Fulham F.C. 3-0 WBA

match text commentary

as i was distracted by planning yet another trip to england (including an excursion to the hawthorns on october 6th to see west brom play QPR) i've gotten several weeks behind on my blogging. also, there's really very little positive that can be said about this performance by the baggies - other than it was not quite as one sided a match as the result would indicate.

fulham found the albion defensive weaknesses by attacking down the flanks and taking advantage of the fullbacks through both pace and transitional positioning of the wide players in the albion back-line. the londoners also had the all important advantage of an in form dmitar berbatov in front of goal demonstrating that he is a top international striker. for the baggies, however, it was just one of those days that is best forgotten. their opponents on the day found enough in the early going and west brom never really had a chance to find form.

the real turning point of the game, though, was peter odemwingie being shown a red card in the 38th minute. at his point - and barring a miracle - the albion had irretrievably lost the plot. unfortunately, miracles are all but outlawed in the almighty, bloody PREMIER LEAGUE. while it was a stupid and cynical momentary lapse in judgement, it's worth remembering that the nigerian international very rarely loses it like this and he probably deserves some leeway in light of the fact that he almost single-handedly led the baggies to a 12th place finish in the league two years ago by virtue of 15 goals scored in the league.


after the first defeat of the current campaign, all the albion can do now is not let the loss affect them. steve clarke and his side must put it out of their minds and get on with thinking about the next league fixture, where taking all three points at home to reading would continue to lay the groundwork for what has been their otherwise fine form. winning at the hawthorns should be the baggies' main priority at the moment.

it's a measure of how far west brom have come these least three seasons that there isn't a sense of panic about the fact that odemwingie will not be available for the next three competetive fixtures. two seasons ago this would have been a genuine catastrophe and baggies supporters everywhere would have been left wondering where the goals would be coming from in the nigerian striker's absence. it's a no small indication as to how far the squad has come in terms of the depth of player personel since their promotion from the CHAMPIONSHIP and should be a real point of pride for all west brom supporters.

Fulham F.C. 3-0 WBA

live text replay


the baggies came into this match on a run of four straight defeats, the teams' best defenders all out on injury or suspension and only the consolation of some really good performances but with no points to show for all their endeavour.

the impressive thing is that these losses haven't seemed to affect confidence amongst the starting line-up and i thought perhaps fulham might find the albion a bit of a bogey team this year, having previously lost to the baggies in the reverse fixture back at the hawthorns in october. fulham are now struggling to find last year's form which saw the cottagers finish a creditable 12th and make it to the EUROPA LEAGUE final with big wins over juventas and wolfsburg.

roberto di matteo implemented a tactically sound and intelligent game-plan for this away match to the cottagers. knowing that the baggies would almost certainly be out-muscled in crucial areas of the pitch by a bigger fulham side, the gaffer's intention was to hold a good defensive shape, don't give anything up and maintain a clean-sheet for the first half. presumably, if he could get the team in at the break at 0-0, he would have looked for a way to neutralize dickson etuhu - who won absolutely everything in the central midfield - and look to pinch a point away from home or nick a 1-0 win.



the plan appeared to be working as the baggies were within whatever injury there was to played from achieving the first aim: to keep a clean-sheet! with only about 30 second of added time gone, however, youssouf mulumbu lost the ball to etuhu in a dangerous area. the pass fell for simon davies to get in a solid, long-range strike, producing the first goal of the match.

while it was a pretty good effort from the welsh midfielder, it was clear that scott carson should have had this one. he was only about a foot or two too high off his line for optimum positioning, and would have saved easily had he been standing on the goal-line. but the baggies' captain misjudged the effort, and while he got two hands solidly behind the ball, he mishandled the shot, bundled it into the net and the cottagers found themselves with a 1-0 lead going into the break. di matteo's game-plan, which had heretofore looked to be working, was suddenly out the window, and as the second-half would show, so was their confidence.



things went from bad to worse as fulham went on to thoroughly dominate the game on all counts and twice more took advantage of the unfortunate, makeshift baggies' back-four and out-of-form goalie. dickson etuhu continued to boss the central midfield and the baggies never really looked like they were in this one.

the baggies' proclivity for giving up goals on poorly defended crosses and set-pieces continued as they went on to concede two more in this one - both headed goals by clint dempsey and brede hangeland respectively - and were 3-0 down with almost half-an-hour left to play. this was a truly dismal performance.

the exception to this being young james hurst having stepped into the squad at right-back, and gianni zuiverloon in the side at the unlikely position of centre-half. i can only hope that these two players in particular aren't affected by this otherwise miserable performance. the teenage hurst was easily the best baggies' player on the day, and zuiverloon - who has not seen much match-time this year - was more than creditable in, what for him, is an unusual position.



this has been a season of extremes for west brom. their last game against the cottagers produced a 2-1 home win and propelled the baggies into 4th place in the table. they were the undisputed form team of the league over the months of september and october. this visit to craven cottage, however, was as poor a performance as they have produced this season and drops the baggies into a four-way relegation battle with the three other birmingham/black country teams. even the 6-0 opening day thrashing at the hands of chelsea, just down the road from here, produced much better football than this.

following some good performances in a losing cause, this has to be counted as the low-point of the season and we can only pray that it doesn't get worse.

scott carson is a man who needs a rest. he has started to come under some deep criticism from the local press and has completely lost the faith of the supporters. the situation has gotten so bad, that i expect that nothing short of absolute disaster in the upcoming FA CUP fixture against reading, will keep boaz myhill from getting his first league start for the baggies when league play resumes at home to blackpool on january 15th.