A brief history of West Bromwich Albion Football Club:

West Bromwich Albion are one of the oldest and proudest names in English football, and one of a select group of clubs to have won all three major domestic honours.

The club formed in 1879 as West Bromwich Strollers, reverting to the familiar Albion a year later, and in 1888 joined their neighbours Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers among the original 12 members of the Football League.

That year saw them reach the FA Cup Final for the third season running and, after losing the previous two, beat Preston to take the trophy for the first time. The Cup was won again in 1892, but Albion suffered a period of decline at the turn of the century, spending the period 1904-12 in the Second Division.

Albion returned to the top flight just before World War One – and, captained by the England captain Jesse Pennington, won the League Championship in the first season after the conflict, finishing nine points clear of Burnley and scoring 104 goals. The club have gone close to repeating the feat several times since – they were runners-up in 1925 and 1954, and finished third in 1979, but it has been in the Cup competitions that Albion have traditionally shone.

In 1931, they achieved the so-far unique "double" of winning promotion and the FA Cup in the same year, beating Birmingham City 2-1 in the Final with both goals scored by one of the club’s all-time great centre-forwards, W.G. Richardson. But The Baggies again failed to maintain their momentum, and in 1938 slipped back into Division Two.

They returned to the top flight soon after the Second World War, and maintained their status for 24 years (1949-73) during which the FA Cup was won on two more occasions – for a fourth time in 1954 and for a fifth in 1968. The 1954 season saw Albion come close to winning the League and Cup double, but they faltered during the closing stages and finished behind their local rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers. But Albion had the considerable compensation of beating Preston North End in the Cup Final, with Ronnie Allen netting twice in a 3-2 win.

The 50s proved to be a golden era of attractive football at The Hawthorns – Allen scored 208 First Division goals (1950-61), and later went on to manage the club twice. He formed a deadly strike partnership with Johnny Nicholls as Albion enjoyed some stunning wins, including a remarkable 7-3 victory at Newcastle United in 1953. It was also the era of Ray Barlow, Joe Kennedy, Jack Vernon, Stan Rickaby and Len Millard, most of them full internationals.

The 60s saw the emergence of two of Albion’s all-time great goalscorers – Jeff Astle and Tony Brown. The two England internationals were rarely off the score sheet as Albion made Wembley their second home, reaching the League Cup Finals of 1967 and 1970, and winning the FA Cup for a fifth time in 1968 when Astle’s extra time winner saw off Everton. That proved to be Albion’s tenth and last FA Cup Final appearance to date, though they were beaten Semi-Finalists in 1969, 1978 and 1982. The Baggies also completed a full set of domestic honours in 1966 when they won the League Cup in a two-legged Final against West Ham United.

A decline set in during the early 70s and the club lost its top flight status in 1973, but returned three years later under the guidance of player-manager Johnny Giles. The club quickly re-established itself in the top flight, and under Giles, Ronnie Allen and then Ron Atkinson played some sparkling football, finishing third in 1979 and fourth in 1981. This was a new era of entertainment at The Hawthorns, with the "Three Degrees" of Cyrille Regis, Laurie Cunningham and Brendon Batson starring as the first high-profile trio of black players in the domestic game. They were backed up by a number of England internationals – among them Bryan Robson and Derek Statham – as Albion went close to, but never quite, managed to clinch a major trophy. But "Bomber" Brown continued through to the early 80s, breaking every scoring record in the club’s history during a remarkable 20 year career at The Hawthorns.

Albion’s decline began in 1981 when Atkinson departed for Manchester United and quickly took the heart of Albion’s midfield by signing Robson and Remi Moses. Despite Semi-Final appearances in both Cups in 1982, playing fortunes dipped and in 1986 they were relegated from the top flight after the worst season in the club’s history, winning just four games.

The situation was to worsen – as gates declined, Albion slipped still further, being humiliated 4-2 at home by non-league Woking in the FA Cup in 1991 and ending the season being relegated to Division Three for the first time in the club’s history. It took two years for The Baggies to escape, winning promotion back to the re-named First Division in 1993 after beating Port Vale 3-0 in the Play-Off Final at Wembley – the club’s first appearance there since 1970.

Several years of struggle – and in 2001, a new chairman Paul Thompson and a new manager Gary Megson found a winning formula, and the Baggies reached the promotion play-offs, only to lose to Bolton. But a year later, in a thrilling race with Wolverhampton Wanderers, The Baggies won seven and drew one of their last eight games to clinch promotion at the expense of their local rivals.

Albion began 2002 back in the top flight for the first time in 16 years – the status they have generally enjoyed for most of their illustrious history.