the area. In all honestly, the organisation is rather self-defeating as you are made to uncomfortably wait on a coach to leave, whilst others have the convenience of doing so with away fans bearing the brunt. On reflection, it was a game that we should have scrapped a draw, but yet again we came away empty-handed. Next time...