WBA 1-3 Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

match text commentary





this match represented the extent to which the barclay's premier league can be cruel for those who have yet to establish themselves as regulars in the competition. while the final scoreline was testament to the individual skills in the tottenham side, it was flattering to the londoners and left me feeling much like i did after last season's early 1-0 loss at anfield. how can a team play this well and still get beaten?

so far this season, the baggies have made a habit of scoring goals before the game has had any chance to settle, and this encounter with spurs was no different. on pretty much the first attack of the match, youssouf mulumbu opened his account for the season with a goal just on 9 minutes. finding space between two tottenham central defenders - and directly in front of goal - the congolese midfielder rose to meet stephen reid's brilliantly placed cross from deep on the right wing and headed the albion into the lead with spurs keeper, brad friedel, left with no chance.





with 21 minutes of the match gone, disaster struck for the albion as zoltan gera, who had been instrumental in the first goal, turned awkwardly while chasing a ball deep in spurs' half and badly injured his knee. subsequent tests showed that it was serious enough an injury that the hungarian international won't be back this season, to the huge disappointment of baggies supporters everywhere. over the three games he had played since returning to the hawthorns, he has formed the best partnership of anyone yet with striker shane long, and will have to be considered a catastrophic miss to the team.

despite being the better side right through the first half there were at least two game changing decisions that went against the baggies in the first half hour. the first, and perhaps most important of these decisions, was a penalty call that helped put spurs on even terms at 1-1.





i'm not sure how much there was in the challenge, but nicky shorey was adjudged to have brought down aaron lennon in the box. emmanuel adabayor stepped up and delivered what was a really poor spot-kick which was initially saved by ben foster. however, the albion goalie wasn't able to get up quickly enough, nor get quite enough of the ball, to keep out adabayor's follow up.

it was harsh not only on the baggies, but i found it hard to tell if the foul was for a high arm or for an incidental trip. in fact, after having viewed the replay, it was hard to tell whether shorey had committed a foul at all. in addition, there was precious little difference between this incident and jerome thomas going down in the spurs' penalty area on a run that had tottenham defender, kyle walker, similarly turned and beaten ten minutes later, but which wasn't called.

perhaps the most contentious moment of the match, for me, was when brad friedel, after having pulled down a high looping ball coming in at goal - appeared to have turned in and walked the ball over the line. the referee signalled that it was a goal and a slow buzz started to mount around the hawthorns, as it was pretty obvious that the spurs' keeper, while trying to avoid the challenge of gareth mcauley, had indeed taken the ball over the line. for a moment everyone thought that the baggies had gone back into the lead. but the score was chalked off and the breaking cheers died down quickly when the ref deferred to the linesman who had signalled for a foul by mcauley on friedel. however, it wasn't apparent that the american keeper had been fouled, and the linesman's call seemed late in coming.

what i found interesting was how this passage of play - and its obvious controversy - was left out of any highlights that i encountered both on TV and online. nor was it mentioned on any of the radio news i listened to or any of the text reports i read.





while the baggies were the better team over the first 50 minutes, and simon cox probably should have scored in around the 51st minute from a free header in front of goal, tottenham responded immediately and dominated the attacking play from then on out.

jermain defoe made the first of a pair of dazzling solo runs from the middle of the park to cause havoc for the albion backline. despite having to take the ball to the bi-line after being driven wide and away from goal by the albion defenders, the diminutive striker's pace and skill pulled ben foster completely out of position, and if he'd been able to pull the ball back for a team-mate inside the box, tottenham would've almost certainly scored.

to their credit, the baggies defended well and with 9 minutes left to go, it was distinctly beginning to feel like a draw.

however, in the 81st minute jermain defoe made a second solo run out of midfield and with jonas olsson backing off, trying not to give the tottenham striker any room to shoot, defoe found the extra yard he needed by cutting a step to the inside just at the top of the box. the pacey striker finished with a low and accurate long-range strike which went just beyond the reach of ben foster to score what would ultimately be the winning goal.

emmanuel adabayor scored a somewhat scruffy late goal on the counter-attack to give the scoreline its gloss.

one of the troubles with playing in the premier league is that the albion can play as well as this and still not get a result. this is the third match of the season against top 5 opposition where it could be said that the baggies will probably play worse than this in a few matches this season and still manage to take all 3 points. it's all too common a feature of life in the top-flight for west bromwich albion.

i am anxious to see how roy hadgson manages the situation with zoltan gera gone - and especially with a critical run of three matches coming up, starting with a visit to loftus road on saturday. once again, the veteran manager has both need and opportunity to show that he knows how to earn his money.

WBA 2-1 Bolton Wanderers F.C.

match text commentary




i am going to have no trouble this week writing about how well the baggies played last saturday; nor will i find it difficult to credit the character and skill of shane long either. the young republic of ireland international made a heroic return to the albion first team a full two weeks ahead of the expected time frame, as well as scoring the winning goal.

in truth, there were any number of players in the side which played against bolton who could have been given the man of the match award. while long was truly heroic in coming back from what is generally a six week injury in just four weeks, nicky shorey played what was by far and away his best game since coming to the club and both centre-halfs were brilliant. youssouf mulumbu and jerome thomas were both back in form. chris brunt has evolved into the most cultured of players, now being the team's most senior member and club captain. stephen reid played an extremely solid game at right back and one can only hail the return of zoltan gera as a revelation.





the baggies haven't played anything like this since the opening games against manchester united and chelsea, and this was even better football than either of those two performances. especially the second-half, where we finally saw the possession and passing of a roberto di matteo or tony mowbray team infused with the economy, steel, defending and counter-attack of a roy hodgson side.

only time will tell, but this may have been a real turning point in the season. it might just have determined whether the baggies spend the rest of the campaign moving steadily, and in workman-like fashion, towards a mid-table finish, or whether they end up desperately battling against falling into the bottom three. the quality of this performance would suggest a scenario more in line with the former than the latter.

since the opening couple of matches against two genuine premier league giants, the baggies have been uneven and have played a very one dimensional style of football. that is, they have allowed teams to have possession, defended from midfield and increasingly pushed up from the back to force counter-attack opportunities. this tactic was practiced to great success against wolves and the villa, but was of little use against the likes of liverpool and arsenal.

the first order of business going into the season was to improve the side defensively. roy hodgson is known for producing very solid teams who are difficult to break down. after all, if your opponents don't score they're going to have a hard time winning games against you, aren't they?





under roy hodgson, a team has to learn how to defend and counter-attack efficiently.

the trouble has been that in adapting to the gaffer's style of football the baggies seemed to have committed to working on this pressing defence/counter-attacking system to the exclusion of anything else. this meant almost nothing but long balls cleared from the back that depend on shane long's ability at running the channels, holding the ball up or (with no other option) looking for a crack at goal. gone was the pretty and precise passing game that the baggies have been known for since the days of ronnie allen, ray barlow, don howe and bobby robson. albion supporters have come to have certain basic expectations, and win, lose or draw, hard tackling "long-ball" has never gone over well at the hawthorns.

the trotters started out brightly enough, signalling their intention to take the game to the albion by going straight into attack. but with just 15 minutes of the match gone, and the baggies meeting the lancashire clubs enterprise with resolute defending, zoltan gera beat the off-side trap putting jerome thomas through on goal. the albion left-winger went wide forcing the bolton keeper, jussi jaaskelainen, out of position and finished the move by putting the ball into an empty net.

however, inside of five minutes and in a near carbon-copy of what became a questionable and contentious call in their home game with liverpool, thomas was adjudged to have taken down fabrice muamba just inside the baggies' penalty area, giving ivan klasnic the opportunity to level the score at 1-1.





with west brom having a slight edge in terms of possession at the half and the game poised for a competitive second period, the baggies came back to take complete control of the match from here on out. in fact, the final 2-1 scoreline was in no way indicative of how one-sided the second-half really was.

the quality of the bolton defenders was evident from early on. in one of the first really dangerous attacking opportunities of the game jerome thomas sent shane long through on goal. the albion striker looked almost certain to get a proper crack on target but was thwarted by a perfectly time last ditch tackle made by a desperately back-tracking gary cahill. in truth, the baggies could've won this one by two or three goals save for the excellent work of jaaskelainen and the bolton defence.

the baggies finally made the breakthrough that put them on top 10 minutes into the second half. with bolton increasingly on the back foot, chris brunt spread the play with a cross-field pass to thomas, who held the ball up on the edge of the bolton penalty area just long enough for nicky shorey to find space in behind him. the albion left-back, returning to the starting eleven after several weeks out of the side, delivered a perfect cross for the athletic long to beat his marker in the air and head albion into the lead.

the next half hour saw the baggies playing football of the highest order, keeping the ball and always threatening. the trotters didn't see much of the play nor any real opportunity to threaten ben foster in the albion goal.





what roy hodgson has done is very simple. he's got everybody on the team performing fundamental defensive duties that they did not attend to under the last two managers. he has got both james morrison and chris brunt moving into deep defensive positions, winning and playing more balls out of the back. he's taught youssouf mulumbu where to set himself up and how to defend on set-plays - always a weakness for the congolese midfielder in the past; and in gareth mcauley he's found the centre-half that the albion have needed to play alongside jonas olsson.

the only problem is that the whole thing has required shane long leading the line to make it work. peter odemwingie has not found anything like the form of which he's capable; simon cox hasn't been given enough opportunity to play; and neither marc-antoine fortune nor roman bednar seem to be in the gaffer's plans. this leaves the enigmatic somen tchoyi as the only candidate to lead the line in the case of long being injured, and it is unlikely that there'll be any action during the january transfer window.

now that we've seen what kind of football the baggies should be playing, we can only hope that they continue to do so. this was an excellent performance all around.

WBA 3-3 West Ham United

live text replay





this was unbelievable, and once again, a fascinating comparison of the differing and inherant qualities of football as audio commentary and football as TV content.

this match didn't get a first TV airing until 8 PM EST in the part of the world where i live. so i had been living with the result and my own experience of the match for several hours, as i had heard it on the ALBION RADIO before i actually saw it.

i am always amazed that radio, or digital audio commentaries on the internet create an environment of more intense involvement on the part of the "user"; that is to say, the "viewer" or "listener". the drama is heightened, the mistakes more crucial, the experience more critical, the level of attention more immediately demanding in an audio environement. audio commentary, tending to be more diverse and playing to smaller, more specialized interests, is also, therefore, more inclined to be partisan. radio has always been the medium of propaganda.



television is a cool, detached, objective scanning of visual information. it is the medium of the short attention span and constant diversion. it also the medium of the mainstream and this creates an environment where the presentation tends to be non-partisan, non-judgmental and wholly less critical. it is also more concerned with entertainment rather than the straight dissemination of information and user involvement.

for example, i always feel better watching a TV replay of a disappointing result after having heard it first on the ALBION RADIO. where the baggies' biased commentary on the ALBION RADIO transmissions often has me hopping up and down at the injustice perpetrated by a referee, or a missed penalty kick, the televised match gives me an objective vantage point - and presented as such - with a chance to assess in a cool, detached manner what i've seen (or even what i think i've seen), finding both sympathy and condemnation therein.

any of those of us who thought that michael appleton - by virtue of his long-time involvment at the club as well as coaching badges and accreditations acquired - might make as good a manager as any number of other young candidates, were as naive as appy himself in thinking he might be able to do the job.

michael appleton's managerial debut was a painfully schizophrenic experience that ran the gamut from merciless attacking football to completely inept and gutless defending. it was so extreme that it took me several hours to figure out what had happened after having listened to it. by the time the game came on TV it was merely a confirmation of what i had imagined.

appleton picked more or less the same team that di matteo has been playing - and given the current injury situation - but his substitutions were absolutley ludicrous.

the baggies started off like a pack of hunting dogs unleashed. in what might later turn out to be the most significant moment of the match, graham dorrans opened his PREMIER LEAGUE scoring account inside of three minutes with an effort that just doesn't get any better. taking a pass into space from peter odemwingie, and a full 25-30 yards out, the young scottish international confidently struck an unstoppable ball past west ham keeper, robert green, burying it in the top corner of the net.

it was a spectacular start.

with barely seven minutes gone, it was then jerome thomas' turn to add to his season's tally. the albion winger took a ball which was layed back from marc-antoine fortune and attacking from the top corner of the box had a good enough angle to side-foot the ball past wayne hennessy in the wolves goal. the hawthorns was jumping and the albion were 2-0 up.



four minutes later, thomas, once again looking menacing at the end of a quick and incisive counter attack, looked to be have been pulled down by winston reid in the west ham box after having gone round goalkeeper, hennessy. however, play was waved on and the baggies once again look to be victim of a referee's reluctance to give a penalty which would necessitate a red-card.

peter odemwingie should have made it 3-0, as he was allowed a free-header on a graham dorrans' corner-kick, but unfortunately put the ball straight at wayne hennessy.

it was at this point, however, that the match began to change complexion.

youssouf mulumbu, arguably the baggies most important defensive player in the current team formation, was forced to come off due to a tightening hamstring. while it would still take some time before the woeful west ham defending started to close down better, carlton cole would have had a goal but for a questionable offside decision in the 23rd minute.

a certain justice was served in regards to the earlier non-call on the penalty appeal, when in the 31st minute, the baggies did go 3 goals up through a winston reid own-goal. the west ham defender completely midjudged another dorrans' corner-kick and directed the ball into an open net whilst coming from the back to defend it.

as good as the baggies attacking game was, the hammers' defending was every bit as bad. it was training ground looking stuff.

with a a 3 goal lead, and watching from the stands, roy hodgson must have been feeling like he'd walked into an absolute dream job, and that keeping this group of players in the PREMIER LEAGUE would be little problem once he got hands on the reigns.



the baggies even looked good defensively in the first-half. boaz myhill made a fantastic save from hammers' striker demba ba - after the hammers started to come back into the match a little - which bounced off the post and was ultimately cleared off the line by james morrison. the albion looked like tight, together and dangerous.

the second-half was a completely different story.

youssouf mulumbu's early exit began to reveal just how much of a turning point it had actually been.

following what quickly became a legendary half-time talk delivered by west ham captain, scott parker, the hammers came back from the break and within five minutes had their first goal. mark noble delivered a perfect chip ball into demba ba that backfooted the albion defenders, and was controlled and brought down well by the hammers' striker - albeit with a hint of handball - and finished for the away team's opening goal. even at this early point in a match that had heretofore been dominated by the baggies, there was an uneasy feeling that started to go round the hawthorns. every albion fan over the age of 15 remembered the famous 4-3 win at upton park which had seen the baggies down by the same 3 goals-to-nil margin at half-time and was won eventually by a lee hughes' goal.

again, it was a set piece that was the baggies' undoing on the second west ham goal. it came a mark noble free-kick that was floated across the albion penalty area, where a completely unmarked frederic piquionne headed back across goal for carlton cole to score the simplest of headers. a few minutes later, piquionne himself put a deftly crossed header off the bar and away for a goal kick. the baggies looked lucky to be hanging on.



not that they didn't create more chances themselves, but peter odemwingie was guilty of some weak finishes, especially two missed chances towards the end of the game. but more than anything it was michael appleton's ludicrous substitutions and decision to defend using a narrow formation, allowing the west ham wide players room to operate down the wings and ignite positive attacks that cost the baggies full points. it's no wonder that the albion central defenders were terrified and constantly caught backpeddling.

the final score in west ham's redemtion came in the 83rd minute from a shortly taken corner-kick that caught the baggies out. mark noble once again floated in a cross that was flicked on for demba ba to score the equalizer and his second of the game.

michael appleton, dean keily and anyone else who was temporarily elevated to a position of increased responsibilty for this match, as the club wait for monday and for roy hodgeson to take over, must have had a real learning experience and it was certainly was a baptism of fire.

roy hodgson has seen the good, the bad and the ugly of what he's got to work with, in a situation that cannot escape its parellel comparisons to the conditions of his taking over at fulham, where he was similarly brought in to rescue the team's PREMIER LEAGUE status following the sacking of lawrie sanchez.

it's not an impossible task, but hodgson has less time than he did at fulham, and a tough schedule to oversee. with his initial match in charge being the hawthorns leg of the black country derby, the baggies are running out of what would seem to be winnable matches with a trip to stoke city to follow and a local derby away to blues after that.

Blackburn Rovers F. C. 2-0 WBA

live text replay



after last week's heroic and highly entertaining match with blackpool, the baggies returned to their poor away form as rovers became the first team of the season to do the double over the albion. blackburn beat the baggies 3-1 in the reverse fixture at the hawthorns back in the dying days of december.

while making a good start and pressing rovers early on, the baggies best chances came much too early in the game to take full advantage, and in the end they were once again thwarted in their more enterprising moments of attack by the brilliant goalkeeping of paul robinson. the baggies showed the trouble they have with big physical teams who defend well, and for the first time this year, suffered for the absence of central midfielder, graham dorrans, following his return to form over the last month.

unlike their last away match at fulham, the albion started out the more aggressive and enterprising of the two teams. peter odemwingie found himself in a one-on-one with rover's keeper, robinson, within the first couple of minutes. the ex-england international came out well and aggresively cut down the angle to make the save.

the baggies' defensive mistakes aside, the real difference in the match (as it had been in december for the reverse fixture) was paul robinson, who continued his good form against the baggies with goal-saving stops from odemwingie, james morrison, chris brunt and jerome thomas. with 20 shots on target to the baggies' credit, robinson would seem a critical component in the success that rovers have enjoyed this year.



the importance of jonas olsson's return to the team was immeasurable as the baggies looked better at the back than they have for some time. for the first 40 minutes of the match they were very good defensively. especially after the first 20 minutes and blackburn began to really control things with a massive 70% possession for about 15 minutes in the middle of the first-half. after 40 minutes the two teams were on pretty equal footing and both looked to get into the dressing room on a 0-0 scoreline, which was probably to the baggies' tactical advantage.

however, a huge mistake by gabriel tamas created an own goal and - much as it had been against fulham - the baggies went in at the half 1-0 down. the goal came on 41 minutes with blackburn finding space down the albion left flank and the baggies' defenders out of position. the romanian centre-half was caught between tracking his man and defending the cross, and in meaning to give up the corner-kick, had lost where he was positioned and sent an unfortunate, powerful header past his own goalkeeper, boaz myhill.

as has been the case on more than several occassions this year, west brom were down by a goal that was the result of a momentary lapse in judgement on the part of a defensive player.

however, and citing their good record at coming from behind, one doesn't ever lose faith as an albion supporter as long as the scoreline is 1-0. however, a second goal without having first equalized and the baggies are in trouble, and that's just what happened less than a minute-and-a-half into the second period. it was another mistake by the baggies defenders, not closing down and giving the ball away in a dangerous position with the opposition capitalizing on the error.



rovers' canadian forward, david hoilett, took full advantage as the ball fell for him at the top of the box and blasted past boaz myhill from the edge of the penalty area to give the home-side a 2-0 advantage.

this was the kind of game that frustrates the albion in the most profound way. against other teams that play a more open style of football, the baggies seem to rise to the occasion and are a much more dangerous side - as they have consistantly shown this year - when playing the likes of arsenal, liverpool or manchester united than they are against bolton, blackburn or fulham. for all their good passing and possession, the baggies have resorted to playing a lot of long ball this year and actually rank amongst the top 3 premier league teams in terms of long balls attempted.

the real problem is that the team - after a good start to the season - has probably become a bit too predictable. ever since the end of first half of their home match with local rivals, birmingham city, where the baggies found themselves being badly outplayed in midfield, they have employed an ever more predictable 4-5-1 formation with peter odemwingie as the preferred lone striker. at this point in the year, all the top managers will have seen the baggies and know what they do.

keep west bromwich albion from pressing the ball high up the pitch and you will isolate odemwingie, effectively taking him out of the game. the formula is simple, if you can manage to make it work; and the good defensive teams are doing just that. this is the primary reason that the albion have resorted to using the long ball as a major tactic in their attacking game.



there was one real moment of contention in this match when a clear foul was committed against odemwingie on the edge of the blackburn penalty area. while the TV replay indicated that the ball was outside the area, both the defender and the albion striker were in the box when the infraction occurred, and to anyone watching it was a stonewall penalty. the referee, however, awarded a free-kick just outside the blackburn penalty area and the baggies were unable to capitalize and score the goal which would have seen them back in the match and chasing a draw for the last five minutes or so.

with all the genuine suprises in terms of results at the beginning of the season, the pundits were predicting that 40 points might be needed this year to avoid relegaton. but with wolves, west ham, wigan, birmingham city , west brom and fulham all hovering at the bottom of the table and not getting consistant results, this is looking less likely now than it was then; and, as per usual, 35-38 points will probably be enough to keep a team up this year.

as was the case last week against blackpool - and despite any managerial rhetoric - there are definitely games that the baggies will have to target, and results needed which will be a real test of character. with the next three home matches being wigan, west ham and wolves there's no getting away from the fact that the albion are facing an immediate series of challenges that will be characterized as "must win" situations with a mounting intensity from week to week. we can only hope that they've done the business and will be well past this when they face newcastle united at st. james park on the last day of the season.

WBA 1-2 Manchester United F.C.

live text replay

of all the fixtures in all the world... one of the most presitigous clubs in all of football comes to visit on new year's day reminding us of a time when the albion were one of the best clubs in england. it was a time when it was all still possible and the large community-based football clubs could still win major trophies.

the baggies have always done pretty well against manchester united over the years. there is an early broadcast of MOTD from back in the mid 60s where the red devils visited the hawthorns. jeff astle scored a brace, with john kaye adding a third goal which are recognized by almost all baggies' supporters as iconic moments in west bromwich albion folklore. there were seven goals in that match and was won 4-3 by manchester united.

even better known still is the 5-3 match played at old trafford on boxing day 1978. it is debatably one of the best games of football ever played in england and certainly one of the best known and well regarded broadcasts of MOTD ever. it is some of the most extensive footage of how good the 1978-79 side really was.



earlier this year - and after having beaten arsenal at the emirates, the baggies went to old trafford and came back from being 2 goals down to snatch a point with a 2-2 draw. the albion historically find more success against manchester united than they do against stoke city (a well known and long standing bogey fixture to baggies supporters). so in fact - and with three straight defeats threatening to send the baggies into a relegation battle as well as erode the confidence that the team has played with all season, manchester united at home isn't too bad a fixture to have to deal with at the minute.

the baggies haven't played too many games better than this one, and after what seems to be the almost mandatory early capitulation and going behind 1-0 to a wayne rooney goal in the 2nd minute of the game, they regrouped immediately and thoroughly dominated the match. the statistics - including possession and attempts on goal - were more heavily in the favour of the baggies than they had been against blackburn, and was a better performance than the bolton game. but unlike at bolton and against blackburn, where the baggies would have done well to come away with a point, this is a game that they should have won but let get away in desperately unlucky fashion.

graham dorrans announced his return to form and was cruelly denied a penalty when he was brought down in the box by united defender, gary neville. even manchester united manager, alex ferguson, admitted that the baggies were unlucky and they should have been awarded a penalty in that situation, also noting that his own player was lucky not to have been sent off.

in fact, i believe that the issue of the card is the reason that the penalty was never going to be given. dorrans had taken a pass from chris brunt, gotten in behind the red devils' defender and had only the goalie left to beat. to foul a man with the ball in this position is an automatic red card. it was fairly clear to anybody on the park, as dorrans was bundled to the ground, that neville never got anywhere near the ball and it was a stonewall penalty. however, referee, chris foy, was not about to put himself in the position of having to send someone off in a big game with live, international TV coverage in a match featuring manchester united. if there was a shadow a doubt, he just wasn't going to do it.



i know from having watched the albion play in the CHAMPIONSHIP, that when you are a distinguished favourite at any particular level of football, you tend to get those little breaks and 50-50 decisions from the referees in order that the balance of the universe maintain its equilibrium.

towards the end of last season, just as albion were ready to clinch the second automatic promotion spot (and set a club record points total), they were awarded two critical and questionable penalties against blackpool and swansea respectively. these were 50-50 decisions that could have gone either way or had different outcome. the baggies were expected to succeed and the decisions were always going to go their way.

this is always going to happen in football. referees too understand that this is an entertainment-based business.

the baggies equalized early and quite deservedly through a tremendous individual effort by james morrison. like his fellow scottish international, graham dorrans, morrison has returned to his top playing form as evidenced by his contribution in the last two albion goals.

from a long and precisely delivered ball by chris brunt which nemanja vidic was unable to clear, morrison blasted the shot on the half volley past tomasz kuszczak for a goal of world-class quality. with not even 15 minutes gone, the baggies looked every bit the equal of their adversary and the equalizer was more than deserved.

with the game poised at 1-1 and the baggies looking the better of the two sides, there was every reason to be optimistic at the half, in spite of the blatant injustice of gary neville's challenge on graham dorrans going unpunished. the baggies certainly didn't look like a team who had just lost three matches in a row. they were playing with a confidence and bearing that completely belied any slip in form in regards to recent results in the league.



in the second half, albion came out with more of the same and continued to control the tempo and set the pace of the match. the baggies were so dominant that they carried a 62% of the possession, and outshot the red devils by a margin of 17 attempts (8 on target) to 5 (2 on target), and were only just edged on the number of corner-kicks by a margin of 1 (5 to 4).

but the baggies pressed and kept the play high, constantly looking for opportunity to attack the united goal. jerome thomas looked that he might have given west brom the full three-points when he was brought down in the box by veteran england international, rio ferdinand. this time there was no dispute or question.

while i was screaming for graham dorrans to take it, peter odemwingie continued as penalty taker. never looking quite confident enough, the nigerian international did well enough to send united keeper, kuszak, the wrong way for an easy sroke-in at the far post, but pushed the ball hopelessly wide. i have come to believe that only under special circumstance (i.e. wayne rooney, carlos tevez) should a striker also be a penalty taker. the psychology of a striker is just too fragile and taking penalties is a job best performed by a strong foot rather than a clever one.

this was a massive miss and might prove a real psychological set-back in the end.

of course, and this is manchester united and the baggies then went behind in the 75th minute. once again, the poor defending on corner-kicks was their undoing as united striker, javier hernandez, was allowed a free header from point-blank range leaving scott carson with no chance whatever.



there are, of course, several contributing factors - not the least of which is injured and suspended centre-halfs - to the baggies current problem in regards to defending set-pieces and especially corner-kicks, but i am starting to lose patience with scott carson. if what is quickly becoming a make-shift back-four for the baggies are lost on set-pieces, then carson is simply going to have to come for the ball and challenge to make the clearances or take the ball himself. it's as simple as that. this goal came through a ball that the keeper definitely could have come for and won easily. seeing a man unmarked and directly in front of you, you should playing to take that ball instead of waiting to make the save. period.

carson is good at what he does. he is a goalie who guards the line and specializes in making athletic saves with a lightning quick reaction time as a shot-stopper. he doesn't come off his line and his positional game is non-existent. he is very much in the mould of another albion goalie, tony godden. but godden had ally robertson and john wile covering the penalty area for him, and the style of goalie and centre-halfs complemented each other to produce a successful method of defending.

without olsson and tamas in the team, carson is all the more inappropriate a choice and his confidence is going to be shot soon, so perhaps it's time that di matteo gave boaz myhill a run in the first team.

it was an otherwise brilliant performance, however, and the albion are to be admired as a side who have continued to play enterprising and confident football despite a string of what is now four straight defeats. this now leaves the baggies needing an away win at fulham to stop the rot of what has been a shockingly dissapointing run without a lucky break in sight.

Ghosts of Premier Leagues Past

i have tried to be positive. i have attempted to be patient. my team is playing in the PREMIER LEAGUE this year and i have tried not to be cynical. but after this loss to bolton, i'm beginning to lose my grip on the situation.

i won't get into some hoary old attitude about how great life was before the advent of the almighty, bloody PREMIER LEAGUE. the ugly trade-off for the achievment of having given english football to the world has seen unbelievable financial gaps develop between the PREMIER and FOOTBALL leagues which have weakened the integrity of the domestic league structure and destroyed the ability of the large community-based clubs (once the bedrock of the english game) to compete at the highest level .

Bolton Wanderers F.C. 2-0 WBA

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in the 2010-2011 season we have seen some good competitive football, the surprisingly good performances of all three promoted teams, and a shift from the guaranteed model of the "big-four" with a second-grade consisting of 3 or 4 clubs feeding on their scraps with the rest of the division never more than a few bad results from being relegation fodder.

this year, the division has organized itself into a top half of the table where everyone is a serious contender in playing for a european spot, and bottom half where everyone is either fighting a relegation battle or looking to keep clear by a vital few points and never more than a couple of poor results away from trouble. since jonas olsson's injury, the baggies have gone from being a european contender to a team who needs to avoid slipping into the bottom 4 or 5.



whatever skill we've seen in the work of kevin davies and johan elmander in leading a very successful bolton attack, the trotters are still essentially proponents of the long ball and purveyors of tough, ugly football. however, they have managed to raise the art of PREMIER LEAGUE survival to a level where they can now compete and see some success at the higher end of the table and the trotters are definitely in with a shout for a spot in europe next year. owen coyle deserves real credit for having brought something special to the reebok stadium.

while the baggies had the higher percentage of possession, interestingly enough, the wanderers dominated - albeit only very slightly - in all other categories. this surprised me, but was testament to the quality not only of bolton's defensive play (they simply don't give you many opportunities to get a look at goal) but that there is now a spark of creativity in their attack. the injection of some skill and subtlety in going forward has proved a successful addition to their footballing repertoire.



i had gone to england for the west brom v wolves fixture which ended up being postponed. so i was already suffering the effects of massive disappointment. there are no trains anywhere in england on boxing day, so it is impossible to go anywhere unless you have a car. i had no way of getting to bolton, and although i had not originally planned it, i would have probably made a desperate attempt to get there at this point.

originally, my mother was going to drive me down to huish park (not too far from where she lives) where i was going to watch yeovil town play brentford in their boxing day game. that match too was postponed, making it 3 out of 4 matches for which i had tickets now irretrievably gone, and my "football holiday" effectively ruined.

all i could do was sit at my mum's place in chilcompton, radstock listening to ALBION RADIO and yet another disappointing result from what sounded to be a terrific match. the MATCH OF THE DAY HIGHLIGHTS confirmed that it was indeed a very evenly contested, skilled and exciting game.

there was every reason to take heart at the baggies' performance in this match... just no points to celebrate. the albion will almost certainly win one or two more matches this year where they will not have played anywhere near as well as this.

WBA 1-3 Blackburn Rovers F.C.

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this was the only match for which i had tickets that i was actually able to get to. in the end, it was just another disappointment.

while the baggies performed admirably with chris brunt out on a single-match suspension for incurring a 5th yellow card, they missed his leadership in pushing the team forward and looked just slightly disjointed for his absence.

it was good, however, to see graham dorrans starting to come into some much improved form after a slow start to the season and being unable to get a place in the first team. while still not as spectacular as he was last year, he was looking more the part of the little general than he really has all season. likewise, dorrans' midfield partner, james morrison, has been improving with each match and looks to have returned to top-form following a long injury that had kept him out of the side for the better part of a year, followed by a lengthy rehabilitation towards regaining full match fitness.



the scottish international created one of the best early chances of the game with a tremendous individual effort which saw a scorching shot from 25 yards out beat the rovers' goalie, paul robinson, only to see the shot curl millimeteres wide of the far post.

however, the match itself was absolutely ridculous. the baggies have now fallen into the trap of delivering solid possession and attacking performances, but are conceding too easily - especially on corner-kicks. i think the problem probably stems from the fact that there are too many defenders - starting with jonas olsson - who are now out injured and while paul scharner has been a sterling stand-in at centre-half, the baggies are conceding soft goals through lapses in defending - and on set-pieces especially.

to compound they problem, they are not taking enough of their chances at the other end, and - like the 2008-09 team - they are becoming tentative in attack, looking for the elusive "perfect" goal. in other words: they have become desperate and having to think too hard about the final ball that the instinctive play we saw against arsenal, manchester united and everton has dried up and the baggies are now spurning chances that might produce an own goal, a dangerous deflection or an opportunity from a scuffed shot or mishandled ball in a dangerous area.

if you look at the statistics from this game it's clearly evident as to who played the more enterprising football:


POSSESSION:
west brom 55% - blackburn 45%
SHOTS:
on target
west brom 11 - blackburn 4
off target
west brom 10 - blackburn 2
CORNERS:
west brom 8 - blackburn 5
FOULS:
west brom 9 - blackburn 13


i guess it was the in the psychological intangibles that this game was both won and lost. there was also some moments of excellent goal-keeping from veteran england interantional, paul robinson, and for all their good possession football and attacking build-up the baggies were going to have a hard time getting a clear chance on goal.



after going behind 1-0 early on in the match, this looked another carbon copy of my first three or four visits to the hawthorns. in matches i had seen against plymouth argyle, doncaster rovers, blackpool and preston north end, the baggies had conceded both first and early before then turning the games around and winning all four matches by scores of 3-1 (plymouth, doncaster) and 3-2 (blackpool and preston). so the sight of nikola kalinic scoring on the break with just 3 minutes gone didn't phase me in the least.

the albion were caught in a good move out of the back by rovers for the first goal. with the wingers and full-backs caught playing in a high position, kalinic took a good long-ball hit into space down the albion left flank and having gotten in behind the albion back-four buried a low, hard shot just inside scott carson's far post.



welcome to the hawthorns, i thought sarcastically, recalling the first time i had seen the albion concede a goal at home.

in keeping with the script, the baggies then began to assert their possession football and created the better chances with a concerted effort and dominance in attack. as i have come to expect from my visits to the hawthorns, the baggies equalized on 17 minutes through a jerome thomas goal.

it was a good run from morrison, in fact, that made the equalizer for the albion just on 17 minutes. the baggies' midfielder went on a scintillating run, taking the ball from his own half and well into blackburn territory, finding somen tchoyi on the right wing, before the cameroon international delivered a perfect ball across the face of goal for jerome thomas to bundle it in at the far post.

the baggies went on to dominate the rest of the half, and would have had the lead were it not for the goal-keeping of paul robinson. ironically, robinson was substituted at the half for a strained calf-muscle. this gave opportunity to PREMIER LEAGUE debutant, marc bunn, to prove himself in the blackburn goal. he was given the chance to show his worth early on after the restart with having to turn a stinging effort by peter odemwingie around the post.



the baggies ultimately lost this match by two goals that resulted directly from blackburn corner-kicks. with jonas olsson out with injury, and now tamas on a three-match suspension, the albion marking on set-pieces - and especially corner-kicks - has fallen apart. no one seems to know his job and the situation need some real sorting. the other big problem - and in lightof this particular defensive frailty - is that scott carson is a keeper who just doesn't come off his line, so depends heavily on good marking from his central defenders on set-pieces. without olsson to marshall the back-line, carson is going to have to come for the ball a lot more than he is naturally inclined to.

in fact, if this situation persists and the albion start to give away too many more soft goals from set-pieces, then it might be worth giving boaz myhill a run in the first team and see if he does any better. above all, someone has to organize the marking better and carson doesn't seem to be doing that either.

oh well, onwards and upwards...

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.

Arsenal F.C. 2-3 WBA

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the baggies have overcome the logic of history and beaten arsenal at home for the first time since the 1983, many years before advent of the PREMIER LEAGUE and the north londoners had relocated to their present home at the emirates stadium. the albion have beaten two of the biggest teams in the world inside the space of 4 days and there is now no doubt that this is the best baggies side since cyrille regis was with the club, and the gunners still played at highbury.

there are those who will long point to the rejuvenation of the club under gary megson as the high point in management at the hawthorns for the last 20-30 years, but roberto di matteo is rapidly proving his worth as a manager of the first order, and his successes have been more than good fortune or a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

there is no doubt that whatever remains of the team that tony mowbray built, it has now been transformed into a more complete footballing side without having lost the original mandate to play good passing possession football with an emphasis on attack.

di matteo has added considerably to the organization of the team and built the best defensive line since the days of john wile and alistair roberton. the baggies have a mid-field that is competitive with just about anyone in the top-flight, and a crew of strikers featuring a target-man who has been scoring freely since his arrival at the hawthorns. where key figures like chris brunt, youssouff mulumbu, marek cech, james morrison and graham dorrans remained to form the central core of the playing squad, this is di matteo's team and plays to his vision of the game.



when he arrived at the club following tony mowbray's departure for an unsuccessful spell as manager at celtic, di matteo's impact was immediate. he reinvigorated the spirit of players who'd become unhappy and didn't see enough playing time under tony mowbray, and began his tenure with a 9-game unbeaten run capped by a superb 5-0 away win at middlesbrough.

still, mowbray had been a very popular manager for taking the baggies into the CHAMPIONSHIP play-off final and then the PREMIER LEAGUE; and he was regarded with a great deal of respect for being a man of principle who would not resort to poor or ugly tactics, was unfailingly loyal to his starting eleven, and stuck to his game-plan. di matteo has proved a more pragmatic manager, ready to take chances, make changes and seeks victory above all. i'm not sure, for example, that either gary megson or tony mowbray would have the vision, nerve or will to make the the half-time changes that di matteo has made somewhat of a trademark in his management style.

after all, it was a change at half-time in a match last year that led to the gaffer's use of the 4-5-1 setup that served the baggies so well in the second-half of last season's CHAMPIONSHIP campaign. likewise, there were major changes he made at half-time against both tottenham and birmingham city that turned the course of the match and produced a draw and a win respectively.

a highly improved defense - stilled marshalled by jonas olsson - and the arrival of nigerian international striker, peter odemwingie, has seen the quality of the team improve. the baggies are playing very much like they did last season, and have a shown a tendency to concede first, only to reply with two or three goals themselves.

i can't really remember how many times they did this last year. i myself was present at three matches (plymouth argyle, doncaster rovers, blackpool) where they went behind early and scored 3 goals in response. although albion teams have been doing this since the 1950s, the PREMIER LEAGUE of 2010 is probably not the ideal place to continue this practice. it does, however, make for the kind of exciting football that west bromwich albion were once famous for.



the overall effect of di matteo's improvements to the team is a side with enough depth and skill that no one is ever conspicuous by being absent from the line-up. last year, for example, alarm bells would have gone off at graham dorrans, chris brunt or youssouff mulumbu being out of the team. this year, every contingency is covered, a consistent feeling of optimism is running freely throughout the entire squad, and they are no longer dependent on the talent of given individuals to spark their game. this has largely been due to the addition of players like steven reid, paul scharner, somen tchoyi and nicky shorey now making the baggies a team of some fair depth.

with that said, the baggies held their own against an arsenal team that had the balance of control throughout the first-half, and avoided going behind as andre arshavin hit the post in the early minutes of the game. other than this - and despite massive difference in time on the ball - the albion held arsenal to nothing but specualtive, long-range efforts throughout the first period.

it was only a missed penalty by chris brunt, in fact, that kept the baggies from taking the lead after odemwingie was taken down in the box by goalie, manuel almunia. the spanish keeper rightfully should have been shown a red card, at this point, and was lucky to have been given the benefit of the doubt.

brunt's penalty was truly poor, and one could see the northern ireland international change his mind at the last moment as he tried to finesse the ball into the corner of the net rather than just hammer it as he had intended.

in the second-half the baggies took the game to the gunners and deserved their lead when jerome thomas cut down the bi-line brilliantly past defender, bacary sagna, sending in a low cross for peter odemwingie to poke the ball home. the albion went on from strength to stength and dominated the game for the next 20 minutes.

with arsenal still reeling from finding themselves trailing at home, chris brunt once again produced one of his moments of brilliance for which he gets far too little credit. with the ball out on the right wing, brunt worked a very clever back-heel on the return ball in a give and go that sent right back, gonzalo jara, in on goal. the chilean defender beat almunia on his inside-post with a shot the spaniard really could have stopped. inside of 10 minutes of the restart, the albion were quite incredibly two goals up.



this allowed the baggies to continually penetrate deep into the gunner's half on attack, and on 72 minutes, chris brunt made further amends for his first-half penalty miss. with the baggies threatening, the ball came to brunt in front of goal, but his first touch was heavy and appeared to be going out for a goal-kick. however, this pulled almunia out of position and a second touch put the ball beyond the now stranded keeper, leaving brunt merely to cross for jerome thomas to blast the shot into an open goal.

it was only at this point that arsenal were able to respond. with the baggies probably still in a state of disbelief at their three goal lead - as well as the reality of a historic victory now well within their grasp - they conceded to samir nasri after he had hit the cross-bar and the gunners were applying relentless and intense pressure on the albion goal. it was a great individual effort as the frenchman took on two defenders and blasted the ball into scott carson's top right-hand corner. with fifteen minutes left to play, you still couldn't count the gunners out of this one.

nasri again scored in the 91st minute to pull the arsenal to within a goal. in a moment where the baggies centre-halfs were pulled out of position by a direct attack on the albion penalty area, nasri got into the open space and was left with just carson to beat from about 6 yards out. the baggies were going to need to weather the storm for a suspiciously long 5 minutes of time added.

it was the greatest of relief to hear the final whistle. while the 2 goals by the gunners late-on certainly showed the quality of some of their individual players - which is a class apart from a club the size of west brom - the baggies were, without a doubt, the better team on the day. the pop pundits and publications will no doubt focus on how poor arsenal were rather than how good west bromwich albion was. but that completely ignores the fact that over the last three weeks of the PREMIER LEAGUE, the baggies have a better record than manchester united, chelsea, tottenham and arsenal. in fact, they have the best record of any team in the PREMIER LEAGUE since the international break.

as i keep on saying: this is a very good west brom side!

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.