Of all the Black country teams, I have to admit to a soft spot for the Baggies. Some of my earliest football memories are of theexcitement surrounding Big Ron's squad and the cavalier football they seemed to play. Fast forward 30 years and things are not so different as last season saw them win the Championship playing attacking football. On no less than 9 occasions last season, Albion put more than four past their opponents and also made up one quarter of the F.A. Cup semi finals.

Managing this success is ex Hibernian Manager Tony Mowbray, whose success north of the border had previously attracted Ipswich. Despite finishing his playing career and getting his start in coaching with the tractor boys, Mowbray decided to go to the Baggies a couple of months later.

Having been relegated from the Premiership , the Black country side had parted company with Bryan Robson and were looking for an immediate return to the top flight.

Mowbray managed it at the second time of asking following an unsuccessful play-off final the previous year. His rebuilding in the close season ripped the heart out of Robsons squad, replacing names like Jason Koumas and Curtis Davies with fresh faces like Chris Brunt from Sheffield Wednesday for £3 million and Leon Barnett from Luton Town for £2.5 million. In all 14 new players were signed before last season started and it did the trick with Mowbray scooping the manager of the month award for September.

This close season, Mowbray has spent over £12 million and has enlarged the squad with Luke Moorefrom Aston Villa for £3,000,000 , Kim Do-Heon from Seongnam for £550,000 Roman Bednar from Hearts for £2,300,000 ,Gianni Zuiverloon from Heerenveen for £2,300,000 , Graeme Dorrans from Livingston for £100,000 , Marek Cech from Porto for£1,400,000 and most recently Scott Carson from Liverpool for £3,250,000.

New Boys

West Bromwich Albion

Marek Cech

Left-backMarek Cechwas Albionssixth summer signing from Porto in a £1.4million deal.

The 25-year-old Slovakia international signed a three-yearcontract and can also play left-midfield. In his three years at Porto, hehelped Porto win 3 league titles and the 2005/06 Portuguese Cup and Super Cup.

He started his career with ASK Inter Bratislava and played his first games inthe club's 2000/01 Slovakian league and cup double winning season

In July 2004 he joined Sparta Prague and played Champions League football on the way to winning the Czech Republic league in his first season.

Scott Carson

The Baggies most recentsummer signing capturing the £3.25millionEngland international from Liverpool.

22year old Carson has played 71 games in the premiership over the last 2 seasons and has signed a four year deal

Carson played in 35 of Villa'sPremier League games, and kept 11 clean-sheets, while on a season-long loan last term.

Having started his career with Leeds united, Carson impressed and was taken by Liverpool in a £750000 deal. He had typical goalkeepers luck at Liverpool and found himself on loan at Sheffield Wednesday and then for a season with Charlton. Charlton's relegation meant a season at Villa Park where he played a big part in a decent season.

Shrewsbury Town

16-GRANT HOLT:- Striker

Grant Holt started his football career playing in the Conference for Barrow, Workington and Halifax Town . He then went on to play in Singapore with Sengkang Marine, before he was signed by Sheffield Wednesday. He spent time on the edges of the first team at Wednesday but only managed 30 appearances with four goals. He moved on to Rochdale and found his feet scoring 42 in 83 games for dale.

It was enough to earn him a £300,000 move to Nottingham Forest and after acclimatizing went on to score 17 goals in the 2006/7 season. Holt began to find himself out of favour a little at the city ground and after difficulty adjusting to playing on the wing, spent time on loan in the championship at Blackpool where he finished the 2007/8 season.

On 24 June 2008, Shrewsbury Town broke their club transfer record by signing Holt for £170,000, beating several clubs to his signature. He was revealed at a club press conference along with defender Michael Jackson.

4 - MIKE JACKSON :- Central Defender

Michael Jackson started his career as a trainee with Crewe before getting his break following a move to Bury. He went onto make over 125 appearances for the Shakers before a move to join Preston North End. He then had a spell at Tranmere before a move to Blackpool that saw him help the club win promotion to the Championship. He played over 30 games in the championship before picking up an injury which kept him out of the final games on the season. He signed for Town on 24th of June 2008.

24- Shane Cansdell-Sherriff:- Central Defender/ left back

Sometimes known simply as Shane Sherriff', he started his UK career with Leeds United, after impressing for the New South Wales academy team. He spent three years at Elland Road, but his onlyfirst team football was on loan at Rochdale in 2002. Sherriff was released by Leeds during in 2003, and signed for Danish Superliga side AGF Aarhus.Having spent three years in Denmark, he was signed by Tranmere Rovers at the start of the 2006/07 season and was made club captain, making over 40 appearances in his first season. In the 2007/08 season, Sherriff was used as a left sided midfielder due to his adaptability and injuries in the squad..

His contract with Tranmere finished and he became a free agent amid rumours that he may go back to play in Oz.

On 28 June 2008 he signed for Football League Two team Shrewsbury Town on a two-year deal.

25- RICHARD WALKER:- Striker

Richard Walker is a well travelled striker with experience at all levels of the game. He started his career with Aston Villa but found first team chances limited and spent time on loan at Cambridge Blackpool and Wycombe before settling for Blackpool. After 62 appearances and loan moves to Northampton and Oxford, Walker was on the move again, this time to Bristol Rovers. Richard has been at his most prolific at Rover and even got a couple at Wembley in a play-off final.

Still a Rovers player and currently with us for a year on loan, Richard has made 143 appearances for rovers and scored 46 times.

Prediction

Its a friendly and as such is very difficult to call. The Baggies are in the middle of a pre-season marathon of 11 games , so I wouldn't even like to predict who plays. There is obviously going to be a difference in quality between the two sides but I expect that, on their day, Town can bridge that gap.

3-3

ShrewsWeb caught up with Paul Simpson to get his thoughts on the game

"West Bromwich Albion will be a tough test for us, we know that.Hopefully everybody else will be available and we'll just have Chris Humphrey missing.It'll give us a chance to test everybody out against a very, very strong Premiership side.It's a game we can look forward to and hopefully a game the fans can look forward to.

"I want the players to try and get 70 or 75 minutes.You can do all of the training and the weights that you like but when you come into a game situation, you need to get through that second wind phase which comes through about 65 / 70 minutes of game.If you don't get through that then you'll struggle come the first game of the season so I want them to be pushed to get through that level.I don't think the players will be as comfortable against West Brom as they were against Stafford Rangers but they've got to be able to be pushed and to be overloaded so that they can cope come the start of the season and be ready for a bigger test."