The Strange Case of Simon Cox

despite the fact that it wasn't much of performance, i was at the hawthorns when simon cox got his first league start for the baggies in a home match with plymouth argyle. the week before, he had scored the winning goal in extra-time in a LEAGUE CUP fixture with rotherham united - his first goal for the club - and that had won him the right to start, partnering roman bednar in a conventional 4-4-2 set up - still the preferred formation for most english clubs at the time.

it wasn't a great debut and he was substituted early on in the second-half after a less than memorable performance. it was not a particularly good time for strikers at the club, and most of the goals were coming for an attack-minded mid-field. graham dorrans and chris brunt, respectively, were the side's leading scorers that season. in this particular match, it was shelton martis who scored the first goal for the baggies, equalizing after going 0-1 behind on an early goal by jamie mackie. even more unusual was marek cech's brace (his only two goals ever for the club) that won the game for the baggies by a score of 3-1.

nontheless, i can always claim to a have seen simon cox' league debut for west bromwich albion.

cox was in and out of the first team that year. he had been targeted by the club when tony mowbray was still the gaffer - presumably to help fill the void left by the previous season's departure of kevin phillips for birmingham city - and i think that he would have gotten more time in the side had mowbray remained at the hawthorns. but it was never to be. when TM moved on to take over at his old club, celtic, roberto di matteo came in as the first man to hold the newly created title of "head coach". despite cox being RDM's first signing for the baggies, even luke moore - possibly the least popular individual ever to play in the navy-and-white stripes - was often a preferred starter to the young man who, the year before and playing for swindon town - had been the FOOTBALL LEAGUE's joint top scorer with 29 goals in LEAGUE 1.

under di matteo and with west brom chasing promotion, cox managed 34 appearances and 10 goals in both league and cup competitions. he still found it hard to break into the first team as a regular starter. however, as an intelligent young man he must have reasoned that his best bet was stay at the hawthorns, with a club where the attitude and atmosphere was positive and who were definitely a side "on the up" - and wait for his opportunity. as a professional footballer he was certainly aware that he could have done a lot worse.

back in the PREMIER LEAGUE for the 2010-11 season, the baggies did well over the first three months, and had been as high as 4th in the league table at on point. however, cox was restricted to only a handful of appearances as a substitute and only getting to start in the LEAGUE CUP. after scoring 3 goals in 2 games, he finally earned himself the right to be included in the starting 11 for a league match away to blackpool. luck did not favour the young striker, though, as he was strategically withdrawn in the 12th minute when pablo ibanez was red-carded.

when results started to elude the baggies, and they went on a long winless streak that started in november (with the blackpool game) and went through into the new year, di matteo's time was up and roy hodgson took over for the last 13 weeks of the season.

this heralded a complete turnaround for the club, and with only two losses in their final 13 fixtures, they finished a comfortable 11th in the standings.

still, nothing much changed for simon cox. although he was very often in the side as a substitute. this led to his first PREMIER LEAGUE goal in a match away to tottenham. he scored what was west bromwich albion's goal of the season as the baggies snatched a late equalizer at white hart lane, putting the team on 40 points and virtually guaranteed their survival in the top-flight.

however, things still didn't get any better for cox during the 2011-12 season. he still could not break into the first team, and when he did get a start he was used almost exclusively as a utility player to make up the numbers when the side was hit with injuries. this meant that he was often played out of position on either the right wing or as a central midfielder, fulfilling the necessary and rudimentary defensive duties that were required of him.

even his usual exploits in the cup competitions, where he scored a hat-trick against cardiff, could not guarantee him the opportunity to get a start in the league.

while cox supplies an above average effort and work-rate, his real talent will never be found on the training pitch. he's not particularly tough, big or pacey. what he does have, though, is a sense for scoring goals. he hits 25 yard screamers, gets on the end of crosses - both on the floor and in the air, and knows where to be to get the tap-in on scuffed shots and loose balls in the box. at a time when teams are playing more and more with a single striker and a five-man midfield, cox is a bit of throw back who is all too easily over-looked and possibly under-rated.

a little surprisingly, the baggies recently picked up the final year option on cox' contract, creating the possibility that he would be at the hawthorns for at least one more year. but with a £2 million offer from blackburn rovers, it appeared earlier this week that cox was on his way to find full-time football in the CHAMPIONSHIP. however, this was quickly scuttled by apparent political problems at the lancashire club. while it seemed that manager, steve kean was anxious to bring cox to the club, his efforts have been undermined by the board who aren't interested.

since then, PREMIER LEAGUE side, swansea city, have emerged as the most likely contenders to sign him, although the rumour-mill also has him linked with interest from charlton athletic, leeds united, middlesbrough and scottish giants, celtic. at this point, any move that gets him a run of full-time football would still be a good move for him and the aspirations he harbours in regards to continuing his international career with the republic of ireland.

i have always liked cox and thought he would have been a bit more valued by the baggies than he has been. a year in the CHAMPIONSHIP would probably be the ideal move for him at the moment. but then who knows? a visionary top-flight side (like swansea) might find some success with him as well. whatever happens, i hope he finds a good club that will at least give him a chance and possibly reveal his potential.

more than anything, i hope he finds the luck which has eluded him since leaving swindon town.

A Satisfying End

Newcastle Utd F.C. 3-3 WBA

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in my blog of august 8th of last year, i stated that i no-less-than expected a mid-table finish from the baggies in their upcoming premiership campaign. in the end - and by the grace of somen tchoyi - my prediction happily came true. instead of finishing a respectable 14th in the table (as it well looked they might), west bromwich albion completed doubles over sunderland and everton in the final few weeks of the season before securing this all important single point against the toon to claim a final league standing of 11th.

this is certainly beyond what anyone (i actually predicted 9th...) had expected, and was something that the supporters by-and-large would have felt was a few years overdue. with the pre-season prognostications by pundits of every stripe and stature almost unanimously picking the baggies to finish 19th - one place above what was predicted for blackpool - the season can only be judged to have been a massive success.


while i can feel a certain amount of vindication as to my unwavering faith in the team, it didn't happen quite how i had expected it would; and i certainly had not counted on the phenomenon that was peter odemwingie. the nigerian international scored 15 goals and his efforts can be counted as directly attributable for 27 of the club's total points this season. the baggies were still hardly a model defensive team, and there were variously problems with full-backs, centre-halves and goalies. so it was really the nigerian's scoring ability, more than any other single factor, that made the albion a competitive proposition in the top-flight this year.

on the management side, the accomplishment of a solid mid-table finish was as much the work of roberto di matteo as it was of both roy hodgson and jeremy peace. i don't really know what happened, or why specifically (and other than the obvious answer of "results") the club decided to change managers? especially as there has always been a tradition of sticking with the present gaffer during a PREMIER LEAGUE campaign at the hawthorns. so the circumstances under which the baggies succeeded was essentially roy hodgson leading roberto di matteo's 25 man squad to PREMIER LEAGUE respectability.

whatever the case, the decision to bring in a new regime, while being unpopular at the time of di matteo's sacking, was celebrated the moment that we learned that the job had been given to roy hodgson. it was a better fit than anyone could have anticipated or hoped for. the new gaffer turned it around completely and went on to lead the baggies through an eight game unbeaten run, and posted only two losses in their last twelve matches.


absolutely everyone knew what he had done at fulham, and west brom was much the same kind of assignment: take a club in danger of relegation and keep them in the division. we'll see what next year brings and will be better able to assess whatever is achieved relative to what the gaffer accomplished in his time at craven cottage. but this was a more compact, emphatic and decidedly less dramatic survival campaign than the final day heroics at fulham required three years ago.

the baggies had clinched survival against sunderland , really, and their victory at home to everton, as well as the ridiculous and sublime last day efforts of somen tchoyi to rescue a point away to newcastle, were relaxed and ultimately entertaining matches that earned west brom their 11th place finish.

WBA 1-0 Everton F.C.

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after their best season in over thirty years, and their place in next year's PREMIER LEAGUE competition cemented, the baggies posted their third "double" of the year on the strength of their second clean-sheet of the campaign.

yuossouf mulumbu, no doubt buoyed by his selection as albion's "player of the year" - added to his scoring account with his 9th goal of the season with less than 10 minutes gone in the game.

while this was a decidedly better defensive effort on the part of both teams than had been in the reverse fixture - which ended a 4-1 win to the baggies - everton didn't take their chances and west brom managed to hold out for a clean-sheet to bookend their season's home fixtures with two 1-nil victories over sunderland and newcastle respectively.



the real surprise in the last two games was, without a doubt, somen tchoyi's spectacular second-half hat-trick against the toon on the final day.

the cameroon international has scored several goals earlier in the season and certainly can look dangerous going forward, but his tactical play as winger has always been in question and he has been the butt of more than a few jokes and subject to hard criticisms on the ALBION RADIO commentaries; and, judging by what has been written about him on various websites and fan forums, the supporters' opinion of him was generally pretty negative as well.

"i'm trying to figure out what position tchoyi's playing?"

"i'm not quite sure that he knows!"

followed by a quick round of laughter.

"he likes to run with the ball does old somen," the commentator adds, chuckling to himself, "he's just not too keen on passing it!"

while i have to admit, tchoyi had been uneven as a winger, despite looking a danger going forward and scoring several good goals when given the opportunity. however - and i'm unsure how anyone missed it - the cameroon international is a natural centre-forward. i had had my suspicions, but as to how good he can be, i was surprised and thought that albion may have found one of their missing strikers for next season.



no doubt, hodgson will bring in some of his own players, especially defenders and a goalie. i imagine that would be the boss's first order of business. you're always looking for strikers anyway, and the big job of the summer will be to keep hold of peter odemwingie. i think the gaffer also might have ishmael miller and simon cox in his plans for next year; so, we may have a few surprises yet, as well a search for another right-winger.

we will also have the return of graham dorrans to look forward to. while it was testament as to the general footballing talent in the side that the all-important attacking central midfield position was played so effectively by a rotating, patchwork crew of wingers and strikers. having the young scottish international back in the side will see a boost in quality to the albion's attack, and should supply a few more goals from central midfield. dorrans' ability to score from both open play and set pieces is well know to the baggies faithful but still a fairly unknown quantity in the PREMIER LEAGUE.

with part of the first team - including odemwingie - having gone home already, and the baggies 3-0 down early in the second-half thanks to an out of character own-goal by jonas olsson, tchoyi single-handedly got the baggies back in the match with two goals in ten minutes. the baggies were left with 20 minutes in which to find the equalizer and perhaps even go on to win the game.



when a speculative ball came looping into the newcastle penalty area, rolling harmlessly through and heading for touch, ishmael miller used his pace and wit to keep the ball in play with a smart back-heel to jonas olsson who dinked a in short cross for tchoyi to calmly head home the albion's 3rd goal.

in a way it summed up the baggies' season and was in keeping with old club traditions: if you can score enough goals, you'll do ok. after all, you're only as good as your strikers.

Roberto di Matteo's Last Game

Manchester City F.C. 3-0 WBA

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it was all a bit of a surprise when RDM was originally given the newly created job of "head coach" upon tony mowbray's departure to manage celtic. at the time, his appointment seemed perplexing and certainly many doubted the managerial pedigree of the man whose only previous experience in management was to take mkdons to a LEAGUE 1 playoff spot the year before.

i was expecting someone more along the lines of derek mcinnes, or perhaps one of his contemporaries in the likes of john hughes. mcinnes had done well in scottish football management (much like TM before him) and had also been popular with the supporters from his days as an albion player. john hughes' name never came up.

di matteo, however, had an immediate and profound impact at the hawthorns, starting the 2009-10 CHAMPIONSHIP campaign with a 9 game unbeaten run, ultimately leading them to automatic promotion and a new points-total record for the club. he then saw the albion through its best start ever to a PREMIER LEAGUE season with a fair run of successful results - including a 3-2 win over the arsenal at the emirates and a hard-fought 2-2 draw at old trafford.



RDM won the supporters over to his cause by posting good results. but when the baggies went to bloomfield road in the beginning of november it all started to unravel. we all remember michael oliver's red-card decision (since rescinded) against pablo ibanez and gonzalo jara unable to control his temper seeing the baggies finish the match with 9-men and losing to the tangerines by a score of 2-1. this was followed by a listless performance in a home defeat to manchester city. nobody suspected at the time just how bad this was going to get, as the baggies have gone on to lose 13 out of their next 18 games and dropping 15 places in the league table.

this was also the point where we started to see the cracks and flaws in RDM's approach.

while there were hints of it last year, this season has demonstrated that the gaffer is not the best "man-manager" in the business, and makes it quite plain - as reflected in his team selections - how he feels about certain players. what is never clear is whether his issues with particular individuals are purely football related or personal in nature. everybody remembers how di matteo alienated robert koren, ultimately forcing him to leave the club.

it was also pretty obvious that he had no use for roman bednar in the PREMIER LEAGUE, and i'm not sure how well his attitude towards the czech striker went over with the supporters. bednar was always a popular player at the hawthorns and even keeping him on the bench was a good tactical decision in that his presence lent a positive energy to the atmosphere. you could always get a little excitment out of the hawthorns' crowd merely by sending him out to warm-up along the touchline.

why hasn't he been playing nicky shorey?



i don't think that there's an albion fan who hasn't asked themselves this particular question in the last two months.

and with a defence that has literally fallen apart over the last three months, why has he kept the same full-backs in the team week after week and leaves pablo ibanez on the bench in favour of paul scharner?

this culminated in the truly bizarre starting line-up against manchester city that put marc-antoine fortune on the right-wing and simon cox in central midfield. this all smacked of a man desperately clutching at straws. and it is this fact that gives the game away. di matteo has probably been at odds with the board and structure of the club for some time longer than had heretofore been suspected.

the news leaking out of the hawthorns today would seem to indicate that the situation between di matteo and the board has been strained since before christmas, and that he had also lost the confidence of the players at this point.

this was evident in the wholly gutless, inept performance by the baggies at eastlands, losing 3-0 to manchester city.

i never imagined that i would like him personally, or that he was someone who i'd want to know, but he did a great job with the baggies in the CHAMPIONSHIP and he certainly had my enthusiastic support last year. the baggies' famous win at arsenal under his leadership will remain his personal legacy in west bromwich albion folklore for the post PREMIER LEAGUE era. he has achieved something positive in his time at the club, and leaves them an improved team since his arrival.



i can safely say that sam allardyce will not be coming the hawthorns. it is potentially too divisive an appointement. i imagine that they will go after roy hodgson first. after what he was able to do at fulham, he's probably more than equipped to meet a similar challenge now at west brom. and the timing is good with the baggies still not having dropped into the bottom three - yet.

the next few days and weeks will tell the tale, but jeremy peace and the board have taken a tremendous gamble and put their integrity on the line as choosing this particular moment in time in which to part company with di matteo and his staff. if the baggies stay up, they'll have made a brilliant managerial decision. by the same token, they will have failed and be personally responsible if the baggies poor form persists and an inevitable relegation battle is unsuccessful.

Blackburn Rovers F. C. 2-0 WBA

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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



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

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

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

Fulham F.C. 3-0 WBA

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

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

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



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

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



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

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

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



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

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

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

WBA 1-2 Manchester United F.C.

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

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

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



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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

WBA 3-1 Newcastle United F.C.

live text replay




roberto di matteo made a truly inspired, instructional and intelligent team selection for his starting 11 against west brom's promoted contemporaries, newcastle united.

the gaffer was really astute - and in the light of jonas olsson's continued absence through injury - to put paul scharner at centre-half. the austrian international - who has been playing as a holding midfielder in partnership with youssouf mulumbu - has been afforded a real way to relax his game, stick to the specific, technical and well-defined duties of a centre-half; as well as make better use of his natural talents as an attacking player on set pieces. in fact, it was his move to centre-half that led to his first goal for the club against everton last week. he also seems to bring the intangible quality of unifying the two central defenders, where tamas and ibanez - both excellent defenders in their own right - were struggling for the cohesion that a character like olsson - and now scharner - injects into the back-line.

likewise, the gaffer found the perfect role for graham dorrans in the holding midfield spot left open by youssouf mulumbu's two-game match suspension. the young scot looked comfortable, and with a similarly well defined set of duties in regards to his position, and like his austrian team-mate, was able to relax his game and get some much needed time with a ball at his feet in a competitive situation.



chris brunt was deployed as the central midfielder and somen tchoyi took brunt's regular place on the right wing with jerome thomas back at his usual position on the left. upon initial scrutiny, i'm sure that most people would have assumed that it would be brunt in the holding role and dorrans in his preferred attacking position. but this was real stroke of brilliance both tactically and in terms of personnel manangement.

atypcially, the baggies came straight out of the blocks, and without their usual slow start, pressed the ball from a high position with a very tight 4-5-1 formation, never allowing the toon to settle or get anything together coming forward.

peter odemwingie was excellent, tirelessly ball chasing and harrying defenders, forcing ill-concieved and desperate clearances from both the keeper and back four. his approach paid off as he later took advantage of two critical mistakes leading directly to both his goals.

however, it was actually somen tchoyi who opened the scoring on the half-hour mark. taking a short pass from chris brunt on the edge of the newcastle penalty area - and as still somewhat of an unknown quantity in the PREMIER LEAGUE - the big albion winger, holding the ball on his left foot and just long enough to see some space open up in front of him, surprisingly curled a shot inside the far post. it seemed that no one was really expecting it and being seemingly wrong-footed, he had caught both newcastle defenders and goalie alike quite unprepared.



except for a brief period in the second-half when the toon looked like they might get a goal back, the baggies were in command from the first whistle. on the heels of scott carson's excellent save from steven taylor's header, andy carrol created problems for the albion back four as he got on the end of a looping through ball that caught paul scharner desperately backpeddling and nearly responsible for an own goal. luckily marek cech, positoned well and tracking back, was able to clear the ball off the line with about a yard to spare.

other than that, newcastle were surprisingly flat and the absence of kevin nolan was more than notable.

with the score at 3-0 and the game well into stoppage time, scott carson was cruelly denied a clean sheet when peter lovenkrans scored, picking up carson's initial save from a close range shot by andy carrol. the TV replay showed carrol to have handled the ball in bringing the initial cross under control. while not intentional, it was still clearly handball and the young striker looked as surprised as anyone that the goal was allowed to stand.

this was a first-class performance and a well-timed victory helping to consolidate the baggies' return to form after five games without a win. following their first victory at goodison park since 1979, and just ahead of two important derbies - away to the villa and home to wolves - this left the albion as having the best record of last year's promoted teams as well as the being the top side amongst the four west midlands clubs.



at the beginning of the year, i had boldly picked the baggies to finish (what would be) a surprising 11th in the league. at the time it may have seemed a little optimistic, but jeremy peace, roberto di matteo, dan ashworth et al. haved worked hard and put together a better football team than i think many were aware. i knew that this team was going to be a bit of a surprise in the PREMIER LEAGUE, and a mid-table finish is beginning to look more of an eventuality than remote possibility.

their success thus far has been based on an all round excellent scouting system that has looked for competitively priced players in secondary european leagues; many of whom were completely unknown in england, as well as signing domestic top-flight cast-offs and underrated home grown talent.

in spite of this not being newcastle's day, the three promoted sides have all played beyond expectations and made a contribution towards seeing attacking football played in the top-flight in what has been the most competitive and open PREMIER LEAGUE in years. some think for the better - others, for the worse. whatever the case as to the technical state of football, it's a more entertaining competition this year, and gratifying for all the supporters of teams who've exceeded expectations and/or produced some sure-shock results.

for the moment, it's good to be an albion fan!

Ipswich Town F.C. 1-0 WBA

live text replay



this was really quite unbelievable and makes one wonder at the effort that was made back at the beginning of the competition. why not have saved yourself the trouble and gone out at leyton orient or to manchester city? this was an incredibly bad performance by the baggies and deserves less consideration than condemnation.

perhaps it is merely a reflection of the times and illustrates just how devalued the domestic cup competitions have become in light of the financial worth of competing in the PREMIER LEAGUE. where once the prize money actually held value for the individual player of the day, and would no doubt represent the opportunity to make a substantial mortgage or car payment, money won from cup competitions has now been reduced to little more than chump change not worth getting out of bed for.

a wembley final ain't what it used to be.

except for the bright spot of teenage right-back, james hurst, making his senior debut for the albion, and the generally honest work-rate of players, steven reid and simon cox, there was nothing in this baggies side at all. even the 1-0 scoreline flattered their performance on the night, as it should have been 3 or 4-0.



in light of this, maybe boaz myhill did ok. but the welsh international still ended up wandering out to clear a ball and got ridiculously stuck in a challenge at the corner-flag.

the question i came away asking myself after this round of cup games was: when does a manager start to play his stronger sides in a cup run?

both birmingham city and west ham united played what were more-or-less full-strength sides in their respective quarter-finals. their opponents continued to rest some of their more important players with their focus still on league and european competitive concerns, and - in the case of aston villa - managing injuries.

roberto di matteo followed the latter example and made a full nine changes to the side which had beaten everton so convincingly 3 days earlier. although, as dave bowler suggested at the outset of the ALBION RADIO transmission, with 5 days until the next league fixture you might think about sending out your top squad at this point of the competition. after all, you've gotten this far and with only two games to go before wembley, you could more than reasonably start to think about trying to win the LEAGUE CUP.

like alex ferguson, whose manchester united were soundly beaten by an enterprising and attacking west ham side, i'm sure that roberto di matteo was somewhat confounded by his team's lack of performance on the night. while neither selected anything like their strongest side, both manchester united and west bromwich albion fielded teams that no doubt had enough talent to be competetive in their respective fixtures. but a quality of spirit was utterly lacking in each case and both managers probably felt that they had been badly let down.



i know that the gaffer takes cup competitions more seriously than many other managers. last year's run in the FA CUP was ample demonstration of this. so this performance has to be put on the players even though he might have thought about playing a stronger side in the first place. this type of match is always a nightmare for a manager, and becomes impossible to actually manage because there isn't just one or two obvious changes you could make in order to effect some improvement. with the all-around performance so poor, you wouldn't know who to bring off or bring on. even trying to think tactically becomes pointless.

in truth, ipswich town weren't a whole lot better, and the match statistics showed that, on all counts, this was a fairly even game. somen tchoyi, marc-antoine fortune and simon cox all got in creditable efforts on goal, but the better chances consistently fell to the tractor boys and their inability to finish looked as if west brom were just going to snatch this one on a sub-par performance.

however, grant leadbitter scored the winner from the penalty spot in the 69th minute after graham dorrans had fouled carlos edwards on the edge of the baggies' penalty area. while the foul looked to have occurred outside the box, it was no less than the town deserved on the night and the match was mercifully spared the extra time that was looking more and more imminent.



at the end of the day - and for better or worse - the importance of premiership survival precludes even a realistic chance of taking part in a EUROPA LEAGUE competition, the opportunity of which itself may not be as close again for a number of years, regardless of what happens in the league.

on the day, this was big waste of time and i feel really sorry for the albion supporters who traveled to portman road with realistic expectations of seeing their side go through to the LEAGUE CUP semi-finals on what was, by all accounts, a freezing and miserable night. the fact that they constituted roughly 11% of the crowd makes them the real heroes in this one, i think.

luckily, this was so far removed from what is really important that it in no way reflects the teams's current form or indicates anything much at all. this will be a completely different team on saturday. that is the one thing i can absolutely guarantee.

WBA 0-3 Stoke City F.C.

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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.

Leicester City F.C. 1-4 WBA

live text replay



as the long-time and dominant formation of 4-4-2 begins to give way to other increasingly popular setups based around the use of a single striker and extra defensive midfielders, one has to wonder: what will happen to the deep-lying, predatory striker?

west bromwich albion's simon cox is a case in point in regards to this current dilemma. despite having an absolutely frightening goals-to-games ratio and having shown over and over that he is a truly talented finisher who can score goals at any level, he can't get a start in the first team. this isn't because he is in competition with another "in-form" player, or that he's going through a rough patch of form himself. it's because he's only 5' 11", not particularly pacey and - for all intents and purposes - the position he plays doesn't actually exist within the current frame-work of the single-striker setup now favoured by the baggies' coaching and management staff.

while he has found success in the early cup competitions, it looks like his appearances in the league will be limited to that of an "impact" player, and he will only see playing time as a late substitution when the team is in desperate need of a goal.



with di matteo remaining committed to the 4-5-1 formation in this year's domestic cup competitions as well, simon cox has been pushed back and is forced to play from a central midfield position. what this really means is that his game will ultimately have to expand, as he will have further to come forward in attack and will be required to track back quickly on a loss of possession and take up a strictly defined defensive position in the central midfield. a quicker player in a similar circumstance might find himself transformed into a winger.

however you look at it, the style of attacking football pioneered by the hungarians with ferenc puskas in the 1950s, refined by the brazilians with pele during the 1960s and 70s, and - regardless of whatever other changes have occured within the science of football - has remained a standard model for how strikers would play for the next 50-60 years, seems like it may have run its course.

soon enough, less than ten years perhaps, strikerless formations (4-6-0) with wingers as the main attacking players will be as common as 4-4-2 and 4-5-1 are today.

while the baggies won this match in decisive fashion, the 4-1 scoreline was still a bit flattering to the team on the day, as well as testament to the ability of simon cox to score goals.

the baggies started poorly but took the lead on cox' first goal of the game, which was really against the run of play. it was a perfect example of pure predatory instinct, an ability to read the play and demonstrated the job of a deep lying striker. roman bednar, taking a cross in the box from giles barnes on the right wing, turned and shot, only for the ball to be scuffed away off a leicester defender. cox was positioned perfectly, took control and pushed the ball on a yard or two before chipping the leicester keeper, conrad logan.



west brom may not have deserved it, but went in 1-0 up at half-time thanks to the goal scoring insticts of simon cox.

the baggies gave up an unfortunate own goal through nicky shorey soon after the restart, and it was one of those things that you just can't do anything about or hold anyone to blame for. with a leicester attack producing a cross into the albion box from the right-wing, the baggies' left back stuck his leg out to make the block - as he well and rightly should do - but unfortunately didn't get enough of the ball and it was redirected from well out past a rooted and helpless boaz myhill.

the baggies went on to take control of this one just as surely as the foxes had let it go. in an incident that quite remarkably resembled his goal at old trafford, west brom winger, somen tchoyi once again took advantage of a ball, in this instance, bobbled by conrad logan and had only to knock home into an open net to put the baggies back in the lead.

steven reid scored with a header on 79 minutes to put the game beyond doubt, before simon cox' last minute stunner. the young albion striker, a full 25 yards from goal and frantically waving his team-mates out of the way, buried the ball in the top left corner of logan's net, producing a goal of world class quality worthy of any striker who has ever worn the blue-and-white stripes. you simply don't score goals any better than this one.



in another era, his goals-to-game ratio and obvious talent would have pretty much demanded that a player like cox would have a place in the starting XI. but roberto di matteo, like many of his contemporaries has found success with the 4-5-1 formation for the better part of a year now, and cox has been limited to cup games and was used on the wing a few times towards the end of last season.

he has been on the bench every game i can remember so far this year, suggesting that he would be of some use if the baggies were chasing a game and needed to make use of an extra attacker. so far, the need hasn't arisen except for a few minutes against chelsea on opening day.

still, the west brom sharp-shooter has said that he will bide his time and wait for a starting call-up in the first team. but then, what else is he going to do? with the game going the way it is at the moment, there is diminishing opportunities for pure, predatory strikers these days.