Terry Wills on the Albion’s week.

What an improvement when comparing Albion’s win over Bolton to the dismal efforts in the previous two matches. Especially in the second half, when the Wanderers were totally outplayed and were lucky to leave the Hawthorns without a hefty goals against deficit instead of a ‘respectable’ 2-0 deficit.

The value of Shane Long was never better illustrated. As fast as a lynx (slight exaggeration but you know what I mean), and an ability to hang in the air before out-jumping much taller defenders – he well deserved to notch the winning goal. A special mention for Zoltan Gera; it was as if he had never been away. He enjoyed a fantastic reception from the Hawthorns faithful, had a great game and in an interview said it was great to be back with Albion and how much he enjoyed playing with Shane Long, a marvellous player In all it’s been a long time since we enjoyed such dominance and with the clutch, well virtually every club around us, failing to get a result it left us in the middle of the Greed League teams who must have been hoping we had dropped points.

But the nagging truth was that Bolton, despite possibly having the best of the opening half, were a poor side and it wasn’t difficult to see why, without a great deal of improvement, they’ll be sadly anticipating a long hard season with the obvious implications should they avoid the drop into the Nationwide.

So on to this week and a certain Tottenham Hotspur visiting in a rich vein of form. They’re in the middle of a sparkling run and with a star studded line up will be as different from Bolton as can possibly be imagined. They’re receiving rave notices from the media, well respected managers, and

supporters of virtually every other clubs, apart from Arsenal of course!

Prospects? Unless one is a supreme optimist, and there are a few around, I will be delighted to pick up a point should Harry Redknapp’s team continue where they left off against our near neighbours Aston Villa.

This wasn’t a competitive match in the expected sense and Villa fans phoning on to local Radio were under no illusions. One said “We were very poor and could have been hammered if Spurs had taken even half of their chances. They’re a great team.”

Here’s hoping that Roy Hodgson can instil a sense of pride and competitive ability to counter the obvious difference, on paper, between the teams. If he can and the players show the ability that demolished Bolton, and Spurs enjoy an off-day, then we could pick up a point. One would be acceptable but three, no, that’s not possible is it?

Naturally, just who will be playing is the question? At the time of pounding the keyboard reports suggest that Shane Long has picked up an injury in training and should he fail to win a race for fitness, and with Peter Odemwingie still struggling to get fit then, to put it mildly, we could be in trouble.

Get fit lads, and give us hope that the London media could be relatively impressed by an Albion outfit who gave the Spurs a harder afternoon than was anticipated.

Come on you Baggies.