Birmingham City F.C. 1-3 WBA

match text commentary



roy hodgson's first victory in charge of the albion extended the baggies current unbeaten streak to four games. while this was the all important win the albion have been looking for this last month or so - and further contributes to the baggies keeping themselves just one step ahead of dropping into the relegation places - it emphasizes that the baggies are stuck with some tough fixtures ahead and didn't take nearly enough points in their last three home games. one thing is for sure: they're going to have to take three-to-four points from their next three home games; and with those being arsenal, liverpool and chelsea, the baggies are going to have to come up with some serious heroics. however, it's been that kind of year and the albion have generally played well against top-ten opposition.

there is something more confident and consistant about the albion since roy hodgson's arrival. even the the media pundits (like the BBC's, mark lawrenson, for example) who've never generally been too positive about the possibilities of an extended stay in the top-flight for the baggies - are now picking three or four other teams as more likely to face the drop this year. the general consensus - and the among the supporters as well - seems to be that this albion team will find a way to survive.

by the same token, it is generally agreed that wigan athletic are the only side that really look like they are indeed going down from amongst the other relegation battlers . the question is: who is going down with them? at the moment, the albion seem to have a firm grip on 16th-17th spot(s). it's quite likely that blackburn, aston villa and blackpool - along with the baggies, blues, wolves and west ham - will be fighting their way out of ending up in one of the other two relegation places come the final day of the season.



this was the baggies first "double" of the season, after having beaten blues by the same score back at the hawthorns in the middle of september.

to be fair, it was going to be a difficult day for a city team which had just won the LEAGUE CUP against the arsenal, in what must have been an absolute drain both physically and emotionally. while the score was nil-nil at the half, the baggies had looked the better of the two teams with the blues supplying little in the way of match highlights. the baggies have generally done well following scoreless first periods and by the time they had kicked-off for the second-half, they were tuned up and ready to play some dominating football.

the baggies went ahead on a goal by youssouf mulumbu scored within two minutes of the restart. the congolese midfielder played a pass to peter odemwingie, who had taken up a central position on the edge of the city penalty area. the nigerian international held the ball up long enough for mulumbu to get forward into the area, and taking the return ball on an overlapping run, finished superbly to give the albion a deserved lead. the next few days will tell, but it might have been a costly goal indeed, as mulumbu was simultaneously clattered by birmingham centre-half, liam ridgewell, and appeared to have taken a hard knock on the thigh.



however, and in typical fashion, blues pulled one back less than a minute later. lee bowyer, making a run down the right flank, gambled on a short-cross to the near post. birmingham city striker and chilean international, jean beausejour had gotten in behind the baggies' defenders and glanced the ball into the net past scott carson. while it is not uncommon to switch off for a moment following a goal celebration, beausejour's goal just reminded us again that the baggies still have moments of vulnrability at the back and seem committed to doing it the hard way.

however, besides reviving the squad through bringing unused and forgotten players back into the team and tightening up the shape of the back four, roy hodgson has instilled a bit of steel and confidence throughout the entire squad, and they took the lead again on 57 minutes through a typical james morrison goal. the albion midfielder took control of a cross from the right wing at the top of blues penalty area and taking a single touch to give himself room for the shot, blasted a perfectly placed strike past blues goalie, ben foster. he certainly doesn't score tap-ins and morrison has scored several similar goals this season, including west brom's first against manchester united at the hawthorns.

from here, the baggies never looked back.

while david bentley got the opportunity of two good long-range strikes, scott carson had them both covered, and it was only on a near miss by cameron jerome, which trickled just wide of the baggies' goal that blues ever looked dangerous coming forward. even kevin phillips coming off the bench as substitute could find nothing against his former club.

the baggies clinched the full three-points - and the first victory since their home fixture with blackpool - keeping, as they have been, just ahead of the drop-zone; and sending the newly crowned LEAGUE CUP champions into the bottom three ahead of only wigan, at this point.

paul scharner effectively finished the match off in the 71st minute as he sent a james morrison cross back across the face goal at the far-post sneaking the ball past blues goalie, ben foster, from an acute angle. the final score accurately reflected the trajectory of the game and the baggies fully deserved the win.



with an unfortunatley scheduled international break in three weeks time, and the possibility of their next league fixture falling prey to postponement pending the outcome of the upcoming FA CUP games, the baggies might not play again until april 2nd. we can only hope that manchester united puts arsenal out of the competition and the gunners will be at the hawthorns - as scheduled - in two weeks time. this will not only see the albion trying to extend their current unbeaten run, but will also give the baggies a timely opportunity at posting their second double of the season, having beaten the gunners at the emirates back in the late days of september.

as i said, west brom may have to secure their place in next season's PREMIER LEAGUE by doing it the hard way and taking points from the most difficult of their fixtures. however, and with roy hodgson now beginning to exert his influence on the team, they are exhuding a feeling of confidence and are playing like a side that is setting itself out for top-flight survival. i think they might just be capable of pulling it off.

WBA 3-1 Birmingham City F.C.

live text replay

roberto di matteo outguessed me this week - and i have to admit, it worked!

i had given up on the 4-5-1 attacking formation; as had the gaffer to some extent, i think. at half-time against spurs he had the good sense to realize that peter odemwingie can't play on the wing. so, in starting both fortune and odemwingie (in a central position today) he had, more or less, returned to the idea of having two strikers and a formation resembling an orthodox 4-4-2.

the problem, as was evident in the first half of the match - and against a good defensive team like blues - was that this left the baggies being outplayed by a five-man midfield who were able to take their one opportunity, with cameron jerome tapping the ball into an open net on a well worked free-kick from sebastian larsson to give blues the lead through half-time.



while city dominated the first-half, it was a game of holding the ball in the midfield and the baggies still had the greater number of shots on goal. there was a decent long-range effort from chris brunt; as well as paul scharner getting on the end of a cross at the far post which he might have done better with, not realizing how much time he actually had; and a misplaced header from fortune on a cross from gonzalo jara also went narrowly wide.

unlike his predecessors, who tended to stick to principles and ideals rather than making tactical changes, roberto di matteo does take serious chances and will change tactics freely when he needs to. this tendency first became evident last season when he made the changes during a match that led to the current 4-5-1 setup to which he has since remained true.

he had found this necessary when jerome thomas was injured and he brought robert koren on to play right-wing. this moved chris brunt to the left-wing and the gaffer added a series of rotating midfield players (ben watson, steven reid, giles barnes, james morrison etc.) in place of the second striker. this remained their starting formation for the rest of the season - and to great success.



last week, against spurs, the gaffer finally realized that it was not a good idea to keep odemwingie out on the wing, since the nigerian striker has no idea how to track back and cover in this position. it was a fundamental weak-link and, in the bigger picture, was probably responsible for the loss to liverpool. with odemwingie in the centre behind fortune, the baggies dominated spurs in the second-half and really should have taken all three points.

today, with fortune not really able to get into the game and odemwingie looking the more enterprising and involved of the two strikers, di matteo returned to the full-blooded 4-5-1 with graham dorrans coming on replacing fortune for the restart. this proved a stroke of genius as the albion went about taking apart one of the best defenses in the premier league with its trademark attacking midfield.



graham dorrans, who seemed to struggle in the first few matches and was out of the side for the home match with tottenham, finally exerted his influence on the play with the baggies obviously the brighter team right from the kick-off of the second period. they equalized early through a penetrating run by thomas, who cut in from the wing and slotted a pass to odemwingie which ultimately flew into the birmingham goal off the heel of defender scott dann.

the second albion goal came through a critical mistake in defence, as lee bowyer failed to control on the edge of his own penalty area allowing odemwingie the chance to pounce and cut to the outside of blues' keeper, ben foster, turning the ball home, again off the unfortunate scott dann.

the match was put beyond question when jonas olsson headed home a chris brunt corner-kick in the 67th minute, and the baggies looked every inch a competitive premiership side.



i have long said that i believe that this is the best baggies side in many years - even perhaps the best since the early 80s. while i have to admit that up until today, my aspirations of a mid-table finish have seemed like they might realistically be nothing more than hopeful and overly optimistic. today was the first time that i really sensed there is more capability than mere survival in this team. while it may not come as easily or as regularly as it did last year, we are certainly going to see more success in the premier league than many of the pundits were predicting at the outset.

this is a very good west brom side.