Everton F.C. 1-4 WBA

live text replay


following the baggies historic win at goodison park this last weekend, there should be no doubt that chris brunt is a top PREMIER LEAGUE footballer, as well as the heart and soul of roberto di matteo's west bromwich albion side.

the baggies midfielder not only delivered the corner-kick that provided paul scharner's first goal for the baggies to open the scoring, but a few minutes later scored a goal of genuine world class quality, curling a 25-yard free-kick expertly over the defensive wall and with the ball dipping perfectly into the top left-hand corner of tim howard's goal.

however, and even amongst baggies supporters themselves, i have long noticed a tendency to under-rate his talent and importance to the team. there are even those who were quick to say that it was tim howard's poor reaction time and not chris brunt's expert delivery that really allowed for his goal against everton on saturday.

while everyone and his mother was raving and drooling over graham dorrans' spectacular performance in the CHAMPIONSHIP last season, they barely seemed to notice that brunt scored nearly as many goals as dorrans and was more important as an on-field leader in inspiring the performance of the team going forward.



i heard a fellow albion supporter despairing of the northern ireland international in a conversation going on right behind me in the queue at the hawthorns station following the albion's 3-2 home win over blackpool last year.

"brunt look's like he's just about given up," i heard him moan.

he went to say that the club hadn't really had a decent centre-half since darren moore was here and that he didn't fancy the prospect of meeting blackpool in the play-offs, blah blah.

the irony was that not only had chris brunt played a good game, having delivered a perfect through-ball to ishmael miller on the baggies' first goal of the match, but nottingham forest had also lost that day leaving the baggies having all but clinched automatic promotion. but black country pessimism dies hard.

while no one denies his skill in dead-ball situations, the common wisdom concerning brunt is that he's a decent left-winger at CHAMPIONSHIP level but not possessed of enough pace or close-ball control to be a top premiership player, and can't - or doesn't - track back to defend.

while it is true that brunt plays most often as a winger, it is cutting inside towards goal and playing balls through a central position that he really excels. brunt has a direct hand in a full 50% of all west brom's goals and possesses a rare vision for what's happening on the field and spotting open channels. perhaps this was best illustrated by his goal scored away to middlesbrough last season.



people love natural, uninhibited talent. conversely, they do not fully appreciate those whose success is derived through hard work and study. i doubt, for example, that growing up in belfast, hanging out, playing five-a-sides all day with his mates, that chris brunt would have stood out as the best footballer of the lot. i imagine there were probably two or three lads, at least, who would have been more naturally skilled and better footballers than he was. however, i'm sure they all grew-up to have fine careers with the public works department or working at a job in a local factory.

chris brunt perservered, developed his basic talents, became a professional footballer, and there is no doubt that he was the baggies' man-of-the-match against everton in west brom's first win at goodison park since 1979. the northern ireland international was everywhere and had a hand in absolutely everything, evidencing that criticisms of his perceived weaknesses are either outdated or were never informed or valid in the first place.

as good as the baggies were in this one, everton were particularly poor in their finishing. jermaine beckford, coming on as a second-half substitute as the toffees made a concerted effort to get back in the game with the score still 2-1, saw himself miss several chances of equalizing before somen tchoyi and youssouf mulumbu put the issue beyond doubt with a 3rd, and then 4th goal for the albion.

while the young striker gets into good positions and has real strikers instinct, he will have to work on his first-touch control and finishing if he is to live up to his obvious ambitions, which, quite frankly, look like they might be his downfall. while his attempted bicycle kick would have been a really spectacular and exciting goal had it gone in; the fact is that he had enough time to bring the ball down and try something a little more controlled. he went for glory and screwed the ball horrifically wide of the far post.



this was a really good way to get back some form in the league after a dredful run of games for the baggies last month, and generally - whilst still awaiting the return of jonas olsson - this looks to be the core of the team that should play out the rest of the season. goalie, scott carson, has been playing some of his best football ever, dorrans will have to just play himself back into form - as will ishmael miller, and with the likes of cox and tchoyi on the bench there will be enough quality to at least survive the PREMIER LEAGUE and maybe even do a bit better than that.

the other thing about brunt - and much to his credit - is that he's very durable and only misses a few games every year through minor injuries. he is also extraordinarily consistent and poor performances are few and far between. evidence that sometimes it is better to be rooted in mental acuity, on-field vision and hard work rather than be possessed of dazzling natural and physical skills.

Going Where and for How Long?!?!?

in my blog after saturday's loss to stoke city i called for roman bednar to start this weekend against everton. from what i was seeing in the birmingham press, the BBC, and online fan forums, i more than half knew he was on his way out on a loan deal to leicester. however, until it happens he's still part of the team. truthfully, i think the baggies need to change things up a bit and he'd be worth a start for this saturday's match at goodison park, however unlikely it seems at this point.

in fact, bednar was not the subject of initial interests in the idea to loan out one of the first-team strikers to leicester city. originally, the foxes were going to take ishmael miller on loan, and there seemed no question that it was a move designed to give the baggies' long-time injured striker an opportunity to find some match fitness after nearly a two-year lay-off. however, miller again picked up a minor abdominal injury in training prior to the move, and this prompted sven-goran eriksson, in his apparent need for a striker, to switch his attentions to bednar, who - according to all the regular media sources - looked set to go on loan to hull city.

from all reports bednar is unhappy with life at the hawthorns. apparently, he does not want to leave the club but is frustrated at the lack of playing time he's gotten this year. as for west brom's intentions in regard to their two veteran strikers, it's pretty clear that the gaffer wants to keep miller in the sqaud and needs to place him in a medium that will help him to regain his form and fitness. i'm pretty sure we'll still see ishmael miller start for the baggies sometime in the future.



however, i have an unhappy feeling about roman bednar. unless you're actually hanging around the hawthorns all day, watching the training sessions and keeping an eye on movement around the gaffer's office, it's hard to tell what's really going on. but my instincts tell me that bednar, like robert koren before him, has fallen out with di matteo and west brom will be looking to a permanent move for the czech striker in the new year.

i sincerely hope i'm wrong.

i've never been a fan of marc-antoine fortune, and i feel that he was brought to the club under pressure from both within and without the west brom organization. for me, his return always smacked of optimistic desperation, and his re-signing with the club was more the lack of confidence in bednar and miller, fuelled by football pundits in the mainstream media and the increasing influence of internet fan forums, than anything else.

for a newly promoted club, there is always much discussion, opinion and speculation about whether certain members of that team will be good enough to play at the next level up. signing fortune was just a reaction to popular perceptions of west bromwich albion and general assumptions about the level of quality and ability in their players.

both bednar and miller were part of the baggies side which was relegated from the PREMIER LEAGUE in the 2008-09 season. there is no doubt that this colours the public perception of their worth as players. it's fair to say that to say that miller and bednar are all too often patronizingly characterized as "good CHAMPIONSHIP players" but not good enough for the PREMIER LEAGUE.

however, i believe this overlooks the challenges that each of them had to deal with during the last top-flight campaign. miller was the preferred striker in the introduction of a 4-5-1 formation. this was most unusual as under tony mowbray west brom had always played a very orthodox system featuring two strikers. however, he seemed to put a great deal of time and energy into making his new system work and making miller the focus of their attack. i believe that it was something to which miller was not naturally suited save for his obvious talents as a counter-attacking forward. he was having to learn a whole new way to play and it took some time.



the other key factor in all this, due to player departures from the club, was that it was not nearly as good a footballing side as it had been when they won the CHAMPIONSHIP the year before, and they went into the the season pretty thin at some crucial positions. there's no doubt in my mind that they both would have been better players had they been on a better team.

unfortunately for ishmael miller, after having a scored a goal at newcastle and looking like he was coming into form, the baggies' striker was injured in a collision with portsmouth's david james that saw him out of the team for most of the next two years and without a league start for 14-months. he never really got a chance to prove he could play successfully in the premiership.

bednar did ok and scored a fair number of goals given the playing time he got. in the short term following the injury to miller, the gaffer implemented a relatively successful system of rotating utility strikers which included bednar, craig beattie and luke moore.

i have never understood this, as bednar's style would have been much more suited to a 4-5-1 attacking formation, but mowbray just would not play that particular system without ishmael miller and the baggies - to be fair to the gaffer - targeted and fashioned two important wins against tottenham and manchester city with bednar, moore and beattie all scoring important goals.

fortune came into the side and was the focus of much optimism and excitement. his pre-requisite physical attributes and european pedigree created expectations almost immediately. he scored 5 goals in 18 games and eventually left to play for tony mowbray when he took the manager's job at celtic. i believe he scored 12 goals in the SPL and it remained a common wisdom that fortune was a PREMIER LEAGUE striker where bednar and miller decidedly weren't.



with the former belief widely held, ishmael miller still picking up training injuries and the club in need of strikers for the upcoming PREMIER LEAGUE campaign, west brom brought fortune back to the club from celtic, together with peter odemwingie, a nigerian international from lokomotiv moscow.

odemwingie surprisingly started upon arrival at the hawthorns and was an immediate sensation, scoring the winning goal in the baggies' first win of the season, a 1-0 victory over sunderland at home.

since then, odemwingie has become the first choice striker, missing only a couple of matches through minor injury. with fortune as the apparent second-choice, bednar has recently been limited to two short appearances as a late substitution in league matches, where he has looked more like a snarling pit-bull who has just gotten a frustrating sniff of raw meat before being put back in the cage than a centre-forward.

meanwhile, it looks like they're going to keep miller at the club and figure out some way of getting the 24-year old fit again after a continuous string of injuries which continues to interrupt his career.

i'm sure that the baggies will make a move for a quality striker (there are rumours of interest in sanli tuncay of stoke city) in january and get by on being a little thin in that department until then. however things turn out - and barring his recall to the team much as craig beattie was brought back from sheffield united last year - we may very well have seen the last of roman bednar in the navy-and-white stripes.

i shall always remember his time at the hawthorns fondly and will continue to follow his career and cheer for his success wherever he goes.

WBA 0-3 Stoke City F.C.

match text commentary


at the end of the day, i couldn't help thinking about an old piece of documentary film that shows an arsenal team of the early 1970s pushing their way past a referee coming down the tunnel at half-time.

the players nudge, jostle, elbow, shoulder, bump and shove the ref and his two linesmen as they go past, all the while maintaining the pretense of nonchalance, not noticing and looking the other way. the three men are left clearly shaken and shocked staring in confused disbelief at the crowd of men which has just pushed past them. before they are afforded anytime to recover there is don howe himself, coming up the rear, red-faced and veins bulging in his neck, screaming frantically in the face of the poor man:

"HOW COULD YOU MAKE A CALL LIKE THAT?!?!? EH, EH?!?! THAT WAS THE MOST DISGRACEFUL THING I'VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!!!! JUST BLOODY DISGRACEFUL!!! DISGRACEFUL!!!"

or words to that effect.

football is a human game and referees, over the years, have regularly been bullied, coerced and cajoled, through verbal, psychological and even physical abuse in order to intimidate them and affect their decisions. nowadays, managers and supporter alike are constantly moaning about poor refereeing decisions, which - thanks to modern video technology - are more evident than they ever have been before.

tony pulis has taken advantage of the current climate, and inspired by some recent questionable calls which have gone against his team, has launched a well-publicized attack on PREMIER LEAGUE referees - even going so far as to propose a system of promotion and relegation for match officials, just as you would with football clubs.

the genius of making a challenge in such a public manner is that any referee he encounters in the next two or three weeks may give him the benefit of the doubt on some big calls just in order to prove mr. pulis wrong.

it's quite a brilliant ploy and managed to win stoke city a penalty that no other team in the country would have been awarded on the day, and a second that also would have been highly questionable in any other circumstance.



as usual, i listened to the match live on ALBION RADIO and watched the delayed TV broadcast later that evening. it is often very interesting to note the differences between a match heard only as audio commentary - with a heavy baggies bias - and the neutral assessments of the mainstream TV announcers. the two experiences can be very different, but as far as the first penalty went, one and all - partisan and neutral alike - agreed that the decision was bad, it had been a dive, and kenwyne jones should have been given a yellow-card and not a penalty decision.

even the great trevor francis (whose heart is birmingham city blue) working the TV commentary, as he does for many of the nationally broadcast matches, was emphatic it was poor call.

"that was never a penalty in a million years!" he declared upon seeing the video replay of the incident.

the baggies have been missing jonas olsson, and it will still be several weeks before he begins to make his way back into the team. so it was another truly disastrous blow this week that chris brunt picked up a pulled hamstring playing for northern ireland in last week's international friendlies. without brunt's attacking creativity and skill on set pieces, the baggies were lost on free-kicks and corners, as peter odemwingie curiously stepped forward to take every dead-ball situation. as a result, the albion wasted 90% of their opportunities with the nigerian striker's corners woefully over-cooked and his free-kicks just as bad.

i couldn't understand this at all. i would have thought that without either graham dorrans or nicky shorey in the side, that free-kicks might have been given to gabriel tamas, and corner kicks would be taken by morrison, or the two wingers, thomas and barnes, respectively. however, odemwingie seemed to want to take everything in sight and it simply didn't work.

i also got the feeling that roberto di matteo was out of ideas this week. where he has been a bold and brilliant tactician, making critical substitutions and implementing tactical gambits that have changed the course of more than a few matches, he just had nothing left and was over-looking some of the most basic necessities in the team selection. the gaffer had otherwise picked a pretty similar team to that which has started in the last three or four games, with a few minor changes and variations due to brunt's injury and the physical size of the stoke team.



for example, marek cech got the nod at left-back over nicky shorey presumably because he is better in the air and thus a more suited defender against a team playing the long ball.

giles barnes got one of his few starts of the year. although he still doesn't have a full 90 minutes in him - demonstrating how lengthy and difficult it is to come back from a major injury - he was easily the most lively albion player throughout the first half and showed his worth as a powerful and pacey winger.

the statistics tell a lot about this game, as well as the nature of the PREMIER LEAGUE at its ugliest. over the course of the match the baggies pretty much played twice as much football as the potters. they had 63% of the possession, outshot them by 15 attempts on goal (8 on target) to 6 (4 on target), and won 8 corners as opposed to city's 3. but, playing football doesn't always win games in this league, and the 3-0 scoreline was in no way indicative of the football actually played on the day. while the baggies stats looked impressive, they made nothing of their evident superiority on the ball.

the albion had something knocked out of them at blackpool, and i think the squad is still collectively suffering the psychological effects of that particular match. individually, jerome thomas has not been the same player since, and has dropped into a pattern of second-guessing himself. while gonzalo jara looked very uneven and appears to have lost some confidence on his return to the team following his wild and vicious tackle on luke varney and subsequent three-game suspenion. in hindsight, the chilean full-back must now be painfully aware that he played a central part, with a most negative effect, in what now appears to have been a pivotal moment that saw the beginnings of a sudden and massive down-swing in the team's fortunes.



peter odemwingie, who did not play in the blackpool game, has started to try to do everything himself, and james morrison has only sporadically been able to get involved in any of the last few matches.

at the moment, youssouf mulumbu is the only midfield player who hasn't really suffered any lapse in form. in fact, the congolese international has been playing some of his best football of late, as well as demonstrating a sense of leadership in trying to push the team forward.

if i was roberto di matteo, i would think about fielding a few major - and probably radical - changes for the trip to everton next weekend.

i don't really know what the current political situation is at the hawthorns with thursday's loan deadline coming up - but i would start roman bednar (provided he hasn't gone out on loan) ahead of odemwingie, and i would also start simon cox, no matter what. the team is at a desperate need for goals, and they have to give a start some proven goal scorers. i would also start graham dorrans - especially if chris brunt remains unavailable. if he can begin to find any of his top-form, he's capable of scoring goals as well making them. even if he doesn't, they need to play a dead-ball specialist, at least. i'd also start somen tchoyi and give jerome thomas a rest.

meanwhile, i would be impatient for chris brunt's return and praying that jonas olsson is fit sooner than later.

Wigan Athletic F.C. 1-0 WBA

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the horrible reality of life in the PREMIER LEAGUE has finally returned to visit itself upon the baggies. west bromwich albion not only played poor, tentative football, but also lost a match they probably should have won anyway.

in truth, this was a pretty terrible game all around. i watched the better part of three other PREMIER LEAGUE fixtures besides this one and two CHAMPIONSHIP matches on the day. on every level the games from the second-tier were better entertainment and very often better football than their top-flight counterparts. the pressures of the PREMIER LEAGUE and its claustrophobic atmosphere where a draw is always two points dropped rather than a single-point won sometimes makes for some of the stiffest and most anemic football played on the planet.

so it was today with the baggies. after their mid-week draw with west ham, and feeling the pressure of having lost the two games previous to that, they produced a performance so flat that it was nothing short of pathetic. watching the now infamous michael oliver make a complete mess of the reading/norwich fixture in the CHAMPIONSHIP was quite brilliant entertainment and much better football by comparison. although, i'm not so sure what i would have thought if i was a canaries supporter.



and i do put it down to just that: the pressures of the PREMIER LEAGUE. jerome thomas, chris brunt and james morrison, both collectively and individually, all had their worst game of the year - and by a long way. peter odemwingie was isolated and not getting enough of the ball. graham dorrans has not found any form this year and is a shadow of the player who absolutely terrorized the CHAMPIONSHIP last season.

to be fair, the back-line played a pretty decent game, and it was no surprise that the latics had to rely on the counter-attack to score. but there was nothing going forward and even the attack minded substitutions of giles barnes, marc-antoine fortune and simon cox could create nothing.

this was every reason i hate the premiership. this is where the adventure ends and success is measured up in multi-million pound mediocrity. even long-term survival in the PREMIER LEAGUE offers nowhere to go for a club like west brom. the FA CUP isn't what it used to be and there's very little else to hope for except perhaps one day qualifying for a secondary european competition - much like what fulham has achieved in the last few years.

on the other hand, i was reminded today of a 1-0 loss at home to crystal palace last year that accompanied a similar number of matches without a win. of course, that ended with a 5-0 thrashing of watford at the hawthorns and the baggies resumed the business of securing automatic promotion. let's only hope that this is nothing more than a similarly short loss of form and we keep up a relative standard and a consistent midtable standing.

West Ham United F.C. 2-2 WBA

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with such an unbelievably good start to the season - and having been the form team in the league through the month of september - baggies supporters are going to have to readjust their expectations somewhat. in the PREMIER LEAGUE - and provided you are not chelsea, arsenal or manchester united - a draw away from home is never a bad result.

this was the first time this year that there was no TV broadcast at all of a match. of course, i listened to the live audio commentary on ALBION RADIO and saw the highlights through ALBION PLAYER on the club website.

i haven't watched the hammers much these last few years, but i was really impressed, as there is no doubt that scott parker is the best english-born defensive midfielder in the league. his exclusion from the england team is another glaring example of how poorly run the selection process of the national side is.

not unlike countless other teams who have gone before them in PREMIER LEAGUE competition, west ham may already be steeling themselves for a relegaton battle; however, they play pretty good football and probably deserve more than they are getting at the moment. but who ever said football was fair?



as for the albion, they are desperately missing jonas olsson. as long as he is out of the team they will continue to struggle without his organization of the back-line and the ever present danger he poses as a target-man on set-pieces.

there was a tentative feeling about how the baggies attacked this game, and graham dorrans, who finally got a place in the starting eleven, still looks only half the player he did last year. the positive side of this is that it doesn't appear to have shaken the young scottish international and he already seems to possess the maturity to ride out a spell of poor form. he still wants the ball and tries to get involved in the game and we will no doubt see some of his best stuff before the season is out.

this match produced some pretty terrific football from the two respective midfields and saw some exciting spells of possession with each side producing a good passing game with neither really able to find anything in the final third.

west ham created the first really good chance of the match when carlton cole put a free-header resulting from a corner-kick just over scott carson's cross-bar.

peter odemwingie marked his return to the starting line-up by quite surprisingly and boldly stepping forward to take a penalty after steven reid had been dragged down in the hammer's box. the nigerian striker delivered a calm, text-book spot-kick placed perfectly and accurately in the lower left-hand corner of the net.

just as the baggies looked like they had taken control of the game, had the better of the possession and looked the more likely of the two to score before the break, the hammers equalized before half-time on what has to be one of the goals of the season. taking advantage of paul scharner's careless effort in trying to football his way out of trouble in a dangerous area, scott parker smacked in an absolutely unstoppable effort from 30 yards out into the top right hand corner of scott carson's goal.



it was really something made out of nothing and brought the otherwise dour and largely silent upton park crowd to life, as both teams created good chances for themselves in a flurry of end to end action during the last two minutes of the first-half.

the hammers came back for the second-half to a greatly improved atmosphere and an added confidence. not surprisingly they took the lead on a frederic piquionne penalty awarded after gabriel tamas bundled kieron dyer to the ground in the baggies' penalty area.

the albion equalized through pablo ibanez, and a superb delivery from chris brunt. with west ham unable to clear their lines following a baggies' corner-kick, brunt sent a brilliant ball back across goal and found the head of ibanez to bring the score-line level at 2-2.

while this was a good performance by the baggies away from home, i still can't help but feel - much like i did with last year's team - that we haven't seen them live up to their potential and play the football of which i believe they are capable, and that this was a match they would have won had jonas olsson been fit.

in light of this, the result against the hammers will seem significantly more important if west brom can manage an away win at wigan on saturday.

WBA 0-2 Manchester City F.C.

live text replay





this was really depressing, and made all the worse by the unfortunate away loss to blackpool on the previous monday. if we'd gotten a result at bloomfield road, it wouldn't have been as important for the baggies. but they now run the risk of losing ground in the table and having some of thier good early results in the league undone somewhat. this was also the sorry end of an unbeaten home run for the baggies at the hawthorns dating back to last january.

there's certainly no shortage of talent at manchester city these days, but they haven't looked much of a team so far this season and were coming off three straight losses going into this encounter at the hawthorns. there was public in-fighting amongst the team during matches and rumours that roberto mancini had lost control of the dressing room. the problems of managing the world's most expensive set of footballing individuals were becoming painfully evident. as well, wolves hadn't done the baggies any favours by beating manchester city in the league last weekend, and the italo-mancunian millionaires club absolutely needed to win this one - in every sense and for every practical reason.

looking more like s.s. lazio than manchester's favourite footballing sons, they went about doing so in a very professional manner. the sky blues scored twice early on, before they went about slowing things up and shutting the game down. it was very continental in both in style and pace and i felt a bit like i was watching a SERIE A match. i thought it sad that this is the future of english football.

the baggies started off well enough with chris brunt coming close to creating a goal in the first few minutes. the northern ireland international split the city defence with a clever run and got on the end of through-ball from marc-antoine fortune that required a desperate last-ditch clearance from city's right-back, kolo toure, which was very nearly an own-goal, just going past the outside of joe hart's left-hand post for a baggies' corner-kick.



the skill of carlos tevez was in full evidence and it was he who really made the first goal. the argentinian linked up with striker mario balotelli showing a straight forward piece of skill, taking on and beating his defender from a dangerous position and sending in a low ball accross the face of goal for the £24-million italian to knock in at scott carson's near post. it was a casual enough score for the young striker, and just about what you'd expect from players of manchester city's class, cost and caliber.

the second goal was a bit of good fortune with balotelli getting a lucky bounce of the ball which had gabriel tamas turned the wrong way. it looked a bit soft and albion's romanian centre-half might've been more quick thinking and physically resolute in dealing with balotelli.

simon cox came close to a goal as he sent a 25-yard belter screaming back off the sky blues' goal-post. it was probably the best effort by the baggies in the match, and might have heralded the possibility of a comeback had it gone in.



this was a really pretty ill-tempered affair which produced ten cards and two sendings off, including the goal-scorer balotelli, who, despite his obvious talent in leading the line, scoring goals and being worth loads of money is a petty, unpleasant individual. youssouf mulumbu also got himself ejected for a second yellow-card - and subsequent mandatory red - and will be out for the mid-week clash with west ham.

this was just a cruel reminder that life in the PREMIER LEAGUE is going to be tough. historic results and heroic victories are not always going to be the order of the day; and while the beginning of the season has been a a bit gilded and might have had the albion faithful dreaming of glory just a little more than they really have a right to at the moment, it's going to be a long haul with more than a few disappointing results. while it was nice for awhile to dream about being in the top-six and european nights returning to the hawthorns, a mid-table finish would be a monumental acheivement this season.

this was a nasty reminder of that very fact.

Blackpool F.C. 2-1 WBA

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as albion midfielder, steven reid, observed after this match at bloomfield road, the baggies may take more positives and as yet unseen advantages from what was a pretty wierd match, and which conspired to end the baggies eight-game unbeaten streak.

i must admit, i was really pleased and impressed with roberto di matteo's team selection and especially glad that simon cox was included in the starting side. cox rightfully deserved the chance with graham dorrans yet to find playing form this season, and james morrison out with an injury. so cox had really earned the chance given his terrific goal scoring form in the LEAGUE CUP.

this looked set to be a classic between two surprising teams who've played some of the most consistently exciting football in the PREMIER LEAGUE this year after both came into the league as CHAMPIONSHIP promotion winners last season. with full international TV coverage, two excellent managers and a chance to show the world their enterprising and attacking brands of football, blackpool v. west brom on a monday night looked to be perfect fare with all the ingredients for a big occasion.

but, and as dave bowler of ALBION RADIO noted before the kick-off, there had to be some concerns about the match being put under the charge of the PREMIER LEAGUE's youngest referee, and his ability to control the game in the face of such an auspicious occassion. his concerns proved prophetic as the 25-year-old ref, michael oliver, was completely out of his depth, went "card-happy" at the first difficult decision and soured what might have otherwise been a really entertaining match.

both sides started out showing enterprising attacking games and simon cox tested the tangerines' goalie, matt gilks, from an acute angle early on.

the match swung wildly with just ten minutes gone as d.j. campbell got on the end of a long through ball in the albion penalty area. the blackpool striker pushed the ball forward on a single stride and past the last defender, pablo ibanez, before running into the baggies centre-half, who was marking him perilously closely. campbell went down and was quite incredibly awarded a penalty decision. however, it rather appeared that if anyone had been fouled it was ibanez, and the ref should probably have waved play on.



but it was a bad call and i think that young mr. oliver knew it pretty quickly. however - and seeing as how he hadn't consulted either the linesman or fourth official - he should just have followed through with the consequence of his mistake, got on with the game, allow for the subsequent penalty kick to be taken and leave it at that. but, i believe that mr. oliver panicked, and feeling the need to reinforce his decision (and make demonstration of his control of the match), issued a direct red card to the spanish centre-half and sent the match in a bad direction. the young man was clearly out of his depth and it showed on his face.

the penalty was a poor enough call, but i think everyone could've probably lived with it. bad calls are part of the game. that has always been my stance on the issue of how matches are refereed. like i said, i could've lived with the penalty - and even a yellow card, if he really felt it necessary to back up his point as to who was in control of the match; but the red-card was a complete injustice and i will be surprised if the baggies don't appeal the decision.

di matteo's only immediate change was to bring off simon cox and bring on steven reid to fill in at centre-half. this for me was the really unfortunate aspect of the red card against pablo ibanez. as it denied simon cox an opportunity that won't come around too often. i have to really feel for the young striker who is the victim of some really miserable fortune and his performances in the LEAGUE CUP continue to go unrewarded as far as a starting place in league fixtures go.

the albion looked comfortable enough for the next 15-20 minutes, allowed blackpool most of the possession and settled into their new defensive shape, with striker, marc-antoine fortune dropping back to cover the central midfield.

a few hard challenges saw the game begin to get a little heated with youssouf mulumbu picking up a yellow card. luke varney, the blackpool striker, went about trying to provoke one or two of the baggies' players - to see if (among other things) he could goad the congolese midfielder into a committing a second bookable offense. the albion were still rattled by the red-card and not really creatively adjusted to playing with only 10-men. they could not, it seemed, get over the sense of injustice or shake the feeling that the occasion had been soured.



this all changed, when just on half-an-hour gone, albion right-back, gonzalo jara, lost it with varney and in a moment of madness, recklessly went in with a full-on, studs-up, two-footed tackle when the blackpool forward had got himself harmlessly trapped near the corner-flag and actually looked to have taken the ball into touch. quite rightly, jara was shown an immediate red-card and the baggies were left now down to 9 men. it immediately put things in perspective and it felt as if all was about to go from bad to worse.

however, di matteo's strategic substitution of graham dorrans for fortune was a masterful piece of resource management and team selection. the scottish international, who has not had an opportunity to find any real form this season, came on and made obvious what the gaffer should have done at the advent of the first red card.

with graham dorrans coming on to spearhead a strikerless formation, it was evident by half-time that if the baggies had gone 4-5-0 before jara's red-card, they would have easily been able to get a draw and would probably have won the match. the albion - and their travelling support - came back for a second-half with loads of optimism and the intent of nicking a point from what was still a 1-0 score-line.

it was in the second-half that the baggies began to play some truly inspired and entertaining football. with only 8 out-field players in a 4-4-0 formation, they had to withstand a 60-40 per cent disadvantage in possession, but held the tangerines for over half-an-hour before conceding the second and - what would turn out to be - winning goal on an overlapping run by reg varney, finally taking advantage of a stretched albion backline.

it really didn't matter, because by that point the baggies looked to have taken all the positives they could from such adverse conditions. graham dorrans had been given an ideal forum in which to work his way back into some much needed game-form, and the team's performance over the course of the game had the travelling supporters in full voice, filled with pride and thoroughly entertained. it may, in fact, have been the turning point of roberto di matteo's career at the hawthorn's, as the valiant efforts of the nine-man albion side and the intelligent reserve of the gaffer, worked to forge a deeper bond between squad and supporter than has been at the club in the long time.



youssouf mulumbu, who was really the standout player of the match, single-handedly got a goal back in the 85th minute. taking control of the ball just outside the blackpool penalty area, the congolese midfielder came forward into space and smashed the ball past matt gilks. suddenly - and quite surprisingly - the baggies were back in the match.

the albion pressed for the equalizer and scott carson even came forward for one of the last corner kicks. graham dorrans got on the end of a late free-kick, but the ball stuck under his feet just in front of goal and was only able to set up a shot for steven reid, who looked certain to score and produce the unlikeliest of results, but slipped on the greasy bloomfield road pitch and put the ball over the bar.

the game was gone, but the valiant effort of the nine-man albion had not only produced an entertaining match and come close to getting a result, but they may have written the beginning of a new chapter in west bromwich albion folk-lore. the players that took part in this game have a created a tremendous sense of camaraderie going into next weekend's home game with manchester city. both the supporters and the team seem like they're up for anything at the moment.