the easy assessment of this one would be to attest to neil warnock's ability to squeeze points out of negative footballing tactics; but in truth, the albion didn't seem to be in this one except for a late squandered opportunity by luke moore that would have put the albion ahead and probably given them a win they didn't really deserve.
welcome back to the championship!!! one of the reasons that i like this division is that it is much more competitive than the premiership, where the infamous "big four" win just as easily away as they do at home and are rarely beaten under any circumstance except when playing each other, the villa or everton. today was a bleak reminder of the nature of the championship and everything i am usually grateful for about football at this particular level.
after thrashing middlesbrough last week - and on the back of succesive 3-1 victories at the hawthorns versus plymouth argyle and doncaster rovers - the baggies have dumped their first two matches of the season, going out of the league cup against arsenal when reduced to ten men by a jerome thomas' dismissal after about half an hour; and today's home loss to crystal palace. unlike the premiership, on any given day, anybody in this division is capable of beating anyone else. and so it was today...
live text replay
i got the idea from today's game - after having seen the matches at the hawthorns and against middlesbrough on internet audio stream and TV - that the baggies were missing chris brunt more than anything. while graham dorrans and youssouf mulumbu have been doing sterling work in the central mid-field, chris brunt has been the key in leading the team forward. when i saw the baggies at the hawthorns there was a kind of "captain" quality that he seemed to have. he is definitely the out-field general - and despite jerome thomas' exciting runs in possession and koren's moments of truly inspired attacking play - is consistently the most aggressive of the mid-fielders going forward.
i have noted on a couple of occasions when the baggies are playing a lot of clever possession in the midfield through dorrans and mulumbu, brunt is the one who drags them forward and urges the attack into more direct action - and then there was his unbelievable scoring performance last week at middlesbrough...
anyway, i knew this would happen. the baggies are going to lose a few matches that'll seem like a surprise. it's still a long season and part of the secret to winning automatic promotion is not to peak too early, because there's no way that you can sit it out in the championship like chelsea or manchester united fighting out a promotion campaign, sitting in first or second place all season and only expect to lose 3 to 4 matches on the year. it'll never happen! it's just not what the championship is about! i was just surprised that it was today against crystal palace that brought west brom back down to earth with a thump.
jerome thomas pulled things further back than he could have imagined at the time when he drew the red card against the arsenal the other night. but with a long way to go, maybe the cautionary lesson learned will curb the tendency the baggies have had this season for getting booked - especially for stupid things like "dissention", which has been happening far too much. there are going to be injuries and the albion are still at least one central defender short of full and real depth in the side; so they can't afford suspensions as well.
roberto di matteo is exceeding expectations and so far this has been a good year with a real positive feeling about the club. maybe it's time to take long breath, pray that everyone stays healthy as possible, cool it down and think about taking some points back against barnsley on tueday night.
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