WBA 1-2 Manchester City F.C.

live text replay


i wasn't giving too much thought as to a projected result for this fixture; but then, neither i was being too hopeful of much either. of course, with the good start that the baggies have had on the season, i wasn't ruling out any possibility. after all, we held the current champions to a 0-0 draw at the hawthorns on new year's day. but if the average albion supporter was forced to think about it- and being honest with themselves - then losing this one by one or two goals would probably seem the most likely outcome.

while this match did indeed end up with a reasonable looking score-line, it happened in such a way that west brom supporters will be unlikely to feel this level of dissapointment with the result of any fixture for rest of the season.

on the up side, this game was a testament to the quality of steve clarke's tactics. knowing that the only way to get a result would be to play a defensively sound game and look for opportunity on the counter-attack, that is exactly how the gaffer set the side out to play.


to be fair, manchester city aren't always playing thier best stuff these days and can get distracted with the kind of personalities that a high level of individual talent will bring in a side where a lot of money has been spent. still, the baggies defended well, and when they got the opportunity they looked dangerous.

after a good start by both teams - and city showing that they can knock the ball about and create chances for themselves - a break by the baggies in the 22nd minute created a dramatic turning point.

with vincent kompany trying to walk the ball out of his own half, the city captain clumsily gave it away to youssouf mulumbu on the half-way line. the ball rolled free for james morrison who spotted shane long in an advanced position and found the striker with a low hard ball downfield. long had taken the pass and just gotten in behind the last defender, james milner. the sky blues midfielder brought long down in a central position about 5 yards outside of the city penalty area. there was no doubt as to an appropriate action and referee, mark clattenburg, immediately held up a red card. the champions would now have to play for well over an hour with ten men.

this was the point at which one dared to imagine that the baggies might keep their unbeaten home record intact.

still, it was hard for the baggies to deal with the individual skill present in the city line-up. in the 40th minute, city striker, mario balotelli showed off some genuine world class play. attacking with the ball and making a fine run down the left-wing, the italian striker left no less than three west brom defenders in his wake before cutting back inside from the bi-line and testing ben foster with a right footed shot from only a few yards out.

after a first half which saw few real chances created by either side, manchester city started the second period dominating the possession and looked ever threatening, even down to ten men. ben foster was forced to make a good save from carlos tevez, and yaya toure wasted their best opportunity of the match as he headed well over the bar following a tevez free-kick.


the deadlock was finally broken as shane long put the baggies ahead in the 67th minute. on a rare albion foray into the city half, peter odemwingie played a hard, low drive into the box that city failed to deal with. the ball ran through and long timed his run perfectly, getting in behind the sky blues' defenders to re-direct the ball past a rooted and helpless joe hart. what would be a magnificent victory for the baggies was beginning to look more than just a possibility at this point.

however, playing against manchester city these days is rather like playing a classic brazilian team. even down to ten men this is a side where individual talent can appear and exert itself at any given moment.

with less than 15 minutes left and time running out, roberto mancini looked to his bench for an answer. edin dzeko came on in exchange for gareth barry in the 78th minute and had an immediate impact.

zoltan gera fouled gael clichy as he made a run down the left-wing. with an excellent delivery on the ensuing free-kick, ben foster made a rare error in judgment as he came rushing off his line in an effort to punch the ball away. however, with city attackers piling into the box, the baggies keeper got nowhere near it and dzeko's header was hard and on target. the score was level with a little over 10 minutes left to play.

while a draw wouldn't be a bad result against the league champions, the baggies had it in their minds that this was still a winnable fixture and with their numerical superiority - along with their own late substitution of romelu lukaku coming on for shane long - the baggies were now inspired to go forward in search of a winner.

with the play becoming a frantic end to end struggle, the baggies broke well from a manchester city corner kick with lukaku only just unable to get to the tap-in from james morrison's cross. then in injury time, the big belgian forward came close with a spectacular bicycle kick that was turned over smartly by joe hart for a west brom corner-kick.

in like fashion, city was able to break following the albion corner and alexander kolarov picked out sergio aguero in a one-on-one situation with albion right-back, gabriel tamas. with both micha richards and dzeko breaking through the middle, aguero slotted the pass perfectly in behind the trailing baggies defenders and the bosnian striker fired home past a diving ben foster.

however, west brom weren't finished yet. with 2:30 of stoppage time still left to play the albion mounted one final attack. lukaku, showing excellent skill on the ball cut his way through three city defenders to get into the sky blues' penalty area, before playing a one-two pass with jonas olsson who cut to the bi-line, pulled the ball back for the charging lukaku whose goal-bound shot got past joe hart but was cleared off the line by gael clichy as the champions held on for an unlikely victory.


while this performance established that west bromwich albion's success in the league so far has been thoroughly deserved, it was a fixture that was lost in a moment of high-spirited naivete and should be a real lesson for baggies boss, steve clarke.

while the albion probably deserved at least a point and the dissapointment of losing all three in such dramatic fashion was hard to swallow, there were many positives to be taken from this game. after this, the baggies should have the confidence to bounce back, knowing that there are games where they won't play near this well and still get a result.

in this regard, it was strange consolation that the quality of football played in the second-half would have been unimaginable not so long ago. chairman jeremy peace - and the excellent work of dan ashworth, et al. - has taken the club back to a level not seen here since the 1970s. any success that the baggies achieve, at this point, will have been well earned and sometimes at the expense of a hard lesson.