Reading F.C. 3-2 WBA

match text commentary

anyone listening to the FREEradio broadcast of this match would have heard tony brown's voice begin to crack as he fought to hold back the tears at the end of one of the most dissapointing results for the club in recent memory. likewise, steve clarke appeared bewildered, red-eyed and shaken when he spoke to the BBC following the final whistle.

in a video interview on the club website, romelu lukaku revealed that he had actually, in fact, been reduced to tears in the dressing room despite his brilliant on-field performance. besides scoring two goals, the teenage striker had hit both the post and crossbar in the course of the game.

i pride myself on being a passionate but mature football fan. i generally look on my team's losses and points dropped throughout the course of a season with a philosophical eye. i am usually able to move on from the disappointments of the day and look toward seeing my team rectify matters at the next opportunity. however, there is one - sometimes two - fixtures in the course of every season that i struggle to come to terms with.

two years ago there was the infamous match away to blackpool that was marred by the blundering performance of referee, michael oliver. last year, my frustations were shared equally between stoke's visit to the hawthorns and the new year's day fixture (also at home) against everton. but this loss to reading was particularly cruel and will be nagging at me until the baggies pick up their next three points.


when gianni zuiverloon clumsily failed to control and gave the ball away to jimmy kebe in the dying moments of their 5th round FA Cup replay with reading in 2010, the baggies were 2-1 up and looked certain to be in the draw for the quarter-finals. in a single fleeting moment that all changed, as kebe took advantage to set up brian howard for the equalizer and send the match into extra-time.

while this levelled the score 2-2, and the baggies were still theoretically in the game, the pendulum had swung and west bromwich albion's hopes for a cup run were already gone. within minutes of the kick-off in extra-time the royals were up 3-2. the baggies would not get their opportunity to make up for the semi-final loss to portsmouth two years earlier, and zuiverloon would never start for west brom again.

i remember waking up in the middle of the night, haunted by a crushingly oppressive, nightmarish feeling of emptiness and disappointment. i soon got over it though, as their push for automatic promotion started to pick up momentum and nottingham forest's challenge began to fade. important wins against blackpool, derby county, coventry, swansea and preston north end re-energized both the team and supporters alike.

again, and this time in an all important PREMIER LEAGUE fixture, jimmy kebe came back to haunt the baggies and cause me to suffer the greatest amount of grief and frustration that i have yet felt since the baggies' most recent promotion to the PREMIER LEAGUE.


after making their best start to a top-flight season in over thirty years, west brom have suffered a drastic loss of form since having to play swansea away. they have generally been slow to start and their performances in the first half of all their most recent matches have been flat and unenterprising. while they have played better football in the second-half, this has been a real problem and has all too often lead to early capitulation and an inability to come from behind. the one exception to this being the recent home victory against norwich.

however, their trip to the madjeski stadium saw the baggies return to form - in terms of a footballing display anyway. aside from the early moments of the match, which saw the royals on the front foot and winning the the first few corners, the baggies were in control and had the majority of possession with james morrison and romelu lukaku linking up brilliantly. their attacking partnership almost always looked dangerous going forward and lukaku's brace seemed like it would be enough to see the baggies get back on track.

george thorne, having been brought back from a loan spell at peterborough, has done really well in covering the holding midfield role. he made his first team debut at old trafford on 24 hours notice and has been putting in solid performances since. thorne looks like he will be a real asset to the club in the immediate future. with claudio yacob still out injured and youssouf mulumbu having departed to the AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS there was good reason to be concerned, but the 20-year-old thorne played with maturity and a very clear, uncomplicated vision of the game.


in fact, the overall defending was excellent for 82 minutes. with jonas olsson having returned from a groin injury and gareth mcauley keeping pace with the high standards that he set last year, there is still much evidence of roy hodgeson's organizational work in the side, evidenced by the disciplined shape of the back four. until the last few minutes ben foster had very little to do in goal, and when the worst happened there wasn't much he could do about it anyway.

that's why this was such an absolutley unbelievable loss. for 82 minutes the baggies were the better of the two sides by a long way, and for the first time in weeks were playing an expansive passing game and really getting on top of the other team. they played at a more contolled pace, had the majority of possession and instead of sitting back, being slavishly over reliant on the principles of counter-attacking football, they got hold of the ball and worked themselves into precise and measured attacks.

it is unbelievable just how much the baggies were in control of this game. it was their best performance in weeks and it is inconcievable that they contrived to lose it on two very late set plays following jimmy kebe's opener.

i still didn't see it coming when the first reading goal went in, and i am convinced that they would have held on for the win - perhaps even having to ride their luck a bit - if olsson hadn't blundered into kebe and/or handled the ball to concede the penalty. i mean, suddenly dropping two-points out of the blue is a big let down. especially having been so comfortably in control.


to then not even be able to see it out on a free-kick near the centre-circle... the whole thing was just beyond belief. it was even beyond analysis and there was no real technical reason for it. it was all just a bit of a fluke. of course, you can blame olsson for the idiotically clumsy challenge that gifted reading the equalizer, and it was clear that ridgewell lost concetration on the free-kick and was caught looking the wrong way when the first goal went in. however, this was still quite incredible on any and all accounts.

whatever mistakes were made (the penalty aside) none of them were really bad enough to merit giving up three goals inside 8 minutes. the most unbelievable thing is how easy a time the supporters give jonas olsson. he was directly responsible for the home loss to stoke and nobody said a thing. against the royals, he dives into a bad tackle and gives away a pointless foul that set up the equalizer and everyone is rushing to blame rosenberg, dorrans, brunt or ridgewell... ridiculous!

we all knew that when the albion was in third place - and with a chance to go top of the league - that it wasn't going to last forever. the stated goal of the club at the outset of the season was to get to 50 points and improve as a mid-table side. that goal is still achievable, and the supporters who phone in to tom ross on the GOALzone, raging and ranting in a rabid, homicidal lather that "jeremy peace has no ambition..." would do well to remember that.

we have to remind ourselves, as well, that this is traditionally the time of year when the baggies struggle with the demands of the PREMIER LEAGUE anyway. claudio yacob, yussouf mulumbu, goran popov, peter odemwingie, steven reid, marc antoine fortuné, shane long and zoltan gera are all either injured or otherwise unavailable. jonas olsson has just come back after being out for three weeks with a groin injury and the side does look a bit threadbare at the moment. all things considered, this was a good game with an unfortunate freak result, and they wouldn't generally lose too many matches on a footballing performance of this quality. it was just horribly ironic that it had to come after a run of poor games coupled with even poorer results.

we didn't play well against either fulham or arsenal and we probably still should have at least drawn both those matches!


with a run of difficult fixtures coming up, i'm hoping that they realize that with nothing to lose, it's time to throw caution to the wind and find the energy to nick a few more points.

i'm sure everyone remembers that two years ago we didn't win a game from november until february. we then went 8 games unbeaten and lost only a single match in what remained of the campaign. on the last day of the season somen tchoyi scored 3 goals in ten minutes to earn a 3-3 draw away to newcastle that propelled us into 11th place. just as with reading scoring three goals in 8 minutes, these things don't happen everyday... or even every season!

i think the albion's season will pretty much turn on the game against villa at home. as long as they put their foot on the ball and control the game early, they should be able to come up with a result against a hugely inconsistent villa side that has now fallen into the relegation places.

it's a tough time now, and something that can be hard to live with as a fan. but i'm still sure we're going to do no worse this year than we did last year, and that's at the very least.

Liverpool F.C. 0-1 WBA

match text commentary

we will only know with the passage of time, but this may have been the moment that heralded the return of west bromwich albion as one of the country's top football clubs. that is not to suggest that they will ever win the league title (or even challenge for a top-four finish, for that matter); and they certainly won't win the UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE. but long term survival in the PREMIER LEAGUE? an FA or LEAGUE CUP final? qualification for the EUROPA LEAGUE?!? these are all certainly possibilities and achievable goals for a club of the size and resource of west bromwich albion.

when the PREMIER LEAGUE began in the 1992-93 season, west bromwich albion was just coming out of the worst period in the club's history; as well as the lowest finish in the league ever - 7th in the old 3rd DIVISION.

that same year, the baggies - having finished 4th in the new LEAGUE DIVISION 2, won promotion through a 3-2 victory over swansea in a two-legged semi-final; and in their first wembley appearance since 1970 they beat port vale 3-0 to make their return to the second-tier.

following several years of relatively mediocre football, west bromwich albion were returned to the top-flight (now called the PREMIER LEAGUE) under the guidance of gary megson and featuring the prolific goal-scoring of lee hughes. however, this was one of the weakest teams ever to qualify for the competition and they were relegated immediately. thus began a decade of flirtation with promotion/relegation scenarios between the top-flight and what is now called the FOOTBALL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP. the baggies have not played in the same division for more than two years consecutively since.

this, of course, will change next year when the baggies will be competing in the BARCLAY'S PREMIER LEAGUE for the third season running. depending on what they actually go on to accomplish during their time in the top flight - and however long that might be - this just may be the match in which they finally arrived as a bona fide PREMIER LEAGUE side. the baggies defended like demons against a misfiring liverpool and took their late chance to win the match in opportunistic fashion and in the manner of a club instilled with a culture of "winning".

make no mistake - this match was won more by the management of roy hodgson, and his philosophy that to win in football you have to keep the other side from scoring than it was down to any individual performances. it's no coincidence that the baggies did not concede in any of their recent victories. even their loss to manchester city, with its final scoreline of 4-0, might have been worse had it not been for the form of goalie, ben foster and the play of centre-half, craig dawson, who deputized for jonas olsson on short notice, as the big swede had picked up an injury during the pre-game warm-up.

while not all west brom supporters have been supportive of the gaffer as a tactician - or appreciated his style of football - it has seen the baggies through the successful end of one season, and - as things stand at the minute - an even more successful season this year. after this win west brom is 10th in the table and on course to finish ahead of where they did last year. i'm not surprised that there are some discontented fans. since as early as the 1950s, aggressive attacking football has been the order of the day at the hawthorns, and i can see how a diet of away wins would starve a home season ticket holder, but there is no arguing with success and they learned to live with tight, disciplined football under gary megson for that very reason. eventually, everyone will have to defer to the gaffer and admit that its been a good time for the club and there's every reason to believe that it can continue.

it was in the 75th minute - and with the baggies defence having weathered relentless attack by the reds - youssouf mulumbu pressured liverpool right-back, glen johnson, into giving the ball away in dangerous area and at a crucial time in the match. the congolese midfielder then pushed the ball on for peter odemwingie and with space opening up in front of him, the nigerian took on reds' goalie, pepe reina, giving him a look at the far post but putting the ball in the net on the spaniard's near-side. there was little reina could do but stand and watch as the albion had scored their first goal at anfield in their last five visits.

it was fitting that the baggies earned this victory 45 years to the day since they had last posted a win at anfield. the winning goal that day was scored by club legend, jeff astle. at the time, west bromwich albion were in the middle of a golden period for the club, which saw them win both the LEAGUE and FA CUPs as well as appearances in two more wembley finals.

the baggies were by no means dominant going forward and luis suarez looked the best player in that respect for long periods - especially in the second half. but ben foster in the albion goal has been playing better and better as the season moves towards its climax, while jonas olsson and gareth mcauley showed, once again, why they are the best centre-half pairing to wear the navy-and-white stripes since the days of ally robertson and john wile. the duo threw themselves into a series of tackles and blocked shots that were essential to the albion's defensive performance and ultimate victory. however, the real star for the baggies was striker, shane long.

while the irish international has been in and out of the side through injury and illness for much of the season, his tireless running of the channels, winning of aerial balls and pressing play up front was a major factor in the win. his work against liverpool was first class and as good as any showing he has put in all year. long's was the standout performance in a team of standout performances.

it has been a year of dispelling long time hoodoos and putting them to rest, but this was one of the really big ones. next, the baggies will try and complete the double over aston villa (at home) and cement their place as the top team in the west midlands.

Never at Old Trafford

Manchester United F.C. 2-0 WBA

match text commentary



long gone are the days when a west bromwich albion side could travel to old trafford with every potential of a victory, and for a particularly competitive fixture that would regularly produce some of the best football played in the country at the time.

while the baggies have most certainly been one of the league's form teams over the last month, there isn't anyone on the planet who will find this final score-line as any kind of surprise.



wayne rooney scored from a javier hernandez cross in the 35th minute, and then again with 20 minutes left in the match on a penalty to give the scoreline its proper gloss. it was everything that you'd expect in 2012 AD.

the baggies, however, gave a good account of themselves overall and were quite obviously the better team in the early going.

keith andrews should have opened the scoring in the 5th minute when the baggies, pressing the ball deep in the manchester united half, created the opportunity for liam ridgewell to put in a cross that looked like it should have been a tap-in for the veteran mid-fielder, but was put just wide of david de gea's goal.

andrews came close again from a free-kick about 25 yards out, but his effort was this time put just wide of the inside post by a diving de gea who got down low to make the finger-tip save.

the turning point of the afternoon came early in the second-half, and with score still 1-0 to the home team, when peter odemwingie was denied what should have been a penalty. this might very well have given the baggies the impetus to go on and get some kind of result from their visit, but never materialized.





patrice evra clearly tripped the albion winger as he took the ball into the man. u. penalty area. along with anyone who saw it live and in replay on TV around the world, odemwingie had a pretty clear-cut case for being awarded a spot-kick and was instead left prostrate in the 18-yard box, wringing his head with his hands in disbelief at the lack of any decision and the signal from the ref to "play on". then again, unless it's an absolutely nailed-on red-card offence - and as the visiting team - you're never going to get a penalty decision like that going your way at old trafford. never. they don't call it the "theatre of dreams" for nothing.

typically, united took clinical advantage of the situation and immediately broke on the baggies, only to see javier hernandez' long range effort smack off the west brom goal-post.

in the final bit of play that ultimately lost the match for the baggies, keith andrews, having already forced ashley young deep to the bi-line, inexplicably bundled the united mid-fielder to the ground and conceded the penalty that would make the final score 2-0.





however, the ultimate dissapointment of the afternoon for west brom came in the 64th minute, when jonas olsson was dismissed for a second yellow card and will now sit out next week's game at wigan. the swedish defender was clearly upset with himself and was reported to have been somewhat moody with various members of the local press during the post game interviews.

this was otherwise a good performance by the baggies and the fact of the loss shouldn't affect their current form in the coming weeks.

Aston Villa F.C. 1-2 WBA

match text commentary


with only 2600 tickets allotted to the supporters of west bromwich albion football club for an away day at villa park, i travelled to england knowing that i would not be attending this particular derby. even as a membership subscriber to the club's ticket scheme, i was not given a chance to buy a ticket.

this was, in fact, the first match that i have missed following in real time either through listening to online, watching on TV or attending live - and that includes all major competitions - in over four years.

on my second trip, two seasons ago and going for promotion in the championship, i saw the baggies play three times at home and once away to swansea, all in the space of two weeks. the match at liberty stadium was won 0-2, on a penalty by graham dorrans and a late goal by ishmael miller and all but clinched automatic promotion for the baggies. it was a match that was highly symbolic of the albion's success that year and a defining moment of the season. i remember the experience vividly... how time stood still for a moment as miller deftly cut back around swans goalie, dorus de vries, and fired home to emphasize the victory.





what i don't remember is having any particular difficulty in obtaining a ticket for the game.

this year - and with both teams in the almighty, bloody premier league - it was reported that the same trip to south wales was sold-out as 3000 baggies supporters travelled to the liberty stadium to witness their team's worst performance of the season to date, as the baggies conceded three goals and dropped all three points.

knowing that the swansea trip had been sold-out, i knew i would have to be online the moment that the ticket office opened if i was to get a ticket for the villa. however, after finding out that tickets would be available to season-ticket holders for a full 9 days before i would get a crack at it, i was not hopeful. especially after i learned (much to my chagrin) that only 2600 tickets were going to be made available to travelling away supporters.

in any case, on the day i woke myself up at 4 AM EST in order that i would be online as soon as the ticket office opened, and whatever tickets might still be available were scheduled to be released for purchase by those with club membership, like myself. this also coincided with tickets to the home game with liverpool going on sale to both season-ticket and membership subscribers. i logged into my account, clicked on the BUY TICKETS tab, which delivered me to the EVENTS SCHEDULE page from where one makes their selection and proceeds to CHECK-OUT to complete their purchase.

however, there was no link posted to tickets for aston villa (away). there were links to tickets for the bus trip from the hawthorns to villa park and the upcoming home match with liverpool, but nothing for the ticket i wanted. i sat for a few minutes, refreshed the page and waited for a link to appear. ultimately, it never did and i went back to bed knowing that i was not going to get an away ticket for the match against the villa.





by the time i woke-up again at 8.30-9.00, a link to tickets for the villa game had appeared on the EVENT SCHEDULE, but this only led to a message saying that the match was sold-out.

what is really bugging me at this point, is that villa park holds 42000 some-odd, while liberty stadium just barely scratches a capacity of 20000. how had there been 3000 tickets made available for a match in south wales and only 2600 for a game to be played barely four miles away? on top of that, villa's attendance is down by an average of 3000 seats per match this season. this is a loss of about 10% of their regular home support and i thought west brom would have at least 5000 spots allotted.

while i will never know the truth, it turns out that the villa is not particularly interested in accommodating away supporters.

for example, there is no real "away" end at villa park. visiting opposition supporters are shunted into two sections in a corner between the doug ellis and north stands, facilitating cut-price tickets to home supporters in the lower tiers of the north stand and ensuring that there is exclusively home support behind both goals. while the smethwick end at the hawthorns is shared, it is a significantly smaller stadium and visiting supporters are, in fact, given a traditional space behind the goal. under the present set-up, the smethwick can accommodate just over 2500 away supporters for regular league matches.

so, while there were plenty of tickets still available to the general public in the "home" sections of villa park on the day of the match, the two "away" sections were listed on the villa website as "0% availability". i'm sure there were more than one or two baggies who zipped up their jackets to conceal their shirts, hid their scarves under their coats and bought tickets to sit in hostile territory, but that is something i just wouldn't think to do.





in other words, i wasn't about to travel to birmingham without a ticket. neither would i have wanted to buy a ticket that would necessitate me concealing the fact that i am a west bromwich albion supporter, might put me at risk of being denied entrance or possibly even removed from the ground. not to mention having to sit in a section of the stadium with people i don't want to be with!

having promised myself that i would miss no opportunity to watch live football during my time in england, i had already implemented a contingency plan and bought a ticket to watch cardiff city at home to barnsley. however - and no matter how hard i try - i do not like cardiff city football club, and barnsley are only remembered with some faint and long past fondness on my part for having beaten liverpool in the quarter-finals of the FA CUP a few seasons back. i was hoping that with michael chopra gone i wouldn't hate the bluebirds as i once did. while this was indeed the case, i could still find no real sympathy with them, and i wish i had stayed in chilcompton and listened to the villa game on the ALBION RADIO. but then, i can stay at home in canada to do that - and watch it on TV too!

with the bright, blazing mid-afternoon sun at cardiff city stadium uncomfortably in my eyes and half-time just set upon us, i heard the first news of the albion/villa match announced on the PA system along with other scores of the day:

"aston villa 1, west bromwich albion 1..."

i clenched my fist and stabbed covertly at the air.

"yes!!!" i hissed to myself.

with the score 5-2 and just going into injury time, i decided i'd get a head start and see if i couldn't catch the 5.30 train from cardiff central.

i saw the third barnsley goal on the TV screen by the burger and pies stand.

that is surely that, i thought to myself, and hustled outside back in the direction i had come from.

i ran up the stairs onto the platform at grangetown and just barely made the train back to cardiff central where i caught the 5.30 going in the direction of bristol temple meads. i settled into my seat and called my mother on the cell phone to say that i had managed to get the early train and would be at bath spa within about an hour and a half.





"west brom won!!!" she said excitedly in answering, "west brom won!!! i just heard it on the news."

i was stunned by what my mother was trying to tell me. her excitement had taken me aback and i was almost speechless.

"that's great... wow... that's the best news all day... oh, that's just so great!!!"

when i got off the phone i smiled to myself and kicked at the floor to emphasize my joy at hearing that yet another old hoodoo had been dispelled and fallen by the wayside.

"BAGGIES!!!" i could only just contain myself.

i was happy enough in the moment knowing that i would see it on MATCH OF THE DAY.

it turned out to be a great day for the baggies despite the loss of shane long with a speculative knee injury that might see the young striker out for as much as six weeks. it was a dirty game played by the villa, and manager, alex mcleish, had told his defenders to get out and intimidate the opposition... hurt them, so to speak. alan hutton's tackle on long was shamelessly brutal football by today's standards and could easily have been justified a red card.

hutton wasn't even warned. however, there was an incident away from the play in the villa penalty area that saw villa midfielder, chris herd, dismissed for a stomp on jonas olsson. the baggies had a man advantage and a penalty. albion troubles with penalty kicks continued, as captain, chris brunt - normally a penalty taker of the highest order but having a poor run of form as of late - sliced the ball yards wide of the mark, wasting albion's first opportunity to equalize.

luckily, the baggies captain made up for it only minutes later with a perfectly delivered corner kick that saw jonas olsson heading the ball into the villa goal for honours even at the half; and another chris brunt corner kick in the 57th minute produced the opportunity for paul scharner to smash home the winner.

i've been to st. andrews to watch blues play. i've also bought tickets for and been to walsall, brentford, millwall, swansea, leicester city, bath city, yeovil town and bristol city. i was even at the old highbury stadium and stamford bridge in 1976 and made a single trip to the old wembley for an international friendly in 1974. while there are more than one or two of these experiences that have left me cold and without any feeling for the clubs involved, cardiff city was a low-point and the first time i have ever left a football ground before the final whistle.

travelling to see the baggies play in the championship two seasons ago was great fun. i saw them play six games in two visits, including the away match at swansea. not to mention that i could have made it to a seventh game if i had been enterprising enough to make the twelve hour return train journey to middlesbrough and back. truthfully, and with west brom now in the premier league, the championship provides much better opportunity for someone travelling from abroad with the intention of supporting their favourite football team live at the stadium.





i returned to canada too late (by just a few hours in fact) of even seeing the aston villa game repeated on TV and have only seen the footage offered on MATCH OF THE DAY and the 10 minute highlight video on the baggies website.

i am still fuming about this, and i probably won't get over it until my next trip to england sometime later in the new year. in my frustration, i have also promised myself that anyone seen wearing an aston villa jersey is going to get a hassle for it. even though it's not really my style, any villa supporter who crosses my path on this side of the atlantic will leave my presence understanding more about the historical animosity between their club and mine.

while i am thankful that the premier league has given us live TV coverage and repeats of all top-flight matches played over any given weekend, i shall have to wait until my beloved baggies are once again established as a major force in the top-flight and competitive european games have returned to the hawthorns on a regular basis before they'll be playing enough football for my convenience.

i won't be expecting that to happen too soon. i guess i can always hope for a cup run... a good home draw? hey, you never know!!

until then - and if you live in toronto and support the villa - you better stay out of my f**king way!!!

WBA 0-1 Stoke City F.C.

match text commentary


a friend of mine asked me how situations like this perpetuate themselves. for example, how does one team so completely dominate the results against another team of similar size and resource year after year, so as to become the nemesis of the other... a so-called "bogey" team, as it were?

is it the style and ethos of one club that is particularly successful against the style and ethos of the other? is it some inexplicable cosmic force at work, imposing a kind of astrological status quo? what is it?!? i had to think about it for awhile. the answer soon became obvious.

the fact is - and even in the world of modern football where players no longer spend entire careers at a single club - no matter what change in personnel has come to pass at the two respective clubs in the intervening time between one match and the next, there is always a couple of guys who were there the last time the two played each other. with the fixture comes a trepidation on one side, and an assured confidence on the other that becomes fixed, so that the failure of the one and the success of the other becomes a kind of inherited psychological pre-set. stoke city have now lost just one match and drawn 6 in the last 28 times the clubs have met. the albion must dread this fixture as much as any they have to play at this point.





oooooooh!!! stoke city... boogie boOGIE BOOGIE!!!

and so it was, once again. only seconds away from a draw - perhaps the best they could have hoped for after two goal-saving stops by stoke keeper, asmir begovic - when baggies' goalie, ben foster, was not quick enough in taking a long ball coming back at him on the edge of the box. baggies' centre-half, gabriel tamas, looked momentarily to be in two minds, but with foster shouting that he had it - and was indeed better positioned to take the ball and clear than tamas - all the romanian centre-half had to do was block out stoke substitute, ryan shotton, and shepherd the ball back for foster to take on the hop.

shotton got past tamas and foster's hesitation allowed for the stoke defender to literally nick the ball off the tips of foster's fingers and put it in an open goal. it was sunday league football stuff, and not the first time we've seen it at the hawthorns. but the gaffer was adamant that by today's standards, shotton's challenge was a foul and he came in with his leg high and his studs showing.

hodgson acknowledged that foster and tamas shouldn't have got themselves into such a mess at the back. truly - and while it probably was a foul - foster should have come more decisively for the ball, been a little more aggressive and risked taking a set of studs in the chest. at least there would have been no doubt about as to whether it was a foul or not. hodgson stated that he was particularly aggrieved after having seen the replay.





unlike playing against manchester united and chelsea, this game was thoroughly dominated by the baggies. they had the better of the possession, they created better chances, and they started and finished the stronger of the two teams. jonas olsson had kenwyn jones in his back pocket all day, and gabriel tamas played an intelligent and useful game, considering he was booked early in the first-half and played the remaining 83 minutes on a yellow card. the stoke goal was their only shot on target in the whole of the match while the baggies managed six.

the best scoring chance in the match came when somen tchoyi placed a perfect cross into the box which shane long headed powerfully at goal. while the final ball was pretty much straight at begovich, long had gotten enough power behind it that it required quick hands on the part of the stoke keeper to keep the baggies from going 1-0 up.

again, this was much better on TV than it was as audio commentary. particularly the second-half. it seemed as though the albion were resigned to meet the long ball tactics that stoke played throughout the first-half with the like. it made for a second-half that never really got going, and left the albion radio commentary team to lament the lack of flow and pace that characterized the first 30 minutes of the second period; and suggest that it may have been a tactical mistake on the gaffer's part.





the real story of this game, is that it brings home the immediacy of the premier league and seeing a possible nine points - of which the baggies should have taken at least three - as well as some good football go for nothing. the albion will need four points from the next six or they're going to find themselves in trouble and growing desperate for points with roughly 20% of the season gone. in the football league you could probably drop the first four or five games and still go on to win the division.

meanwhile, and with the summer transfer window closing, we have to start to worry a little about peter odemwingie. he played fifteen minutes against chelsea, and we certainly caught a glimpse of what he and shane long might be like in a forward pairing. but he was out of the line-up (and not even on the bench) this week due to continued problems with his ankle. in truth, this has been bothering him in varying degrees since he got to the club, and i would now start to be concerned that it might be something from which he may never fully recover and will hinder his last few years in professional football.

whatever the case, i have an ultimate faith in roy hodgson, and individual technical errors aside, he has managed to put together a much more stern and disciplined defence within the structure of a 4-4-2 set up. we can only hope that this somewhat deflating result won't erode any of the team's essential confidence this early in the season.

Reading F.C. 1-0 WBA

live text replay


although i noticed it a while back, i have yet to write about roberto di matteo's team selections - and especially his seeming reluctance to play certain members of the 2008-09 squad which was relegated from the PREMIER LEAGUE under tony mowbray.

the gaffer was happy enough with the midfield that he inherited from mowbray's time at the hawthorns, but it seems that there is a real reticence to play certain long-time players (particularly defenders and strikers) in the medium of top-flight football.

i'm not sure that he's got it quite right. ishmael miller, roman bednar, abdoulaye meite and gianni zuiverloon remained with the club, making the final 25-man squad for the 2010-2011 season. gonzalo jara, gabriel tamas, pablo ibanez, peter odemwingie and marc-antoine fortune have all been brought in since mowbray's departure for celtic (and now middlesbrough) and are all preferred starters for the positions where miller, bednar, meite and zuiverloon had previously been first-team selections.

the general rationale is that none of these are PREMIER LEAGUE quality players, where their replacements are decidedly - and in di matteo's mind, anyway - more fit for the job.

at the same time, more than a few of mowbray's defenders and strikers have gone to other clubs. west brom have now sold both luke moore and craig beattie to swansea city; as well as shelton martis, who went to doncaster rovers, while leon barnett and reuben reid have gone out on season long loans to norwich city and walsall respectively.

i'm not outrightly critisizing any or all of these moves, but i've never been sure that the gaffer has got it right with miller, bednar, meite and zuiverloon.



miller has taken a long time to come back from a cruciate ligament injury that was incurred about two years ago. it's easy to forget that he scored on his debut with the club, going on to score 7 goals in the league that season as well as a hat-trick in the FA CUP quarter-final. in 2008-09, and after a slow start in the PREMIER LEAGUE, he scored 3 goals in the 4 matches leading up to his injury. last season, he scored on his first start in 14 months against blackpool, as well as the decisive goal coming on as a substitute 3 days later at the liberty stadium to give the baggies a 2-0 away win that just about clinched automatic promotion for them. if he can get back the form (and provided he gets the opportunity) he was starting to show in the baggies' last top-flight campaign, then i believe he is, in fact, a capable first choice striker in the PREMIER LEAGUE.

i think pretty much the same about roman bednar. he has surprisingly returned to the club after a brief loan spell at leicester city and it had looked like we weren't going to see him back at the hawthorns again. obviously the club's need for strikers was greater than whatever regard (or dis-regard) that RDM currently holds for roman bednar. the supporters love bednar no matter what division we're in and, at his best, he brings a top class spirit to the attack, you never know what might happen when he's on the field and he is technically good at the hold-up play needed for a 4-5-1 playing formation.

gianni zuiverloon fell out of favour after his two mistakes against reading in the FA CUP last year. as we all remember well, it was zuiverloon's careless control which saw 2 goals given up to jimmy kebe that helped put the baggies out of the cup. the young dutch defender had lost both his confidence and a place as a starter in any subsequent matches for the rest of the year. this was a bit of a rough break, as zuiverloon is an above average player in terms of pace and ball skills, and is a rarity in that he is probably more suited to PREMIER LEAGUE football than he is to the more physical grind of playing in the FOOTBALL LEAGUE.



abdoulaye meite was a different story. his downfall came after coming to the club, making a good start, but being part of what was ultimately a poor defensive team. eventually , he too completely lost his confidence and fell out of favour as a first choice centre-half. meite's loss of confidence during the 2008-09 top-flight campaign was painful to see in regards to how plain, obvious and evident it was to anyone watching. the arrival of gabriel tamas - and then pablo ibanez went a long way towards exiling meite to the reserves and subs' bench.

it gets overlooked, however, that he put in a good series of performances following the baggies' loss to barnsley last year, and was instrumental in the recovery of the club's defensive form after a particularly poor showing and a calamitous own goal by shelton martis, who was soon on his way to doncaster rovers. whatever problems he encountered two years ago, meite was still a veteran of top-flight football. however, he is certainly a flawed and uneven talent whose career has been hindered by injury and marred by controversy. i can understand why he would not be rated a "premier-league player". whatever his deficiencies, though, he's still a trained professional and you'd think he might just be useful in a situation where injuries and/or suspensions had limited team selection as far as centre-halfs go.

with this in mind, i was surprised that miller was given a start, even in an FA CUP game. the albion striker has been out of regular football so long that it is hard for anyone not actually going to the baggies' training sessions to know what kind of fitness a player like miller is in.

while he almost certinaly doesn't have a full 90 minutes in him, and he predictably pulled a hamstring just past the hour mark, for the first 20 minutes miller was getting into some good positions and causing problems for the royals at the back. his finishing was beyond rusty, though, as he probably should have had a goal and almost certainly had a legitimate shout for a penalty which was ignored by the referee.

besides james morrison's chip which clipped off the royals cross-bar, there was very little else to recommend this performance by the baggies. in fact, it bordered on disastrous and only the result of saturday's upcoming league fixture with blackpool will tell the tale.



jonas olsson came on after half-time in an effort to give the swedish defender 45 minutes worth of football before league play resumes and he makes his full return to the first-team. the albion centre-half has been out injured since the baggies loss to blackpool at bloomfield road in the beginning of november. however, the strategy badly backfired when olsson's aggressive streak - which we all know well - got him into trouble all too quickly. an over zealous tackle saw him booked within a minute of taking the field and in less than 15 minutes he had picked up a second yellow and was dismissed. the enusing automatic red-card will keep him out of the side when blackpool visit the hawthorns on saturday - a match the baggies desperately need to win.

boaz myhill did well enough in the albion goal that he'll almost certainly start in the next league match, and help take the pressure off squad captain, scott carson, whose recent run of poor form has seen him being blasted by the local press and supporters alike. after last week's loss to fulham, the england international looked to have completely lost his confidence and in dire need of some time out of the side - if only to get him out of the public line of fire and see that he gets a chance to put his head straight.

in fact, the whole team needs to get its head straight. you have to admire the baggies for not letting their heads drop during this last 5 (now 6) straight defeats. they have continued to show character and play some good football with a positive attitude throughout.

it's hard to judge from a cup game - which is why the upcoming home match with blackpool looms so large for the baggies. aside from miller's early efforts, the albion never looked in this one and team confidence looks like it might be finally ebbing away. the loss to fulham was devastating and this cup fixture was pedestrian and spiritless at best.

this coming saturday at the hawthorns is the biggest test of character the baggies will have had to face all season. let's hope they're up to it.

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.

Arsenal F.C. 2-3 WBA

live text replay



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 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur

live text replay



where the baggies' match with liverpool was a loss that felt like a draw, this was a draw that ultimately felt a bit like a loss. it is becoming evident, even in these early days of the season, that this is a very good west brom side and it would be a shame if - for whatever reason - the club can't take advantage of their situation at this particular moment in time.

spurs were by far the better team for the first 40 minutes, full of attacking invention that threatened the baggies' back-four with a superior and enterprising passing game evident from the outset. an early foray into the albion 18-yard box was absolutely sublime as a series of short passes, capped by a clever back-heel, nearly produced the first goal of the game for aaron lennon in what would have been quite spectacular fashion.



the albion , on the other hand, missing both james morrison to a red-card incurred at anfield and graham dorrans to a family bereavement, were content to pack the midfield and defend for most of the first half. knowing that tottenham is one of the few teams capable of outplaying them in terms of possession, the baggies sat back, defended, assessed, and looked for counter-attack opportunities.

spurs went ahead on a luka modric goal in the 27th minute. an awkward, arching ball was chipped into the box leaving olsson and tamas backpeddling desperately as it fell for modric to knock home from about 6 yards out.

it wasn't until chris brunt's scruffy equalizer in the 40th minute that the baggies started to get more of the ball, grew in confidence and became the more enterprising of the two sides.

while i have been an admirer of roberto di matteo's since he took over at the hawthorns, he does tend push his ideas that don't work a little longer than he needs to. it's pretty clear, even after just a few games, that the idea of playing a 4-5-1 setup - which served the team superbly throughout the second half of last season - is not going to work with the current personnel. nor, for that matter, are some of the details around which this idea was originally based.



youssouf mulumbu is much more effective playing as a lone holding midfielder. left to his own devices, the congolese international sits in front of the back four and tackles everything in sight. with a partner, however, it seems that his role becomes less clear-cut and he is ultimately left with too many options in regards to his positional play. if roberto di matteo still had any idea of playing a duo of defensive players in front of the back four, he should well have abandoned the idea at this point.

the gaffer was also a bit late in realizing that he's not going to make a right-winger out of peter odemwingie. after he put brunt out wide and odemwingie into a central position behind fortune, the baggies started to dominate through an increased tempo and direct attack. they also benefitted from brunt's knowledge of playing on the wing, as the northern ireland international effectively closed down the channels into which gareth bale had been moving forward with considerable success throughout the first half. this is something odemwingie has not been trained to do, and was a contributing factor in the 1-0 loss at anfield.

new man, paul scharner, came close to scoring on two occasions, with both a close-range header and a scorching long range effort. he was confident and solid in his debut and definitely looks a good bet in challenging for a place in the starting eleven.



the baggies came to dominate this match so completely that jonas olsson, peter odemwingie and gabriel tamas (on the best move of the match) all should have scored; and it was only the sterling work of spurs' goalie, carlo cudicini, that preserved the draw for the highly-fancied north london club.

so far di matteo has been pretty pragmatic in his choices and tends to do what he should rather than commit to abstract concepts and particular styles. as i said, this is as good a baggies side as we've seen in a long time and while some of the ideas may not have worked out, there is certainly enough of a team here to survive the premier league.

it's a good thing that the next match is against blues at home rather than some of our more recent or upcoming prospects (i.e. away at anfield and the emirates). it should give bot the team and the gaffer the chance to go into a match feeling relatively relaxed and confident with the idea of dominating possession and looking for goals. i'm hoping to see fortune or bednar with odemwingie in an orthodox 4-4-2 setup; and this should put pressure on the tight birmingham city midfield and back-four.

other than their opening day debacle at stamford bridge, the baggies have shown that they've grown considerably as a defensive side - now it's time to find some goals!

Liverpool F.C. 1-0 WBA

live text replay


there are several different ways to lose in football. some are unnacceptable, some are undeserved and others are just plain unfair. while the baggies' opening day abberration at stamford bridge was a decidedly unnacceptable loss, today's match away to liverpool was anything but. it was a game lost in one of those dramatic moments with which every football fan is all too familiar. with the play being sufficiently stretched, it becomes inevitable that one team or the other is either going to score a well worked, hard fought goal or concede on the counter. the albion sensed their opportunity for a possible winner and were ultimately victims of their own ambition.

with the baggies piling on the pressure, right-back, gonzalo jara, had two clear-cut chances at the liverpool goal from 6 or 7 yards out. the first shot was blocked but the ball fell to him for a second which was then saved by a diving pepe reina. the albion were caught out at the back. after a quick release by reina - and within just 19 seconds - the baggies had conceded at the other end to a fernando torres volley on a cross from dirk kuyt. however cliche it may sound, the premier league is indeed cruel to those who are unable to take their chances when they appear. ultimately, the albion put in a good performance and as supporters we'll all come out of this one confident of survival in the premier league campaign of 2010-11; and for better or worse, that seems to be what matters.



where we might have thought, oh no! here we go again!!! after the opening day calamity at chelsea, today's performance, against one of europe's most famous clubs, could only reinforce the belief that this is going to be west brom's most successful premiership campaign yet, and they'll be quite capable of amassing the 35-40 points needed to survive - and maybe more.

as i would do on most any other saturday morning, i tuned into the ALBION RADIO transmission shortly after 9.00 AM... nothing stunning today, but always worth listening to - especially the weekly insights that one gets as to some of the more specific points and inside workings of the football club. i had to wait until 3.45 in the afternoon to watch the delayed TV broadcast on SETANTA SPORTS CANADA.

at the outset - and despite liverpool's relatively poor start to the season - nobody would have expected anything less than an emphatic victory on the part of the home team. but i came out of this not just disappointed that the albion didn't quite manage to hang on for the draw - i felt as if the baggies were going to win this one.

west brom were especially good in the first half, and despite a few tentative moments on the part of gabriel tamas, the albion defense - and especially jonas olsson - stood firm and showed real character for the first 65 minutes.



nicky shorey got his albion debut and delivered a solid performance at left-back, showing he is a good, sound, technical player; and gonzalo jara - who has struggled a little in the first few games - showed some real enterprise at right-back and injected spark, skill and endeavour into the albion attack.

scott carson, while not having much to deal with before the last twenty minutes, was quite superb, spectacularly saving from point-blank range to prevent a second torres goal late in the match.

graham dorrans, who has been surprisingly quiet in the first few outings, finally began to exert his influence on the game in the second-half and showed that he is settling into the more advanced attacking role he has been forced to take on this season. likewise, fellow scottish international, james morrison, who had not started off well in the first few games either, was back on form and - in tandem with chris brunt - was at the the heart of several enterprising moves forward by the baggies.

with a couple of new faces in the side - and the return of marc-antoine fortune less than 48 hours prior to kick-off - the baggies are going to need to settle. the most pressing question they're going to have to come terms with over the next little while is the issue of roberto di matteo's commitment to the 4-5-1 setup and having to play people out of position to accomodate the system - especially the forwards.

in fact, the liverpool goal might never have materialized had peter odemwingie - a striker who was played on the right wing for this game - possessed more of the training and instinctive positioning sense of a right-winger. for example, i think it was probably odemwingie who had not dropped back into a sufficiently wide defensive position to cover for right-back, jara, when he went forward to directly attack the liverpool 18-yard box. on the other hand, how can anyone not be sympathietic and treat this as anything but a learning experience for the newly arrived nigerian international?



while there were several questionable judgements on the part of the referee - and including legitimate calls for penalties ignored at both ends - the only real injustice was the red-carding of james morrison on a tackle that deserved nothing more than a yellow-card. it was questionable enough a call that you'd think the albion management might think about appealing.

while most albion supporters will come away from this match buoyed by the team's performance and its promise for the future, the baggies were unlucky today and deserved better.