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.

WBA 1-0 Reading F.C

live text replay

with peter odemwingie's moment of madness in the away fixture to fulham, which saw the nigerian striker shown a red card and incurring the standard three match ban, the baggies once again showed the strength of depth in the current squad. deferring to the time honoured practice of not starting key players against their old clubs, romelu lukaku was preferred as the lone striker over the in form shane long and the remarkably improved marc-antoine fortune.



the royals have been a bit of a bogey team for the baggies over the last few seasons: knocking them out of the FA CUP two years running, as well as splitting the points with them in their league fixtures - both home and away - during the promotion season of 2009-10. despite both of their recent and respective histories of top-flight promotions (and due to their subsequent relegations) this was the first time the two sides had ever faced each other in the PREMIER LEAGUE.

while the baggies have had their best start in the top-flight in three decades, the royals have not been so lucky. despite playing some good football going forward, reading haven't been so good defensively and are yet to record their first victory in the league. they arrived at the hawthorns with only a single point - claimed in their opening day fixture, a 1-1 draw at home to stoke city - to show for their first five games.

while there was the possibility that west brom could go top of the league with a win, reading were pretty much guaranteed that a loss would leave them sitting bottom of the table.

to their credit, the royals held out for 70 minutes in a match in which they were clearly clearly second best. james morrison continued his recent fine form coming close on a couple of occasions inside the first half-hour.



in the 8th minute, reading keeper, alex mccarthy, was forced into a diving, finger-tip save as west brom's scottish international found himself with enough room to move into space and set up a shot from the edge of the penalty area. in the 28th minute, morrison again created an even better opportunity through some good inter-passing with zoltan gera in the reading box, but dragged his shot just wide of the far post.

in the dying moments of the first-half, on loan striker, romalu lukaku, saw the first of several good chances as he got in behind the reading defenders to recieve a well placed ball from morrison as he was bearing down on the reading 6-yard box. however, his first touch was heavy and was only able to win the corner. the ensuing delivery by chris brunt was headed onto the post by jonas olsson as the baggies began to turn the screw and looked the more likely of the two sides.

james morrison had yet another good opportunity to score in the 55th minute. alex pearce's clearance from a chris brunt ball looped into the area fell straight to morrison, whose first time volley forced another sharp save from the alex mccarthy. it was the midfielder's best effort of the afternoon.

to be fair, it was not a particularly great game of football and there wasn't a lot between the two sides with scoring opportunities repeatedly lost or wasted and west brom having the better of what chances there were. the one notable exception being gareth mccleary's attempt at the spectacular with a powerful and accurate bicycle kick early on in the game. fortunately it was hit straight at a sure handed ben foster and proved no troble for the baggies. the royals really only had one other obvious opportunity, when substitute, robson-kanu, headed over foster's cross-bar in the final minutes.



the winning goal was scored by romalu lukaku in the 70th minute. steve clarke made two substutions and changed the attacking formation to include two strikers. with shane long replacing james morrison and graham dorrans coming on for zoltan gera the gaffer's tactics paid immediate dividends.

from a baggies free-kick launched forward by ben foster, chris brunt initiated an albion attack on the reading penalty area. the final move came from a ball played into the box by dorrans. long won the header to knock down for lukaku, and the young belgian showed his patience and skill, pushing the ball onto his favoured left foot and slotting home from the top of the area.

in the end, though, and the simple truth of the matter is that the baggies are now in the habit of winning and getting results no matter what the circumstance. they are winning games on average performances as well as those in which they are playing their best football. and that is the hallmark of a top side.

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.

Reading F.C. 1-1 WBA

live text replay



almost immediately upon my return to canada the baggies winning-streak - the longest in five years, i believe - came to an end. although by virtue of a draw with the royals, they remain unbeaten in six now. while this was not one of their best performances, the albion still seem to be peaking just at the right time.

we shall see what we shall see, but the royals have really been the baggies toughest opponents all season. but then, there was a special relationship that these clubs developed in a tightly scheduled set of cup fixtures (including a replay) and a final league encounter at the madjeski stadium. all in all, these teams had a total of four matches, and three of them within the space of a month!



when the baggies won at home 3-1 earlier in the season, reading had gone from a once top championship side to a team that looked in danger of flirting with relegation. an unexpected cup run, which saw them knock out liverpool (among others) seemed to re-invigorate their season. this led to a run of good form in the league, and although it would appear too little too late, they are looking more like playoff contenders than anything else these days, and their poor start to the season has been well and truly banished.

unlike the first league encounter between these two earlier in the season, the royals seemed like they had the baggies figured out; and attacking mid-fielder, jimmy kebe, was in great form and thoroughly menacing throughout this tightly jammed little set of cup and league fixtures between the two clubs. much like swansea, crystal palace and QPR, reading knew that the key to stopping west brom was to disrupt the midfield, negate the lone striker, not let anyone get a good look at goal and be ruthless on the counter.



despite several chances falling for the baggies throughout the course of the the match, the royals' tactics seemed to work well enough. gylfi sigurdsson scored early on just past the 6 minute mark in what was reading's first real attack of the game.

playing the ball down the left flank several reading players swarmed the albion penalty box, getting completely behind the unprepared albion back-four. it was an inevitability when the cross came in and fell as an easy tap-in to the icelandic mid-fielder, sigurdsson.

but the baggies have the advantage of a team where individual skills are very high, and the albion have scored a lot of goals this year quickly and out of nothing but the skill of the particular individual(s) involved. today - and with the midfield and strikers thwarted - it was centre-half, gabriel tamas' turn to snatch a point for the baggies with an opportunistic strike as the ball came back off the crossbar from a giles barnes header following a late albion corner-kick.

i know that there are baggies fans for whom this will have appeared a disppointing, negative result and sure indication that some catastrophic slip-up in form is just around the corner. but, if the baggies win their friday home fixture against leicester, the full significance of this point - and the continuation of their current unbeaten streak at such a critical juncture in the season - will begin to make itself evident.

WBA 2-3 Reading F.C.

live text replay



so ends this year's adventure in the last romantic dream of heroics still available to a club like the albion. it was dramatic, heartbreaking, and completely unnecessary. with a 2-1 lead and only seconds left the albion should have held on to this one. in a moment echoing the first nine seconds of this fixture's reverse encounter, gianni zuiverloon failed to control and clear a routine ball that allowed jimmy kebe to once again roast the young dutch fullback, setting up the equalizer for brian howard with about a minute of injury time left to play.

barring the possibility that the baggies might still win the day by taking this one to penalties, the momentum had, in a moment, swung to reading and their superior late-going tactics proved the albion's undoing. the royals - knowing that they now had to hit early and protect the lead against a tired baggies attack, did just that. within three minutes of the kick-off in extra-time, reading jumped on abdoulaye meite's failure to clear the ball and gylfi sigurdsson fired a shot from about 25 yards out that completely beat the baggies' defense, caught scott carson off his line and curled into the back of the net.

in watching the post-game interview with baggies' head-coach, roberto di matteo, you could see the puffiness and swelling around his eyes from where he had been fighting back the tears. it was evident that he was distraught, and possibly suggests the deeper implications as to what difficulties the gaffer has to face in managing a thin squad over the next few weeks and still maintaining progress in the league.



while good old tony mowbray had a cool detachment and a technical analysis of the situation that always made me feel better about being an albion supporter on the worst of days; roberto di matteo is much more of an emotional character, and with his understanding of just how english football works at its best, he gets my sympathies for having to bear how utterly frustrating and upsetting it can be at its worst.

di matteo was truly pained by this, and i could feel his pain like it was my own. in the modern game of english football, a young, talented side like the baggies has so little time to accomplish anything before the big clubs start sniffing around and players begin looking towards furthering their own careers. in some cases it might be a move to help with their international aspirations and in others simply for the better money and big-club prestige.

one could see in the gaffer's face the frustration of working under conditions where the high level of expectations that must be met within the space of a single season is absolutely over-whelming. while kevin phillips is lauded as a modern day hero at this club, we've got to remember, he was only here for two years. tony brown was here for 17 years - and stuck with the baggies through relegation and three years in the second-division without whining how he deserved better and asking for a transfer to fulham or bolton. in 1976 he scored the famous goal at boundary park that took the albion back to the top-flight. they don't make players like tony brown anymore.

to their credit - and inside the framework of the 90-minutes - the albion were the better team. they carried almost a 2-1 margin of superiority in all aspects of play. this, of course was reflected in the score (2-1) and how it appeared the game was going to end. the albion were set to win on a brace of goals by robert koren against the single first-half equalizer of jimmy kebe, as these two continued their personal goal scoring duel which they had established in the initial fixture.



this wasn't the first time this year where i was really hurt by a result, but this one runs deeper than most. i continually woke up throughout the course of the night depressed and still in disbelief that things had unraveled so quickly. to be so close and then see it all evaporate in the space of a few minutes was devastating.

as the half-filled hawthorns would testify, the FA cup has become so devalued and winning promotion to the premier league takes such a much greater precedence that only a team like reading - who really have nothing to lose - can realistically focus on a cup competition anymore.

the only good news of the day was the return of james morrison after more than a year out through injury. however, roman bednar picked up a groin-pull which might see him unable to start this saturday against derby.

today i feel as if my faith has been destroyed by the state of english football as it is in the year 2010. with the baggies now winless in four games, a victory against derby this weekend is desperately needed just to cheer us up - forget the FA cup, forget the league table, forget promotion, forget the premier-league... let's just get a win and enjoy the day!

Reading F.C. 2-2 WBA

live text replay



i saw this one live on TV through SETANTA SPORTS CANADA. thank god that the FA cup still takes precedence over the premier league somewhere!!! i also had the opportunity to see the day's early kick-off with chelsea dispatching cardiff city by a sizable score-line of 4-1, making sure that the so-called "BIG FOUR" will be represented in the quarter-finals.

i had speculated about the fitness of both graham dorrans and chris brunt, imagining that one or the other (and perhaps dorrans more than brunt) might need to sit out a game for the sake of rest and recuperation. however, it seems that as long as both are injury-free, they will probably always be starting. as i noted when i made this speculation: dorrans and brunt on half-steam are still capable of making things happen and create situations that will lead to goals.

i was unsure about this match, and being a lover of the FA cup, hoped desperately that the baggies got through. i guess because i hadn't seen the albion since simon cox scored deep into injury time at the hawthorns to earn a scrappy little home draw with QPR, i was much more anxious about this match than i would have been for a regular league match, and kebe's goal on 9 seconds was not a good sign.



it didn't really worry me though. i mean, how many times have we seen west brom win a match in which they have trailed 1-0 at some point? myself, i saw it two games in the space of four days at the hawthorns back in september where the albion trailed 0-1 on early goals (both eventually won by a 3-1 score-line), so i wasn't about to sweat it. i was, of course, vindicated when chris brunt's superbly placed cross landed squarely at robert koren's feet and the slovenian mid-fielder walked the ball home for the baggies' opener in the 17th minute.

after that, i couldn't see the baggies losing. to make it even better the royals were down to ten men in the second-half through the sending off of forward brian howard for a particularly bad tackle on abdoulaye meite. but the albion often find a way of not making life easy for themselves, and a second yellow card issued against youssouf mulumbu saw the congolese midfielder sent off to bring things level again.

while the baggies have a tendency towards late goals and one learns never to worry until the final whistle (witness last year's victory over manchester city at the hawthorns), but i was positively despondent when simon church, coming off the bench for the royals, beat the baggies' offside trap in the 72nd minute. scott carson made the initial save but was ultimately beaten as the ball skipped over and behind him for church to finish with a tap-in into the open goal.



while the match was refereed by a senior official who is generally considered a "premiership" referee, it was not officiated terribly well. it occurred to me that he was letting some pretty hard tackles go early on, and then there were some pretty harsh and unnecessary calls later in the game. i wondered, for example, if mulumbu's second yellow-card - while a definite and flagrant foul - was really warranted?

if the measure of good officiating is consistency then this guy was way off the mark. in fact, he ran this match rather like a gym-master overseeing a school-boy game where he had different standards set for different players, in order to compensate for varying levels of skill and with the particular intention of teaching whatever lessons are needed by the various individuals involved.

when a referee considers his own performance, judgments and prestige above that of the players, the teams and the game that he is officiating, then you are in real trouble and are going to get some bad calls. it was even suggested by the TV commentary that so-called "premier league" referees often do not take matches involving league teams seriously.



true to form, the baggies added a new name to their list of goal-scorers on the season as joe mattock scored his first for the albion. throwing everybody forward the baggies launched a late assault on the royals' penalty area. about 12 yards out and in possession of the ball, simon cox, seeing that mattock was in space behind him over his right shoulder, turned and delivered the ball for the teenage full-back to drill home the equalizer.

the albion will now have to replay this one at the hawthorns a week from wednesday with the winner set for a home quarter-final draw against either crystal palace or the villa. assuming that the baggies win the replay, i have every reason to believe i can start to dream just a little about the possibility of a wembley appearance for the albion this year.

the downside of all this is that roberto di matteo has now got some real selection headaches to deal with over the next three or four matches. jerome thomas is on a four-game suspension. likewise, youssouf mulumbu will be starting a short suspension with missing tomorrow's match; and both meite and jara are out with injuries - the chilean international gone for the season with a broken metatarsal. that leaves gianni zuiverloon as the only real choice at right-back, for example.

the next three of four games will be a real test of depth and character of the players that roberto di matteo has available to him. he's been astute enough to make a couple of important loan deals and has managed his forwards superbly in keeping roman bednar healthy and productive and making good use of simon cox as a utility player, who has made important contributions in crucial situations this year.

if the baggies can manage to keep their unbeaten run going at cardiff tomorrow, it will go a long way to maintaining the goal of automatic promotion.