Goals make prizes for Baggies

Jan 24 2008 By Lisa Smith, Birmingham Post

If statistics are anything to go by, Saturday's FA Cup fourth round clash between West Bromwich Albion and Peterborough United promises to be a real goal feast.

Championship side Albion are currently the Football League's highest goal-scorers with 62 goals in all competitions while League Two side Peterborough have netted 50 which suggests Saturday's Cup encounter will not lack goalmouth action.

Albion's top striker Kevin Phillips has found the back of the net 16 times this season, and loan stars Ishmael Miller and Roman Bednar have also contributed to the tally with ten goals apiece.

For Posh, Aaron McLean has 23 goals this season and strike partner Craig Makail-Smith 15, while the side, managed by Darren Ferguson, son of Sir Alex, lie in fifth place in League Two and are in a good position to make the play-offs.

The club run by former Birmingham City manager Barry Fry has notched up 36 goals at London Road in all competitions this season and Albion manager Tony Mowbray is only too aware that one slip and a Cup shock could be on the cards.

While Albion have nothing to fear in their opponents, they certainly won't be taking Albion's lower league opponents for granted.

The sides have already met this season in the Carling Cup at London Road a match which Albion won 2-0.

Mowbray said: "Peterborough are just behind us in terms of the number of goals scored and we are very aware of the capabilities of their strikers.

"We have played against them this year already in the League Cup and they were pretty unfortunate not to score that night.

"To get to the top of the goalscoring charts in their division is no mean feat. They score lots of goals and they have a number of players we are going to have to be very, very wary of."

Mowbray continued: "This is a game we have to be up for. They are a club with some money to spend and they have been spending quite freely.

"They are very ambitious and it is a credit to Darren Ferguson the way the team is being run."

As for the distinct possibility both keepers might have their hands full, Mowbray quipped: "It has 0-0 written all over it!

"I think we are very respectful of them. They can score goals, they have players of great quality and it is a game where we have to go and show we are at our very best.

"What we wouldn't want is to go out there and find ourselves on the end of a cup shock."

Albion's weary players have a couple of rest days ahead of Saturday's Cup tie after last week's gruelling replay against Charlton Athletic, which went to extra time and penalties.

Cardiff City then tested Albion all the way last Saturday in the Championship with Mowbray's men coming back to earn a 3-3 draw.

Mowbray said: "We have a few days off now before we go to Peterborough. We will be doing a bit of analysis on Saturday's game but we won't spend too long on the negatives of that we will get on with the game in hand."

The former Hibernian boss said he did not watch matches back in the entirety but did like to analyse the positives and negatives of specific incidents.

He said: "I watch incidents from the game but not the game. I have in my mind how the game went, how it ebbed and flowed and I do like to look back and see the individual chances or goals.

"Zoltan's (Gera) header at the back post, for example, was one of those I felt should have gone in and I felt we could have easily won the game in the end.

"The effort we put in to get back into the game was a great credit to the players. "

Mowbray continued: "The Cup provides us with a welcome break from the league and will get us focused and back on track after Saturday. It is a totally different fixture for us.

"I think the character in our side now is there for all to see. We didn't want to accept defeat against Cardiff and there was the same spirit against Hull when we were down to ten men and had our backs to the wall.

"The belief is there with the players and the supporters that we can score and will probably always get one or two or even three goals."

There goes the 0-0 theory!