Eddie's Derby boost

Our newest columnist, Eddie Newton, gives us his thoughts on West Brom’s recent matches, England’s victory over Egypt and the passing of Keith Alexander.

Hello again.

After two defeats, to Bristol City and Reading, it was vitally important that we bounced back against Derby County last week and it was great to get the win.

We knew it was going to be difficult because they have been on a good run of late. We knew not to take them lightly and they stifled us quite a bit in the first half, but the second half we picked up and although we conceded first, we did well to get the three goals.

We have played a lot of games recently and we had obviously played Reading in The FA Cup the Wednesday before so we had a lot of tired bodies out there. We played Gabriel Tamas at right-back as he was our only viable option and I feel a bit sorry for him because the boy was exhausted, but he put another good shift in and we ended up with the right result.

FA Cup exit

The Fifth Round Replay defeat to Reading was very hard to take, not least because we were leading right up until the third minute of added time, but also because we conceded from such an elementary mistake.

I think a bit of tiredness had already begun to creep in and our decision making could have been a lot better, but we had a sit down with the boys ahead of the Derby game and underlined the importance of every game from then until the end of the season. I’m confident they’ve taken it all on board.

QPR – and Neil Warnock

We are now preparing to take on QPR on Sunday and we are expecting a very difficult game because the players will no doubt want to get off to a good start for their new manager, Neil Warnock.

Neil is a wily old fox. He’s been in the game a long time, he knows the League really well and he knows what he’s doing. I’m sure he’ll be relishing his first game at Loftus Road and will want to get off to a good start.

England 3-1 Egypt

I thought it was a good win against a decent Egypt side. We didn’t start off the best but a couple of substitutions and a little bit of extra quality at the right times soon made the difference.

Egypt are very disciplined, they all work hard for each other and it was a bit of a difficult game, especially in the first half, but it was good to see the boys come through with the win.

I fully understand the benefit behind playing an African team in preparation for the World Cup, with Algeria waiting in our group. Algeria have some skilful players but I don’t think they are as disciplined as the Egyptians.

Keith Alexander

Finally, I was shocked to hear of the sad and untimely passing of Keith Alexander on Wednesday and my thoughts go out to his family.

Unfortunately our paths never really crossed, but I’ve heard nothing but good things about the man. I know people that have played under Keith and they speak very highly of him. He will be a big loss to the game.