WBA 3-1 Derby County

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given what i was seeing from baggies' fans posting to the BBC 606 following the FA cup loss to reading, i have to say, i can't believe the level of negativity of what i was reading. for one thing, we're supposed to be west bromwich albion supporters and that means that you're certainly not here to celebrate the ritual of perpetual victory. if that's what you're looking for there's always manchester united - and they're much easier to follow than the baggies, choose any medium you will. however, there is no doubt the FA cup loss had further drained the team - both physically through the fact of the replay, and emotionally from the manner of the loss. while i found the online reaction to be generally alarmist and overly negative, the 606 posters are not completely without a reason to be concerned.

i read posts that had already written the baggies off as far as automatic promotion goes, and others that couldn't see the baggies being good enough to even wage a successful playoff campaign. as we have dropped to third in the table for the second time this season and haven't won in four starts, it seemed like good deal of baggies supporters were hitting the panic button or had already given up completely on the albion for the year. you've got to remember that two of the four games without a victory haven't counted in the league. and there's plenty of historical precedent for this kind of loss. this isn't the first time ever that an albion defender has lost their nerve or made a poor decision that caused a shocking and unexpected loss in injury time.



what is true - and should be a point of concern for any supporter - is that the albion are not playing terribly well at the moment. but, there is just enough individual inspiration in the side that they can get through a rough patch like this, still get results and keep pace with their promotion expectations. if you look at the cycle of league fixtures over the course of the season, you'd probably see a definite pattern and what's going on right now isn't something that we haven't experienced before. i still believe that the baggies will be challenging for the league title with newcastle throughout the remainder of the season, and i saw nothing in today's home victory over derby to shake my faith in that belief.

while graham dorrans seems to have gotten all the attention this year, it is chris brunt who drags the baggies forward and pushes the team into attack at the most critical moments. he's a real leader on the pitch and makes a lot happen going forward. there's no doubt that graham dorrans came into the side under much more dramatic circumstances than did chris brunt, but i still believe that brunt is the heart of this year's albion side and his performance has been a decisive factor in regards to our relative success this year.



my view was somewhat vindicated in today's win over derby county. the northern ireland international, controlling a low, sharp pass from simon cox on the wing, single-handedly created and scored the equalizer when the baggies looked as if they were going nowhere, and heading for a truly disastrous loss. he then put the albion ahead minutes later by picking up on some scrappy play in the derby box following an albion corner and took full advantage when the chance fell to him.

the other factor which made the difference and saw the baggies turn this one around was simon cox' inclusion as a substitute for moore - going against the conventional wisdom that the baggies' young striker is unsuited to the team's current 4-5-1 formation. luckily, cox is a tireless runner and his work-rate is good on his worst days. today it really paid off. cox netted the albion's third goal on a through-ball from fellow substitute, james morrison, and clinched an absolutely vital win for the baggies. the three-points - coupled with leicester city's 3-0 win over nottingham forest - puts the albion back into second-place with extra points and a game in hand. with a run of home fixtures coming up and a fair number of players coming back from short-term injuries, the baggies are back in the driver's seat and should be able to challenge for the league title - if not win it outright!

the other thing about BBC 606 that i noticed was the posters quick and easy dismissal of the FA cup in favour of concentrating entirely on promotion. these folks have forgotten how good it feels to win an FA cup. they fail to recognize - even with the current state of english football - that a cup final win, especially the FA cup, is a thing that is remembered and celebrated for years and years after the fact; and a win by a team from the second-tier would be a memory that would last its supporters a lifetime.



roberto di matteo showed a great deal of creativity in his team selection and his use of substitutes in getting today's win. making a full five changes to the starting squad from wednesday night's game, he managed to coax a deceptive 3-1 scoreline from a match that was really sub-par and lacking in any real initiative until the last twenty minutes. the gaffer surprised everybody by taking out both joe mattock and gianni zuiverloon. while marek cech is healthy and it was expected that he'd be given a start today ahead of mattock, it was widely thought that di matteo would still play zuiverloon simply by virtue of the fact that he has no other right-backs in the squad. however, the gaffer moved recent signing gabriel tamas to the right-back position and played abdoulaye meite in the centre.

while di matteo's defensive gambit worked well enough to see to it that they only conceded a single goal, it was once again the baggies' ability to score quickly and make goals out of nothing that won the day.

make no mistake about it, as uninspired as this match was, the last twenty minutes were the most critical football that the albion have had to play this year, and they showed they are a team of no small character - especially in light of the potential lack of confidence that might have haunted them after the crushing manner in which they were knocked out of the FA cup only days ago. today was a huge step towards fulfilling the most demanding of this year's expectations.

WBA 2-3 Reading F.C.

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so ends this year's adventure in the last romantic dream of heroics still available to a club like the albion. it was dramatic, heartbreaking, and completely unnecessary. with a 2-1 lead and only seconds left the albion should have held on to this one. in a moment echoing the first nine seconds of this fixture's reverse encounter, gianni zuiverloon failed to control and clear a routine ball that allowed jimmy kebe to once again roast the young dutch fullback, setting up the equalizer for brian howard with about a minute of injury time left to play.

barring the possibility that the baggies might still win the day by taking this one to penalties, the momentum had, in a moment, swung to reading and their superior late-going tactics proved the albion's undoing. the royals - knowing that they now had to hit early and protect the lead against a tired baggies attack, did just that. within three minutes of the kick-off in extra-time, reading jumped on abdoulaye meite's failure to clear the ball and gylfi sigurdsson fired a shot from about 25 yards out that completely beat the baggies' defense, caught scott carson off his line and curled into the back of the net.

in watching the post-game interview with baggies' head-coach, roberto di matteo, you could see the puffiness and swelling around his eyes from where he had been fighting back the tears. it was evident that he was distraught, and possibly suggests the deeper implications as to what difficulties the gaffer has to face in managing a thin squad over the next few weeks and still maintaining progress in the league.



while good old tony mowbray had a cool detachment and a technical analysis of the situation that always made me feel better about being an albion supporter on the worst of days; roberto di matteo is much more of an emotional character, and with his understanding of just how english football works at its best, he gets my sympathies for having to bear how utterly frustrating and upsetting it can be at its worst.

di matteo was truly pained by this, and i could feel his pain like it was my own. in the modern game of english football, a young, talented side like the baggies has so little time to accomplish anything before the big clubs start sniffing around and players begin looking towards furthering their own careers. in some cases it might be a move to help with their international aspirations and in others simply for the better money and big-club prestige.

one could see in the gaffer's face the frustration of working under conditions where the high level of expectations that must be met within the space of a single season is absolutely over-whelming. while kevin phillips is lauded as a modern day hero at this club, we've got to remember, he was only here for two years. tony brown was here for 17 years - and stuck with the baggies through relegation and three years in the second-division without whining how he deserved better and asking for a transfer to fulham or bolton. in 1976 he scored the famous goal at boundary park that took the albion back to the top-flight. they don't make players like tony brown anymore.

to their credit - and inside the framework of the 90-minutes - the albion were the better team. they carried almost a 2-1 margin of superiority in all aspects of play. this, of course was reflected in the score (2-1) and how it appeared the game was going to end. the albion were set to win on a brace of goals by robert koren against the single first-half equalizer of jimmy kebe, as these two continued their personal goal scoring duel which they had established in the initial fixture.



this wasn't the first time this year where i was really hurt by a result, but this one runs deeper than most. i continually woke up throughout the course of the night depressed and still in disbelief that things had unraveled so quickly. to be so close and then see it all evaporate in the space of a few minutes was devastating.

as the half-filled hawthorns would testify, the FA cup has become so devalued and winning promotion to the premier league takes such a much greater precedence that only a team like reading - who really have nothing to lose - can realistically focus on a cup competition anymore.

the only good news of the day was the return of james morrison after more than a year out through injury. however, roman bednar picked up a groin-pull which might see him unable to start this saturday against derby.

today i feel as if my faith has been destroyed by the state of english football as it is in the year 2010. with the baggies now winless in four games, a victory against derby this weekend is desperately needed just to cheer us up - forget the FA cup, forget the league table, forget promotion, forget the premier-league... let's just get a win and enjoy the day!

Bristol City 2-1 WBA

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i was not born an albion supporter. in fact, if i had adopted any of the teams to which the respective sides of my family have traditionally shown allegiance, i would have been either a portsmouth, ipswich town or wolves fan.

how i came to be an albion supporter - while being beyond my control, for one thing - is a long story and spans almost forty years of football and colours many of my attitudes about the current state of english football.

this match depressed me terribly. not because the baggies fell into third place, or just how plainly visible it was that fatigue, injury and suspensions are taking their toll; nor that the albion played poorly. but because it made me wonder what i really want as a supporter, and the depressing fact of what one can inevitably expect from english football as it is in the year 2010.



this was pretty average fare for the baggies, and not inconsistent with their form of late. the albion have been on a nine game unbeaten run that has come - for the most part - from scrapping out victories and draws in a slew of mediocre performances against what has largely been mediocre opposition. but it hasn't come cheaply, and the injuries - especially that to gonzalo jara - have at least, temporarily, piled up.

west brom's nine game unbeaten run came to an end with a tired and listless performance in the second-half that saw the the baggies give up two goals in the space of four minutes. while this was only the second away defeat of the season it comes at a particularly difficult time for a club that should now be concerned with cementing their hold on second place and looking towards challenging for the title. but then, the albion never do anything the easy way.

i had to take this match in live via the ALBION RADIO transmission, but i was afforded the opportunity to see the match replayed the next day on TV. truth to tell, the baggies weren't that bad in the first half and deserved more than a one goal lead at the break with striker, roman bednar, unable to finish a couple of really good opportunities.

the one disgrace was recent loan signing frank nouble. considering the reports and big-league estimation as to his potential it must have just been a horrible day for the young mid-fielder. he looked a gangly, dozy muddle in a position that has been covered by the excellent performance of jerome thomas most of the season. i doubt this display was anything like what he's capable of and will just have to be written off as one of those days where even the most basic skills are lost.



the other real weak link in the albion team was joe mattock. while he is a really pretty good left back and knows the various jobs of his position in ways that bely his age, he is not quick enough to be involved in the attacking game as much as he wants to be, and overlapping runs with the left-winger should be discouraged in favour of developing his defensive talents. in short, as long as he stays home and does his job watching the back door he's a good left back. in fact, i think his best game of the season may have been against middlesbrough, where a small injury forced him to hold his place in the back-line and kept him from racing upfield and getting caught out of position.

while the loss is definitely a setback and a missed opportunity towards stamping their name on an automatic promotion place, we have to keep things in perspective. it is only the second loss away from the hawthorns all season, and there's no necessary indication that a poor run of form is going to follow. it has rather looked all year as though second-place has had the baggies name written on it and there's no reason to believe that anything has changed.

what made me depressed about this loss, was that it reminded that i am a baggies supporter and would follow them all the way down to depths of league 2 and beyond if that's what was required. but watching this game, i got an uneasy feeling that this might be the last year of yo-yoing the club has got in them. i mean, this is a completely unique situation in english football that a team should have been involved in relegation and promotion struggles between the first and second tiers for ten years running. it's just got to resolve at some point!

so assuming we attain promotion again, what can we expect from the premier league? while i know the £30 million TV money is a big incentive just to be included in the competition - but really - what can west bromwich albion ever hope to achieve in the premier league under today's conditions? last year, we were the only team in the premier league that made a profit. all the other clubs operated by committing to huge debts in order to buy "premier league" players. we've seen in the past how this business model ultimately fails when a club adopts and carries premier league financing for a number of years and is then relegated.



charlton athletic, held up by football pundits and professionals as the model example of a "consolidated premier-league" club for most of the last decade, find themselves now - and in the space of a few short years - in the third tier of english football after a double-relegation which was the direct cost of carrying premier league financing at the time of relegation to the second tier. similar things have happened at leicester city, southampton, reading, watford and both swindon town and norwich city were likewise punished for even flirting with the premier league.

if west brom goes up, then all we can ever hope for is "consolidation" and perhaps a top-ten finish somewhere down the road - and that would be considered a miracle. it might even be worth a "manager-of-the-year" award! i mean, just look at the rave-reviews that alex mcleish is getting at birmingham city this year! genius is reduced to a state of mediocrity and glory is strictly reserved for those who can afford it.

i know that it is complete heresy to proclaim it, but i would rather see the albion win the FA cup than anything else this year. the fact is that true glory, a day of authentic heroics and the possibility of transcendence at the highest level is only possible through the cup competitions for mid-size clubs like the albion anymore.

i wasn't born an albion supporter but i shall probably die as one, and a lifetime of watching english football will have coloured my attitudes towards it.

Cardiff City 1-1 WBA

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well, this was a real hard day's night... and another draw for the baggies as they managed to further their unbeaten streak (9 games now) and (at least for the next 24 hours) are again tied with league-leaders newcastle on points, but find themselves in first place by virtue of superior goal difference. the toon have a game in hand and will be home to coventry tomorrow. perhaps the sky-blues and their improved form of late can give the baggies a small helping hand in their push for automatic promotion?

at the outset of the match it was revealed that roman bednar had a back injury and would be sitting this game out. injuries couldn't come much heavier after what the baggies have sustained this last two weeks. funnily enough though, bednar was named as an non-playing substitute, since di matteo now finds himself without enough healthy players to even field a full first team. bednar did no warm-ups, his presence entirely symbolic, and was there only to see that there were enough bums sat on the bench that it might make up a whole squad.



as expected, both new arrivals to the albion, andy slory and frank nouble, got starting spots on the wing and midfield respectively, with albion sticking to the 4-5-1 formation that has been so successful during the baggies' recent run of form. unfortunately, i can never understand why di matteo leaves luke moore as the lone striker, as it is a game most unsuited to the ex-villa striker's style and ability?!?!

back in the "hot media" environment of ALBION RADIO once again, there was a controversial and questionable penalty called on jonas olsson. although, i have a suspicion that any good cardiff-biased commentary would have reported a stonewall penalty rather than a questionable decision. however, i wasn't able to catch up with cardiff city transmission before they signed off as i usually would. peter whittingham promptly dispatched the spot-kick to make it 1-0 to bluebirds. the mainstream press reported no controversy as to the awarding of the penalty.



the baggies were probably the better side on the day and wouldn't have deserved to lose this one. luckily, gianni zuiverloon again provided the heroics by scoring in stoppage-time just before the end of the first half. graham dorrans made the final pass on a move that had started with a scott carson free kick and ended with the young dutch full-back burying the ball in the bottom left hand corner of the cardiff city goal.

i've been contending all year that i don't think we've seen this particular baggies team play up to their real potential - even with the big victories over middlesbrough, watford and sheffield wedneday - and now, i'm not sure that we're really going to get to see a team featuring the likes of roman bednar, ishmael miller, chris brunt, robert koren, simon cox or graham dorrans at their best until next year. although, there is still the possibility of something in the way of cup glory that might produce itself at some point, for the time being, the primary goal is to finish out this season (and all its competitions) on the same note that we started. this is the part of the season where management needs to be at its sharpest and deal with the job at its most desperate.



this was a good point won. cardiff are always a tough side at home and the albion's many draws with blue-birds over the years will attest to this.

in all likelihood - and once these next two or three matches are behind them - the albion will start to find things a little easier, and might even have a full team out by then.

it sounded as if the baggies should have won this one and were superior in all statistical areas. more importantly, the albion had three chances - the best falling for chris wood in the second-half - where they could (and probably should) have scored the winner.

Reading F.C. 2-2 WBA

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i saw this one live on TV through SETANTA SPORTS CANADA. thank god that the FA cup still takes precedence over the premier league somewhere!!! i also had the opportunity to see the day's early kick-off with chelsea dispatching cardiff city by a sizable score-line of 4-1, making sure that the so-called "BIG FOUR" will be represented in the quarter-finals.

i had speculated about the fitness of both graham dorrans and chris brunt, imagining that one or the other (and perhaps dorrans more than brunt) might need to sit out a game for the sake of rest and recuperation. however, it seems that as long as both are injury-free, they will probably always be starting. as i noted when i made this speculation: dorrans and brunt on half-steam are still capable of making things happen and create situations that will lead to goals.

i was unsure about this match, and being a lover of the FA cup, hoped desperately that the baggies got through. i guess because i hadn't seen the albion since simon cox scored deep into injury time at the hawthorns to earn a scrappy little home draw with QPR, i was much more anxious about this match than i would have been for a regular league match, and kebe's goal on 9 seconds was not a good sign.



it didn't really worry me though. i mean, how many times have we seen west brom win a match in which they have trailed 1-0 at some point? myself, i saw it two games in the space of four days at the hawthorns back in september where the albion trailed 0-1 on early goals (both eventually won by a 3-1 score-line), so i wasn't about to sweat it. i was, of course, vindicated when chris brunt's superbly placed cross landed squarely at robert koren's feet and the slovenian mid-fielder walked the ball home for the baggies' opener in the 17th minute.

after that, i couldn't see the baggies losing. to make it even better the royals were down to ten men in the second-half through the sending off of forward brian howard for a particularly bad tackle on abdoulaye meite. but the albion often find a way of not making life easy for themselves, and a second yellow card issued against youssouf mulumbu saw the congolese midfielder sent off to bring things level again.

while the baggies have a tendency towards late goals and one learns never to worry until the final whistle (witness last year's victory over manchester city at the hawthorns), but i was positively despondent when simon church, coming off the bench for the royals, beat the baggies' offside trap in the 72nd minute. scott carson made the initial save but was ultimately beaten as the ball skipped over and behind him for church to finish with a tap-in into the open goal.



while the match was refereed by a senior official who is generally considered a "premiership" referee, it was not officiated terribly well. it occurred to me that he was letting some pretty hard tackles go early on, and then there were some pretty harsh and unnecessary calls later in the game. i wondered, for example, if mulumbu's second yellow-card - while a definite and flagrant foul - was really warranted?

if the measure of good officiating is consistency then this guy was way off the mark. in fact, he ran this match rather like a gym-master overseeing a school-boy game where he had different standards set for different players, in order to compensate for varying levels of skill and with the particular intention of teaching whatever lessons are needed by the various individuals involved.

when a referee considers his own performance, judgments and prestige above that of the players, the teams and the game that he is officiating, then you are in real trouble and are going to get some bad calls. it was even suggested by the TV commentary that so-called "premier league" referees often do not take matches involving league teams seriously.



true to form, the baggies added a new name to their list of goal-scorers on the season as joe mattock scored his first for the albion. throwing everybody forward the baggies launched a late assault on the royals' penalty area. about 12 yards out and in possession of the ball, simon cox, seeing that mattock was in space behind him over his right shoulder, turned and delivered the ball for the teenage full-back to drill home the equalizer.

the albion will now have to replay this one at the hawthorns a week from wednesday with the winner set for a home quarter-final draw against either crystal palace or the villa. assuming that the baggies win the replay, i have every reason to believe i can start to dream just a little about the possibility of a wembley appearance for the albion this year.

the downside of all this is that roberto di matteo has now got some real selection headaches to deal with over the next three or four matches. jerome thomas is on a four-game suspension. likewise, youssouf mulumbu will be starting a short suspension with missing tomorrow's match; and both meite and jara are out with injuries - the chilean international gone for the season with a broken metatarsal. that leaves gianni zuiverloon as the only real choice at right-back, for example.

the next three of four games will be a real test of depth and character of the players that roberto di matteo has available to him. he's been astute enough to make a couple of important loan deals and has managed his forwards superbly in keeping roman bednar healthy and productive and making good use of simon cox as a utility player, who has made important contributions in crucial situations this year.

if the baggies can manage to keep their unbeaten run going at cardiff tomorrow, it will go a long way to maintaining the goal of automatic promotion.

WBA 2-0 Scunthorpe United

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who would have imagined, while perusing the fixtures list at the beginning of this year's league competition, that what may be west brom's three or four most vital wins of the season would come against sheffield united, blackpool, plymouth argyle and scunthorpe?

with derby county surprising newcastle united 3-0 on the night, the albion have gone back into first place, are on a seven game unbeaten run and are poised to advance to the quarter-finals of the FA cup. but none of this has come cheaply.

the baggies came into this one needing a largely overhauled starting line-up due to a couple of key short-term injuries, as well as jerome thomas' beginning a four-match suspension which came by virtue of his second straight red-card of the season issued in injury-time against plymouth.

the incident has since escalated as the FA have charged both the albion and argyle with not adequately controlling their players, and thomas may face an extended suspension on a seperate charge of "violent conduct", also brought against him personally by the FA. that's the story as best as i can glean from the mainstream news at the moment.

scunnie have a recent history of having players sent off themselves in this fixture. the corresponding match in december - which saw the iron playing well and having equalized early in the second-half, only to see their discipline implode and finish the match with 9-men and on the wrong end of a 3-1 scoreline.

while they only had one player sent off in this one, it wasn't the turning point that it served in the previous encounter and - as with the last two matches for the albion - this was a scrappy little game with few chances made and fewer taken.



roman bednar is back at his absolute best and scored just on 13 minutes to give the match what would be a long-standing 1-0 scoreline. truth to tell, when the baggies get themselves one goal up in a low-scoring game it's always a nervy affair. for a team that have won 17 matches to date there are a surprisingly low number of 1-0 wins. in fact, there are just two of them: the first against nottingham forest back in august and last weekend's win at plymouth. so you can see why defending a one-goal lead over 77 minutes might seem an anxious proposition for any baggies supporter?!?

di matteo wasted no time in giving the latest addition to the team a start in the likes of teenage striker, frank nouble, who has just come on loan from west ham, and is probably - given his level of talent - a short term deal that the gaffer has made to fill some essential gaps at a critical time of the season. having acquitted himself adequately over the course of the match, he in turn came off for the other new boy, andy slory.

with the gaffer's tactical substitutions in the blackpool match having unluckily backfired on him and ishmael miller picking up an ankle injury which will push his recovery back two or three weeks, di matteo had little choice but to look out a couple of loan deals in order to soldier on.



one thing that has to be credited to roberto di matteo this year is the belief he has instilled in the entire squad, and the ability to get players to perform and make functional, practical contributions at critical moments. today it was gianni zuiverloon who kicked in with a goal that sealed the victory when the match looked like it might be in danger of ending with everyone on level-terms. zuiverloon - and not for the first time this season - showed why he one day might be a truly great name in english football.

i am somewhat perplexed by a player like zuiverloon. like his team-mate, marek cech, he possesses skills more associated with a winger or mid-fielder than that of a fullback. however, the albion have - and since the days of bobby robson and don howe - always had a tradition of adventurous and offensively minded fullbacks capable of chipping in goals when needed. while cech has been used out of position and is a very adaptable player in that sense, zuiverloon has (save for a few minutes as a sub in the blackpool match) thus far exclusively played from the right-back position. with recent injuries and jerome thomas' suspension to deal with, di matteo might finally find a different starting role for the young dutch fullback.

as the albion now prepare to kick on and play away to reading this weekend for a place in the quarter-finals of the FA cup, the gaffer is going to have to show off his management skills to maximum effect. besides the immediate injury issues, it has been clear that graham dorrans and chris brunt are beginning to show signs of wear and at least one of them is going to have sit out a game - and sooner rather than later! while the loss of either of these key players is a serious adjustment - and even on half steam both dorrans and brunt are capable of making things happen and producing goals. they have also been the two penalty takers this year.

i'd hope to see brunt start with an eye to making a tactical substitution (and depending on the score-line) in the second-half to give him a rest. i would start robert koren in place of dorrans, and simon cox as the attacking mid-fielder or deep striker. and in the event of a penalty just hope that a taker emerges. still, it's quite possible that both dorrans and brunt will be rested for this match - they both certainly need it; and i can never quite guess when the gaffer is going to use simon cox.

Two Scrappy Little Wins

Plymouth Argyle 0-1 WBA

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with the baggies coming out of their trip to blackpool rather like the walking wounded, the gaffer gave simon cox his first start in over a month. i like simon cox and hope that he sees cultivation of his talents and potentials; and along with it creates a long and successful career at the hawthorns.

to vindicate my belief in the young striker, his form held up from where he had left off by scoring the winner in this one on the 66th minute. while he's still many seasons from developing the relative class of skill, there are shades of kevin phillips both in form and function about young cox.

this was a starting line-up that i have wanted to see, and the combination of bednar and cox in a forward pairing had yet to really be used by di matteo. the significant result of this being that the baggies now find themselves with two strikers who are in form, and are fulfilling the requirements of the current roles within the gaffer's tactical planning and line-up selection. that is, the big starting striker scoring consistently and prolifically and the utility striker supplying goals when desperately needed.



while this wasn't a particularly good match, it was a rare clean-sheet and an unusual single goal game for the baggies. true to form, it felt like a draw for most of the match. even after the goal, the albion's proclivity for not protecting single-goal leads well gave this one its only real tension, and the team have to be commended for just grinding it out and winning another match in less than attractive fashion.

the one controversial moment that has added to roberto di matteo's present managerial challenges was the dismissal of jerome thomas on his second straight red-card of the season which will see the winger gone for a full four matches.

as with their performance against blackpool this was not beautiful football and was another example of how good teams win even when playing poorly. as routine as these wins might seem when considering things in context to the season's fixtures list, neither came easily; and with the temporary loss of thomas, miller and marek cech, it's lucky that the gaffer has had the foresight to start making the loan deals to see through what is a truly critical time with both a promotion push and FA cup competition still to contend with. the albion are now once again poised to challenge for first-place in the league and have created the very real possibility of a title battle with newcastle.

in spite of everything else the cost of these two scrappy little wins has probably been worth it.

Blackpool F.C. 2-3 WBA

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while the albion took advantage of nottingham forest's first defeat in months to leapfrog back into second place - and are now in the driver's seat as far the automatic promotion places go - they did so in questionable style and only by virtue of the good fortune that winning teams make for themselves which will see through a poor performance to gain a full 3-points. this is what is known in some schools as "winning ugly".

to be fair - and despite the recent addition of gabriel tamas playing in the first team - roberto di matteo had literally worn out his back line by starting the same 11 over a very congested period of fixtures which included five league games and an FA cup draw. in fact, both jonas olsson and marek cech seemed so bruised and beaten for the last 25 minutes of the match and it sounded as if the big swedish defender was lead-footed, lethargic and unable to get to the ball; while a spontaneous hamstring pull eventually pushed left-back cech forward into a hobbled front line alongside ishmael miller, who himself had sustained an ankle injury in winning the game saving penalty converted by graham dorrans. this whole unfortunate situation was ultimately forced due to roberto dimatteo's early - and ultimately unlucky - tactical substitutions and it seemed like half the team finished the match hobbled, exhausted and within no more than 30 seconds short of a blackpool equalizer.

while it was not reported as controversial in the mainstream press, the points of view as to whether the tackle on miller that led to the winning penalty were debated hotly and reported very differently by the media representatives of both clubs. if you were listening to the blackpool transmission it was reported that the penalty decision was unfair. the albion commentary declared it a stonewall penalty. in fact, ian holloway - one of my favourite talkers on the subject of football, by the way - refused to speak to the albion commentary staff after the match having asked them if they really thought it was a penalty or not and receiving an affirmative response did something like call them a couple of rude names, make a disparaging remark about honesty and partisan journalism and slammed a dressing room door on them.

having watched the replay myself, i have to come down on the side where my biases lay: it was indeed a penalty! while the blackpool defender may have got the ball on the initial slide to make the tackle (and i'm not even sure about that) there is no question that as ishmael miller continued his run in on goal, he was tripped by the full-back's outstretched leg. it was a penalty and should have been a red card - and probably would have been had the defender not made the initial tackle successfully.

while di matteo's substitutions seemed like a good idea at the time, beginning with the baggies' latest acquisition, andy slory coming on for an obviously fatigued jerome thomas. this didn't seem a a bad move at all given the recent schedule and no change to the line-up in six matches. slory actually saw a good effort saved by the blackpool keeper on his first real touch of the ball.



this was followed by the early introduction of ishmael miller. usually the big striker has been coming on for the last 20-15 minutes of the match in a measured regimen designed to ease him back into 90 minutes of football after a lay-off through injury which lasted over a year. he replaced bednar with about 25 minutes of regular time left, and then a similar like-for like swap had simon cox on for robert koren. both of these substitutions were nothing but tactical and meant to save his strikers and wingers from exhaustion and the subsequent danger of injury.

at the point of substitution, none of the west brom midfield were able to track back and give cover to their corresponding player in the back-line. while dorrans and koren were more unclear about whose role it was to get back and help mulumbu tidy-up; chris brunt and jerome thomas were equally unable to work back and give their corresponding full-backs cover after a loss of possession.

it was a real case of blessing or curse? as things started to unravel after the penalty decision. while it was significant in that it produced the winning goal, ishmael miller suffered a knock on the angle that left him unable to run and he had to limp out the rest of the match with di matteo having made his last substitution in bringing cox on for koren. moments later, marek cech collapsed both spontaneously and well away from the play with what was later revealed to be a pulled hamstring. he pushed forward into the strikers positions - obviously to minimize on the potential harm that a hobbled full-back might cause.

while dorrans converted the penalty that saw the baggies to victory, any injury to miller at this point is a move backward and we can all be thankful it was unrelated and isolated from his larger injury. it was evident from his inability to shake it off and run towards the end of the match that he'll probably be nursing a nasty bruise for the next couple of weeks and will have to continue with plans of rehabilitation through late substitutions after that.

it's evident that - and will be interesting to see - di matteo will have to make a bunch of changes for the away match to plymouth on saturday.

WBA 3-1 Sheffield United

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the only thing you wish after a match like this is that the baggies might register one or two more clean-sheets on the year. other than that it was a typical baggies win where the skillful, control and pass approach to football beat another uninspired exercise in negative footballing that the blades have become known for in recent years and are all too quick to adopt when things aren't working for them.

the real point of note in this match was the fact that roman bednar is definitely back at his best and proved it on the day by scoring on the half-hour to bring the score to 2-0, after graham dorrans had successfully converted a penalty in the 18th minute.

the blades never looked to be in this one and di matteo's 4-5-1 attacking formation that he has been using the last four games is chugging along and doing its job just fine. my only point of concern being that ishmael miller didn't seem as fit as he had appeared in the previous two or three outings, where similarly, he was brought on towards the end of the match in a measured move to get him back into playing nick.



the other thing that concerns me is the choice to play both koren and dorrans in orthodox attacking midfield roles. i'd like to see koren move into an more traditional striker's position in support of bednar as the target man. i can't help think that it would not only help with the game going forward, but it would be clearer as to who should be working back and mopping up with mulumbu and who should be focused on counter-attack opportunity. i still can't see why we haven't seen a 4-4-2 featuring bednar and cox. it's the only combination of strikers that the gaffer hasn't tried this year and it seems so painfully obvious.

this is the most important 3-points that the baggies have earned in weeks and puts the club within touching distance of reclaiming second place from nottingham forest in the table; and if the baggies can beat blackpool in the re-scheduled match to be played this coming wednesday that's exactly what they'll do.