Official Sport West Midlands Thread 2

[feltip]

As the first has been locked, a new sports thread.

Woody, could you pin this please.

[feltip]

Good news regarding being an important athletics base.

Coe’s alma mater under threat in UKA revampDOUG GILLON, Athletics Correspondent

UK Athletics is poised for major reorganisation which could leave Britain with just two high performance centres (hi-pac) instead of four.

This could impact on where top athletes, moving from school to university, might opt for. Loughborough, an iconic choice for decades, and alma mater of Seb Coe and Scotland's Graham Williamson, is among those facing uncertainty. So is St Mary's, in London, where Glasgow's Susan Scott is based.

Stewart is known to favour Birmingham as the new base for endurance, which would marginalise Loughborough and St Mary's.

"Lee Valley could embrace almost everything, with the exception of endurance, which would sit comfortably in Birmingham. I believe that's where the new budgets will be directed."

http://www.theherald.co.uk/sport/ath...UKA_revamp.php

[van heckler]

Let's hope Birmingham can join us.

[JayPeeDee]

Well done Wolves!

Next up - Blues. Good win today, Preston at St Andrews next weekend. If we win that and Sheffield Utd fail to win Monday then we're in with a great chance. Would mean only a draw away at Reading on the last day is enough. Come on Blues! KRO.

[Comfortably Numb]

Great news about Wolves....finally back up, after 5 years!

They have a much better squad than in 2003 too, so they have a better chance of staying up. Mick McCarthy isn't likely to blow loads of money on virtually unknown, inexperienced players like Dave Jones did. He is a better manager....more likely to make them fight for survival.

Wolves obviously need to buy...Kightly, Keogh, Ebanks-Blake are great young players, but Wolves need experience too, especially if they're to survive in the Premier League. Put it this way, if Newcastle get relegated, Wolves should go for Nicky Butt....an experienced midfielder.

I also can't wait to see Ebanks-Blake in the Premier League. I have a feeling he'll set the world on fire and continue to score, potentially forcing his way into the England team (yes, I believe he is that good of a player).

It's sad that Albion are going down. As much as I hate 'em, I'd have loved to have seen the Black Country derby as a Premier League fixture, but it looks like Birmingham will be the 2nd team to win automatic promition (2 Midlands teams up, 1 down).

[NeilM]

Well done Wolves, deserve it, and probably deserve to win the championship as well, lets hope we can join you, Sheffield Utd slip up in the next 2 games, and hopefully we beat Preston, and make it a Midlands 1-2.

[Erebus555]

Nice one Wolves!

[ultraviolet]

Well done Wolves

Come on Burnley for Monday night

[van heckler]

Well done Birmingham. Good to see both teams back in the premiership!!!

[Comfortably Numb]

CONGRATS TO BIRMINGHAM CITY!

Despite being a Wolves fan, I actually want West Brom to stay up. That way, the West Midlands would be represented by 4 Premier League teams, which would be a great boost for the area as a whole.

I would also like to see the Wolves/West Brom derby thrust into the mainstream limelight, shown all over the world.

[djay]

good to see more midlands teams in the ship, although im not a blues or villa fan, 2bad west brom look like their days are numbered. see them in another 2 yrs i wud think. just walsall left to come up now :-p

[ROYAL BLUE]

All attention on West Brom now!

If only they can stay up, man that would be a hell of a season next year!

[NeilM]

Hooray back to the Premier League, Blues never do it the easy way.

[morestoreysplease]

Well played Blues - after last week me and my son left St Andrews on a real downer. But after some thought this week, remembering that Blues have always won their crucial away games to clinch promotion through history, aligned with the fact that Reading and Sheff Utd were under more pressure than Blues, I knew we'd do it. I actually thought we would win 3-0 but I can't complain. Also, Blues make history by being the first team to bounce back to the Prem 2 attempts on the trot. KRO!!!

[van heckler]

It's a great achievement, but it is the Liverpool and Newcastle game that is the main headline on the BBC website.

The bias that the BBC shows towards the Premier League (especially the sky 4) is worse then ever!

[NeilM]

Overall for the Midlands it's not been a bad season sports wise apart from West Brom.

Football:
Blues and Wolves promoted to Premier.
Villa (should) make Europe again.
Walsall finish mid-table in League One.
Shrewsbury in League Two play-offs.
Burton Albion Promoted to Football League.
Tamworth Promoted to Conference Premier.
AFC Telford through to Conference North Play-off final.

Rugby:
Worcester stay in Premiership.
Moseley stay in National One and won the EDF Trophy.
Birmingham/Solihull promoted to National One.
(5 teams were relegated from National One this season as it is going full-time professional next season and basically becomes a Premiership Two, so we will have two professional rugby teams in Brum next season )

[djay]

do any of the rugby teams have stadiums?

[Erebus555]

I'm surprised there was no mention of Moseley winning the National Trophy at Twickenham! What an incredible accolade. Let's hope they can repeat this many more times in the near future.

[NeilM]

I have edited it now, can't believe I forgot that, was a brilliant win for Moseley over a very good Leeds side who won National One at a canter.

[Nacho]

Congratulations Blues and Wolves and it's a shame that Villa didn't hold on to their Champion League place . I watch a lot of Premier football on Spanish TV and fortunately the commentator always makes references to Villa's geographical location so the city itself gets name-checked on a regular basis. West Brom are defined as a team "en las afueras ( outskirts ) de Brmingham " . I imagine Wolves will get similar treatment .