2004–05 West Bromwich Albion F.C. season

During the 2004–05 English football season, West Bromwich Albion competed in the FA Premier League.

Season summary
West Bromwich Albion managed to retain their Premiership status despite being at the bottom of the table on Christmas Day. This marked the first time in the history of the Premiership that a club has done so. Since then, three other teams have matched this feat: Sunderland in 2013–14, Leicester City in 2014–15, and Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2022–23, although they secured survival before the final day.

Final day
For the first time since the inaugural Premiership season in 1992–93, no team was assured of relegation going into the final round of matches. In each of the last three weekends of the season, the team that was bottom of the table at the start of the weekend finished it outside the drop zone. The final round of the season on 15 May started with West Bromwich at the bottom, Southampton and Crystal Palace one point clear and Norwich City in the last safe spot and two points from the bottom. Even worse, only one would survive the drop. The final matchday was publicized by Sky Sports as "Survival Sunday", with accompanying promotional material advertising the last matchday like a title fight or epic movie blockbuster.

West Brom, who had been bottom of the table and eight points from safety at Christmas, did their part by beating Portsmouth at home 2–0. Norwich, the only side to have their fate completely in their own hands, needed a first away victory of the season at Craven Cottage against Fulham to secure their top-flight status and relegate everyone else irrespective of their results. Instead, they were thrashed 6–0 and went down. Southampton, despite leading early on, lost 2–1 at home to Manchester United and were relegated. At The Valley, Crystal Palace led Charlton Athletic 2–1 in the 71st minute, but Jonathan Fortune equalised for Charlton with eight minutes left to send them down. As a result, West Brom stayed up, and made history by becoming the first club in Premiership history to avoid relegation after being bottom of the table at Christmas.

After all four matches ended, cameras focused on the Hawthorns, as confirmation of other results began to filter through. Once the realisation dawned on the players and fans that survival had been achieved, a mass pitch invasion was sparked, with huge celebrations. The Portsmouth fans in the away end of the ground also celebrated despite their defeat as, through losing, they had "helped" relegate arch-rivals Southampton. The defeat itself mattered little to Portsmouth, as they would be unable to improve on their 16th position due to 15th-placed Blackburn Rovers' greater goal difference.

First-team squad

 * Squad at end of season

Appearances and goals

 * As of end of season

! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center| Goalkeepers

! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center| Defenders

! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center| Midfielders

! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center| Forwards

! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center| Players transferred or loaned out during the season



Starting 11

 * Considering starts in all competitions

In

 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Riccardo Scimeca – 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Leicester City, 18 May, undisclosed
 * Martin Albrechtsen – København, 3 June, £2,700,000
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Darren Purse – 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Birmingham City, 18 June, £750,000
 * 🇵🇱 Tomasz Kuszczak – 🇩🇪 Hertha BSC, 14 July, free
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Jonathan Greening – 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Middlesbrough, 29 July, £1,250,000
 * 🇭🇺 Zoltán Gera – 🇭🇺 Ferencváros, 30 July, £1,500,000
 * 🇳🇬 Nwankwo Kanu – 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Arsenal, 30 July, free
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Robert Earnshaw – Cardiff City, 30 August, £3,000,000 (rising to £3,620,000 depending on contractual incentives)
 * Cosmin Contra – 🇪🇸 Atlético Madrid, 31 August, season-long loan
 * 🇯🇵 Junichi Inamoto – 🇯🇵 Gamba Osaka, 31 August, £200,000
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Kevin Campbell – 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Everton, 10 January, free
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Kieran Richardson – 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Manchester United, 29 January, season-long loan
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Richard Chaplow – 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Burnley, 31 January, £1,500,000

Out

 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Phil Gilchrist – released, 10 May (later joined 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Rotherham United)
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Daniel Crane – released, 10 May (later joined 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Burton Albion)
 * Joost Volmer – released, 10 May (later joined Den Bosch)
 * Delroy Facey – released, 10 May (later joined 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Hull City on 25 June )
 * 🇲🇼 Tamika Mkandawire – released, 10 May (later joined 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Hereford United on 9 July )
 * 🇮🇪 Mark Kinsella – released, 10 May (later joined 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Walsall on 27 July)
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Lee Hughes – contract terminated, 9 August
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Sean Gregan – 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Leeds United, £500,000 (rising to £750,000 dependent on appearances), 16 September
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 James Chambers – 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Watford, £250,000, 25 September
 * Scott Dobie – 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Millwall, £750,000, 8 November
 * 🇮🇸 Larus Sigurdsson – retired, 2 December
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Simon Brown – 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Mansfield Town, 6 December, £50,000
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Lloyd Dyer – 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Coventry City, three-month loan, 22 March
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Lee Marshall – retired, 22 April
 * Bernt Haas – released, 21 January (later joined 🇫🇷 Bastia)
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Rob Hulse – 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Leeds United, 9 February, season-long loan
 * 🇲🇱 Sékou Berthé – released, 9 February
 * 🇦🇺 Simon Miotto – released, 9 February
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Adam Chambers – released, 9 February (later joined 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Kidderminster Harriers)
 * 🇮🇪 James O'Connor – 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Burnley, £175,000, 24 March
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Phillip Midworth – released (later joined 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Burton Albion on 11 February)


 * Transfers in: £10,800,000
 * Transfers out: £1,675,000
 * Total spending: £9,125,000

Results
West Bromwich Albion's result comes first