[h=3]Albion winger silences keyboard critics[/h]3:00pm Wednesday 23rd October 2013 in Albion By Andy Naylor
Craig Conway. A much-improved display at Yeovil coincided with Albion's on-loan winger settling down on the South Coast.
* There is a tendency for fans to forget that the majority of footballers outside of the Premier League's biggest clubs, including Albion's, are leading fairly normal lives away from the game.
* Once they leave training or return home from a match they have many of the same sort of concerns which affect us all, especially if they have a young family.
* The worries can be multiplied if you happen to be in a job which takes you, all of a sudden, from one country to another.
* That has been the case for Craig Conway.
* His wife was heavily pregnant when Albion borrowed him from Cardiff last month. He had to uproot and go househunting.
* The move from Wales to the South Coast, although good for his career as he struggled for game time with the Premier League newcomers, came at an awkward moment in terms of his domestic circumstances.
* It helps explain why it has taken Conway a little bit of time to make his mark with Albion.
* And why his starring role at Yeovil on Saturday coincided with a period when both his on-field and off-field situations have become more settled.
* Conway's encouraging performance helped silence some of the keyboard critics who have been giving him a bit of a hard time since his switch to The Amex.
* References to his business interests in the nutrition industry, which he promotes via his Twitter account, have been used as a bat to beat him with for his early labours in an Albion shirt.
*The verdicts on Conway expressed by some of his detractors have, in some respects, been understandable. Supporters only see the players on a match day. If, in their opinion, they under-perform then they feel entitled to say so or write so.
* How are they meant to know about other factors influencing performance and why should they care?
* New Albion team-mate Leroy Lita is in a similar situation to Conway, borrowed from Wales' other Premier League club, Swansea, where he too was getting no game time.
* It may not take long for the extremists among the Albion fanbase to get on his back as well after spurning one good opportunity and a couple of half-chances on his debut as a second half substitute at Yeovil.
*Conway, released from his pregnant pause and property search, is just the latest victim of a lost word. Patience has long since disappeared from the vocabulary of football.
Original article
* There is a tendency for fans to forget that the majority of footballers outside of the Premier League's biggest clubs, including Albion's, are leading fairly normal lives away from the game.
* Once they leave training or return home from a match they have many of the same sort of concerns which affect us all, especially if they have a young family.
* The worries can be multiplied if you happen to be in a job which takes you, all of a sudden, from one country to another.
* That has been the case for Craig Conway.
* His wife was heavily pregnant when Albion borrowed him from Cardiff last month. He had to uproot and go househunting.
* The move from Wales to the South Coast, although good for his career as he struggled for game time with the Premier League newcomers, came at an awkward moment in terms of his domestic circumstances.
* It helps explain why it has taken Conway a little bit of time to make his mark with Albion.
* And why his starring role at Yeovil on Saturday coincided with a period when both his on-field and off-field situations have become more settled.
* Conway's encouraging performance helped silence some of the keyboard critics who have been giving him a bit of a hard time since his switch to The Amex.
* References to his business interests in the nutrition industry, which he promotes via his Twitter account, have been used as a bat to beat him with for his early labours in an Albion shirt.
*The verdicts on Conway expressed by some of his detractors have, in some respects, been understandable. Supporters only see the players on a match day. If, in their opinion, they under-perform then they feel entitled to say so or write so.
* How are they meant to know about other factors influencing performance and why should they care?
* New Albion team-mate Leroy Lita is in a similar situation to Conway, borrowed from Wales' other Premier League club, Swansea, where he too was getting no game time.
* It may not take long for the extremists among the Albion fanbase to get on his back as well after spurning one good opportunity and a couple of half-chances on his debut as a second half substitute at Yeovil.
*Conway, released from his pregnant pause and property search, is just the latest victim of a lost word. Patience has long since disappeared from the vocabulary of football.
Original article