Today I'm going back just four years to 2017 and Manchester City's visit to The Hawthorns to play West Bromwich Albion in the League Cup 3rd Round, or, as it was known for the first time that season: the EFL Carabao Cup 3rd Round (God bless the sponsors eh?).
West Brom are another side with a splendid nickname. The Baggies. The origins of this particular nickname are a little hazy and many think that it refers to West Bromwich Albion's Baggy (long) shorts although this theory is doubtful since pretty well every side sported the same style of shorts at the time. More likely is the belief that West Brom's support was drawn from the iron and steel workers of the Black County and those workers tended to wear large (baggy) moleskin trousers to fend off sparks and hot coals from the furnaces. Whatever is the truth regarding the origin, the Baggies nickname has stuck to this day and "Boing, Boing Baggies" echoes around The Hawthorns every time West Brom score.
Since Manchester City became contenders in recent years, I have enjoyed watching their football and, more particularly, since Pep Guardiola was taken on as Manager, I have made an effort to try to watch City when they're not too far from home and I've not got anything else on. Such was the case on this particular evening. Sadly, few others thought likewise and the attendance on the night was just 14,953. I suppose it was to be expected since City, in common with almost every club in possession of a "squad", take the opportunity to give a run out to a few fringe first teamers and youngsters. That's not to say that City take the competition lightly. Indeed they've won the thing for the last four seasons straight and have won it six times in the past eight seasons. So they're worth watching in the League Cup in my book!
City, resplendent in purple, came to The Hawthorns in a rich vein of form and inside the first three minutes they struck with a fine goal from Leroy Sane following up Ben Foster's initial save from Ilkay Gundogan's shot. It had been an incredible passing move with City stringing together 52 passes before Foster's parry to Sane. City were all over West Brom like a rash and former Racing Club Warwick goal keeper Ben Foster had to make more than one excellent save to prevent City from running up a cricket score. It remained only 0-1 until half-time and, despite the evidence before our eyes, Tony Pulis's Baggies were still in the game. Then unbelievably, midway through the second half West Brom were suddenly level thanks to a strike from a corner from Claudio Yacob. It was a travesty given that City had absolutely controlled the game from the start but such surprises are one of the reasons why we love football. Seconds later and Hal Robson-Kanu fluffed an excellent chance to give the Baggies the lead. It was a costly error and, with 14 minutes remaining, City countered another rare West Brom attack and Leroy Sane scored his second of the night with a fine curling effort. It was a goal fit to win any game. Sumptuous. There was still time for Robson-Kanu to hit the woodwork for West Brom but City held on and were making promising strides on their "march to the arch" 2017/18 edition.
City went on to knock out West Brom's Black Country rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Fourth Round but only after extra time and penalties and then did the same thing to Leicester City in the Fifth Round (after extra time and penalties). In the two-legged Semi-Final City made hard work of disposing of Championship side Bristol City 5-3 on aggregate but proceeded to make light work of Arsenal 3-0 in the Final. Little did we know it at the time but City were only at the beginning of a four season winning streak in the League Cup and, indeed, they have a chance to make it five in a row this season.
CRB Match No. 2175
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