Albion Outlook: West Brom fans on Accrington, Evans, Hegazi and more

Pat Frost, 52, Telford

It’s 30 minutes to midnight and I have just walked through the door after a visit to the smallest ground in the football league. Accrington was a very enjoyable night. Firstly, it made me realise how lucky I am supporting a team in the Premier League. I am absolutely in awe of the volunteers who are totally committed to running Accrington Stanley, one of the poorest clubs in the country. Secondly, it was pleasing to see that Pulis went strong with the starting eleven, with some big hitters on the bench. It could (and probably should) have been a win by a much bigger margin.

Sunday sees us return to the Premier League at home with the visit of Stoke, including Saido and Fletcher. One ex-Albion player is going to get a good reception and one isn’t, of that I’m sure. It has the makings of a great game, and the atmosphere will be very hostile. A win would be most welcome with the international break upon us. How good would it be to go into the break with three wins out of three?!

The transfer window closes next week. Will he stay or will he go? I’m talking about Mr Evans. Personally, I would love him to stay, but I have a feeling Manchester City are going to make us an offer we can’t refuse. The head coach insists we need to bring in more players, but there are currently no signs of this happening, and time is running out. Fingers crossed Albion get two or three more players over the line. See you Sunday.

Sarah Rudge, 24, Wolverhampton

Hearing that Gareth McAuley wouldn't be fit for the start of the season understandably raised concerns amongst Albion fans. However, we need not have worried as new signing Ahmed Hegazi has fitted seamlessly into the side. Having signed on loan from Al Ahly with a view to a permanent deal at the end of the season, the Egyptian was seen as somewhat of a gamble by the West Brom supporters but any criticism of his arrival have been well and truly diminished. Quickly becoming a fans' favourite, the 26-year-old has looked composed on the ball and dominant in the air which is even more welcome considering the absence of Jonny Evans.

His partnership with the equally impressive Craig Dawson has been one of the highlights of the season so far. Unfortunately, the prominent rise of Hegazi could well see the end being nigh for the career or Gareth McAuley. As one of his biggest fans it is painful to imagine a West Brom side without the Northern Ireland international, but with age not being on his side and the influential performances of Hegazi, it may well be the last season we see McAuley in an Albion shirt.

Lee Smith, 43, Michigan

Three games in and three wins, we couldn’t have asked for a better start.

The signing of Gareth Barry didn’t get me overly excited but he showed at Burnley just what a great reader of the game he is. He was constantly intercepting passes and launching our attacks with clever short and long range passing. I have a new found appreciation for Barry and think he will be a key addition for us this season and maybe next.

Hal Robson-Kanu was simply unplayable. The Burney defenders had no answer for him. He harried and bullied them into submission and scored a wonderful goal that had everything, strength, balance, skill and determination. It was just a pity he got a red card and will miss three games.

It was good to see us take the League Cup seriously and put out a near full strength team. Pulis may be right when he said it was the only team he had available but I still believe our best chance of doing something special is via a cup competition.

Finally, I was very pleased to see Craig Dawson sign his contract extension. He’s been a terrific servant to the club and is so reliable and consistent. You never hear him complain, he just pulls the shirt on and gets on with it. A real class act.

Tom Goffe, 30, Telford

Our performances in both cups have been pretty horrendous of late, especially when coming up against lower league opposition, so it’s safe to say, even after two impressive league performances, I wasn’t filled with confidence that we would be progressing to the next round. However, once the starting line-up was announced those concerns quickly evaporated and I was suddenly more confident that we might actually get through fairly comfortably. And that’s exactly how it played out. Our starting XI, which only had one ‘non-international’ in it, breezed past Accrington and could of easily scored more than the three we did manage to put away.

Pulis came out afterwards and said that he started that XI because ‘it’s all he had’. To be fair to Pulis I think his comment was more of a sly dig at the club to get new players in, but with youngsters Leko, Kane, Roberts and Harper all on the bench, he could of easily rested more senior players and taken a risk with those academy graduates. The fact of the matter is Pulis has tinkered too much in in the cup competitions in previous seasons, especially in the League Cup, and ultimately its cost us. It seems he finally realised Tuesday that in order to do well in these competitions you have to play your strongest team, even against lower league opposition, in order to progress. Fingers crossed he takes the same approach for the remainder of our cup games this season.