Albion, Miss Stoke-on-Trent and open-top bus tours

Albion players were at the Hawthorns today as part of the club's annual open day for the disabled branch of the official WBA supporters' club.

Tony Mowbray specifically switched training to enable supporters to watch the session from the East Stand's disabled facilities.

On a day Chelsea and Everton have been forced to play a Premier League game on a Thursday - inconveniencing fans from both clubs on a school night - it's reassuring to see that supporters are at least 'kept in the loop' by some clubs, if not by the financial super powers who control the game and have no interest in those who pay good money to watch the games.

None of this, however, explains the bizarre goings-on in Staffordshire.

Louise Griffin, wife of Stoke captain Andy, has taken it upon herself to rally the troops over in the Potteries.

The Stokette said: "We need to install belief in the fans. Right now there is something amazing happening in our city.

"We need to think like winners, get excited and get behind the lads. Think how great this could be for our city.

"We have lost a lot of our industry, the pots and mines and this has changed the city.

"Now we can put Stoke-on-Trent back on the map."

Presumably Tony Pulis was too busy studying the 'Excuse Book' to drum up any inspiration of his own.

And the situation isn't much better in Wolverhampton, where a trainee bus driver has ripped off the top half of his double-decker by driving it under a bridge.

It would be wrong of me to make a gag about open-top buses and Wolverhampton.

So I won't.