Fan’s view from West Brom

THE view of yesterday’s stalemate from the West Brom side shows they were thankful for the services of on-loan keep Chris Kirkland.

The official Albion website said that an away point in the opening game was down to Kirkland pulling off ‘a string of fine saves to deny City debutant Andy Cole, Joey Barton and Claudio Reyna’.

WBA Mad said that Baggies boss Bryan Robson would be more that happy with a point away from home but also recognised the makeshift element of City’s back four.

City's Stuart Pearce was forced to field a makeshift backline in the absence of Richard Dunne and Sylvain Distin, with David Sommeil and left-back Stephen Jordan playing as stand-in central defenders.

Over on the WBA Zone their headline summed up the feeling ‘Solid start for Albion’ whilst some of the fans wondered why speed merchant Robert Earnshaw didn’t get a run out.

Considering our back four wasn’t exactly blessed with pace I was glad to see him warm the bench for 90 minutes.