Baggies on rise as weary Sol showing his age

PETER ODEMWINGIE gave Sol Campbell the kind of 500th anniversary present he would quite cheerfully donate to a local charity shop as the Newcastle United veteran was left contemplating just how much longer he can continue in the Premier League and Chris Hughton was reduced to locking his players in the dressing room.

18 years ago Campbell burst onto the scene and made his debut as a fresh-faced kid with Spurs, but Old Father Time is relentless and he is catching up with the former England defender faster than Odemwingie did at the Hawthorns.

Odemwingie arrived as an unheralded £1.5m buy from Lokomotiv Moscow in the summer and the majority doubted whether he had the kind of quality to make any kind of meaningful contribution to Albion’s bid for survival this season. The striker nicknamed Peter Snow — because of how much he loved the white stuff in the Russian capital — certainly put the skids under Campbell and Co.