WBA 2-0 Peterborough United

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luke moore has started scoring again. while the red-hot simon cox seems to have cooled in the last couple of matches, moore has finally broken his scoring drought with a coolly placed strike taking a deflection into the net against peterborough united. he has also seen more than a few of his finishes in the last three games called back for offside. this would tend to indicate that the striker has started to have some success at getting into the kind of position he needs to score.

one of my main assertions this season has been: as goes chris brunt so go the albion. while i believe this to still be true, the baggies have started to learn how to deal a little better with their main problem - and this is merely reflected in brunt's play.

the albion have lacked a mental toughness which makes it hard for them to win when not playing well. when the play is flowing and the ideas coalescing with the actual skills and high imagination becomes manifest, you get the idea that the baggies could take on brazil. this is evidenced by the number of extremely one-sided, high-scoring defeats that they have inflicted on the likes of middlesbrough (0-5), watford (5-0) and sheffield wednesday (0-4).



conversely, when nothing is really going right and the team are finding their touch heavy and passing inaccurate, the football awkward and unnattractive, the baggies just seem at a real loss for what to do?!? when chris brunt is lacking in imagination and play just not working for him they run into real problems going forward. what's worse, is that brunty is in a bit of a slump at the moment.

fortunately, i think this baggies team knows what it's got to do, and even if we end up with another nail-biting season as to whether the outcome is automatic promotion or facing the perils of the playoffs, i have faith that this lot has come to understand what is needed and will scrap for points when they have to from here on out.

the baggies played well against a struggling QPR side and came away on the short end of an undeserved draw for which they had to work to achieve. this one was won on two of the scruffiest goals scored back to back by an albion side in a long time. in a case like this, however, i'll take the scruffy little win over beautiful, flowing, expansive football.