Aston Villa F.C. 2-1 WBA

live text replay



when all is said and done, after a week of intense pressure from a critical local news media over gerard houllier and aston villa's recent mediocre form - and coupled with the hype of the buildup to this match - i don't think that anyone in birmingham or the black country would have realistically expected the albion to go to villa park and come away with 3-points.

the villa are by far and away the biggest club of the four west midlands sides playing in this year's PREMIER LEAGUE and they would go into this match as decided favourites. not because this a particularly good villa side - and this certainly isn't a poor west brom team - but because necessity and playing at home can win local derbies and aston villa needed this one more than can be imagined. in short, they were left with no choice but a win!

following a truly poor performance in their 3-0 monday night loss away to a struggling liverpool side, this was more a match that the villa couldn't afford to lose and absolutely needed to win or face managing a possible crisis and dropping into the relegatoin fight. also gaffer, gerard houllier, had a whack of back-peddling, patch-work public relations to do following some poorly chosen words in regards to his old team, liverpool, and the villa's recent defeat at anfield.



truth to tell, i haven't watched the villa much this year, but from what i have seen they are not a particularly exciting team. whenever i have watched them over the last few years, one thing has been consistent: they are a counter-attacking team who play the long ball. from listening to the post match reactions from the villa supporters on BBC WM, i get the idea that the club has been in a bit of turmoil defensively of late.

most of the supporters' praise was for the full-backs and centre-halfs, especially the inclusion of carlos cuellar - who seemed like he might be a popular choice among supporters for villa's man of the match - and the effective manner in which they dealt with the baggies wingers, jerome thomas and somen tchoyi. it's fair to say that "relief" was the dominant emotion expressed by the phone-in villa supporters.

the baggies support on the other hand was, in general, mildly disappointed but not surprised. when asked by the BBC if they had felt confident of victory prior to the match, a group of albion fans leaving villa park laughed at the question.

"you never feel like that being an albion supporter," one of them answered.



roberto di matteo stuck pretty much with the team that had beaten newcastle the week before. the only conscpicuous absence was that of peter odemwingie, who was replaced in the starting line-up by marc-antoine fortune, due to a reccurring problem with his knee. graham dorrans retained his starter's position in midfield with youssouf mulumbu moved to the bench and just returning from a two-game match ban for a red-card picked up in the now famous victory at goodison park two weeks ago.

in keeping with their playing character of late, the baggies came out with all guns blazing and bossed the first 20 minutes of the match, despite an aston villa formation that forced the albion midfield and backline to play a little bit deeper than they would have liked. while the albion had the major share of possession and somen tchoyi coming dangerously close to scoring in smacking a left-footed effort off the cross-bar, the villa tactics had been disruptive enough that an ensuing counter-attack produced the game's first goal by stewart downing.

emile heskey scored the villa's second in the 79th minute through another break-down at the back allowing a deep cross by marc albrighton to make its way through west brom penalty area and bounce in at the far corner off heskeys's head. in fact, i'm not sure that he knew too much about it until it hit the back of scott carson's goal.

paul scharner continued the excellent form he has shown since moving to centre-half and pulled one back for the baggies to give the game some hope at the end. but it was - as they say - too little too late.



as has happened before, marc-antoine fortune was left isolated, and although good at running the channels and finding space in wide positions, isn't really geared toward attacking goal directly and desperately needs to be played with a strike partner in a traditional 4-4-2.

unfortunately - and while there remains no other comparison - this was the way the albion lost matches during their last PREMIER LEAGUE campaign under tony mowbray; in that, they dominate the play, control the ball well but get caught out by counter-attacking football and making mistakes on defending at the back, especially on set-pieces.

let's hope this is not a pattern that the baggies fall any further into.

WBA 3-1 Newcastle United F.C.

live text replay




roberto di matteo made a truly inspired, instructional and intelligent team selection for his starting 11 against west brom's promoted contemporaries, newcastle united.

the gaffer was really astute - and in the light of jonas olsson's continued absence through injury - to put paul scharner at centre-half. the austrian international - who has been playing as a holding midfielder in partnership with youssouf mulumbu - has been afforded a real way to relax his game, stick to the specific, technical and well-defined duties of a centre-half; as well as make better use of his natural talents as an attacking player on set pieces. in fact, it was his move to centre-half that led to his first goal for the club against everton last week. he also seems to bring the intangible quality of unifying the two central defenders, where tamas and ibanez - both excellent defenders in their own right - were struggling for the cohesion that a character like olsson - and now scharner - injects into the back-line.

likewise, the gaffer found the perfect role for graham dorrans in the holding midfield spot left open by youssouf mulumbu's two-game match suspension. the young scot looked comfortable, and with a similarly well defined set of duties in regards to his position, and like his austrian team-mate, was able to relax his game and get some much needed time with a ball at his feet in a competitive situation.



chris brunt was deployed as the central midfielder and somen tchoyi took brunt's regular place on the right wing with jerome thomas back at his usual position on the left. upon initial scrutiny, i'm sure that most people would have assumed that it would be brunt in the holding role and dorrans in his preferred attacking position. but this was real stroke of brilliance both tactically and in terms of personnel manangement.

atypcially, the baggies came straight out of the blocks, and without their usual slow start, pressed the ball from a high position with a very tight 4-5-1 formation, never allowing the toon to settle or get anything together coming forward.

peter odemwingie was excellent, tirelessly ball chasing and harrying defenders, forcing ill-concieved and desperate clearances from both the keeper and back four. his approach paid off as he later took advantage of two critical mistakes leading directly to both his goals.

however, it was actually somen tchoyi who opened the scoring on the half-hour mark. taking a short pass from chris brunt on the edge of the newcastle penalty area - and as still somewhat of an unknown quantity in the PREMIER LEAGUE - the big albion winger, holding the ball on his left foot and just long enough to see some space open up in front of him, surprisingly curled a shot inside the far post. it seemed that no one was really expecting it and being seemingly wrong-footed, he had caught both newcastle defenders and goalie alike quite unprepared.



except for a brief period in the second-half when the toon looked like they might get a goal back, the baggies were in command from the first whistle. on the heels of scott carson's excellent save from steven taylor's header, andy carrol created problems for the albion back four as he got on the end of a looping through ball that caught paul scharner desperately backpeddling and nearly responsible for an own goal. luckily marek cech, positoned well and tracking back, was able to clear the ball off the line with about a yard to spare.

other than that, newcastle were surprisingly flat and the absence of kevin nolan was more than notable.

with the score at 3-0 and the game well into stoppage time, scott carson was cruelly denied a clean sheet when peter lovenkrans scored, picking up carson's initial save from a close range shot by andy carrol. the TV replay showed carrol to have handled the ball in bringing the initial cross under control. while not intentional, it was still clearly handball and the young striker looked as surprised as anyone that the goal was allowed to stand.

this was a first-class performance and a well-timed victory helping to consolidate the baggies' return to form after five games without a win. following their first victory at goodison park since 1979, and just ahead of two important derbies - away to the villa and home to wolves - this left the albion as having the best record of last year's promoted teams as well as the being the top side amongst the four west midlands clubs.



at the beginning of the year, i had boldly picked the baggies to finish (what would be) a surprising 11th in the league. at the time it may have seemed a little optimistic, but jeremy peace, roberto di matteo, dan ashworth et al. haved worked hard and put together a better football team than i think many were aware. i knew that this team was going to be a bit of a surprise in the PREMIER LEAGUE, and a mid-table finish is beginning to look more of an eventuality than remote possibility.

their success thus far has been based on an all round excellent scouting system that has looked for competitively priced players in secondary european leagues; many of whom were completely unknown in england, as well as signing domestic top-flight cast-offs and underrated home grown talent.

in spite of this not being newcastle's day, the three promoted sides have all played beyond expectations and made a contribution towards seeing attacking football played in the top-flight in what has been the most competitive and open PREMIER LEAGUE in years. some think for the better - others, for the worse. whatever the case as to the technical state of football, it's a more entertaining competition this year, and gratifying for all the supporters of teams who've exceeded expectations and/or produced some sure-shock results.

for the moment, it's good to be an albion fan!

Ipswich Town F.C. 1-0 WBA

live text replay



this was really quite unbelievable and makes one wonder at the effort that was made back at the beginning of the competition. why not have saved yourself the trouble and gone out at leyton orient or to manchester city? this was an incredibly bad performance by the baggies and deserves less consideration than condemnation.

perhaps it is merely a reflection of the times and illustrates just how devalued the domestic cup competitions have become in light of the financial worth of competing in the PREMIER LEAGUE. where once the prize money actually held value for the individual player of the day, and would no doubt represent the opportunity to make a substantial mortgage or car payment, money won from cup competitions has now been reduced to little more than chump change not worth getting out of bed for.

a wembley final ain't what it used to be.

except for the bright spot of teenage right-back, james hurst, making his senior debut for the albion, and the generally honest work-rate of players, steven reid and simon cox, there was nothing in this baggies side at all. even the 1-0 scoreline flattered their performance on the night, as it should have been 3 or 4-0.



in light of this, maybe boaz myhill did ok. but the welsh international still ended up wandering out to clear a ball and got ridiculously stuck in a challenge at the corner-flag.

the question i came away asking myself after this round of cup games was: when does a manager start to play his stronger sides in a cup run?

both birmingham city and west ham united played what were more-or-less full-strength sides in their respective quarter-finals. their opponents continued to rest some of their more important players with their focus still on league and european competitive concerns, and - in the case of aston villa - managing injuries.

roberto di matteo followed the latter example and made a full nine changes to the side which had beaten everton so convincingly 3 days earlier. although, as dave bowler suggested at the outset of the ALBION RADIO transmission, with 5 days until the next league fixture you might think about sending out your top squad at this point of the competition. after all, you've gotten this far and with only two games to go before wembley, you could more than reasonably start to think about trying to win the LEAGUE CUP.

like alex ferguson, whose manchester united were soundly beaten by an enterprising and attacking west ham side, i'm sure that roberto di matteo was somewhat confounded by his team's lack of performance on the night. while neither selected anything like their strongest side, both manchester united and west bromwich albion fielded teams that no doubt had enough talent to be competetive in their respective fixtures. but a quality of spirit was utterly lacking in each case and both managers probably felt that they had been badly let down.



i know that the gaffer takes cup competitions more seriously than many other managers. last year's run in the FA CUP was ample demonstration of this. so this performance has to be put on the players even though he might have thought about playing a stronger side in the first place. this type of match is always a nightmare for a manager, and becomes impossible to actually manage because there isn't just one or two obvious changes you could make in order to effect some improvement. with the all-around performance so poor, you wouldn't know who to bring off or bring on. even trying to think tactically becomes pointless.

in truth, ipswich town weren't a whole lot better, and the match statistics showed that, on all counts, this was a fairly even game. somen tchoyi, marc-antoine fortune and simon cox all got in creditable efforts on goal, but the better chances consistently fell to the tractor boys and their inability to finish looked as if west brom were just going to snatch this one on a sub-par performance.

however, grant leadbitter scored the winner from the penalty spot in the 69th minute after graham dorrans had fouled carlos edwards on the edge of the baggies' penalty area. while the foul looked to have occurred outside the box, it was no less than the town deserved on the night and the match was mercifully spared the extra time that was looking more and more imminent.



at the end of the day - and for better or worse - the importance of premiership survival precludes even a realistic chance of taking part in a EUROPA LEAGUE competition, the opportunity of which itself may not be as close again for a number of years, regardless of what happens in the league.

on the day, this was big waste of time and i feel really sorry for the albion supporters who traveled to portman road with realistic expectations of seeing their side go through to the LEAGUE CUP semi-finals on what was, by all accounts, a freezing and miserable night. the fact that they constituted roughly 11% of the crowd makes them the real heroes in this one, i think.

luckily, this was so far removed from what is really important that it in no way reflects the teams's current form or indicates anything much at all. this will be a completely different team on saturday. that is the one thing i can absolutely guarantee.