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Birmingham City v West Bromwich Albion
St Andrew's, Birmingham. 18th December 2004, 12.00pm.

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Match Preview
Result	Birmingham City	4 - 0		West Bromwich Albion
Scorers	Robbie Savage (pen 4) Clinton Morrison (23) Emile Heskey (30) Darren Anderton (80)		None
Attendance	28,880
Teams	4-4-2 1 - Maik Taylor (GK) 4 - Kenny Cunningham 2 - Olivier Tebily 5 - Matthew Upson 24 - Darren Carter 10 - David Dunn 22 - Damien Johnson 11 - Stan Lazaridis 8 - Robbie Savage 16 - Emile Heskey 19 - Clinton Morrison		4-1-4-1 (GK) Russell Hoult - 1 Neil Clement - 19 Thomas Gaardsoe - 4 Bernt Haas - 22 Darren Purse - 6 Riccardo Scimeca - 2 Jonathan Greening - 8 Andy Johnson - 10 Jason Koumas - 7 Zoltan Gera - 11 Nwankwo Kanu - 25
Substitutes	18 - Nico Vaesen (GK) 3 - Jamie Clapham 32 - Darren Anderton 25 - Stephen Clemence 21 - Julian Gray		(GK) Tomasz Kuszczak - 29 Ronnie Wallwork - 24 Lloyd Dyer - 18 Robert Earnshaw - 34 Geoff Horsfield - 9
Substitutions	D Anderton for D Johnson (78) J Gray for E Heskey (83) J Clapham for R Savage (87)		R Earnshaw for Z Gera (45) R Wallwork for B Haas (75)
Yellow Cards	None		Jason Koumas (20) Bernt Haas (32) Jonathan Greening (44) Thomas Gaardsoe (60)
Red Cards	None		None
Referee	M Riley (Leeds)

This report is based on the extended highlights on Sky's Football First as I was unable to attend the game, although why I forced myself to watch them I'm not sure. Hats off to all of you that made the journey!!

I'm glad I did take the time to watch the highlights because, despite the fact that this is a dreadful result and it will still take a miracle for the Baggies to get out of this, it didn't seem to be as bad a performance as I thought after listening to the BBC Five LIve commentary. Maybe the highlights cut out more of the bad points, but there are positives to take, well at least straws to grasp!!

I'll deal with the bad side first. First of all, Robson's team selection left me scratching my head once again. Scimeca was retained at centre back despite his dreadful display in that position last week, Haas was at right back despite his equally poor display against Charlton, and Robson opted for a 4-1-4-1 formation (apparently) dropping Earnshaw despite the fact that this is a game we really had to win. And not only did he start with a defensive formation, he failed to change it even when we went one, two and even three behind!! I was incredulous. We may not have scored, but at least we put Birmingham under a little pressure in the second half - you never know, had Blues not been 3-0 up and content to defend a lead, there may have been more opportunities. If we play defensive against Birmingham, what are we planning to do next week against Liverpool - all stand on the goalline?

Robson did get one thing right - his post-match assessment that the defending was shocking, but then a blind aardvark could've made a similar observation.

Two long balls in the first three minutes were just not dealt with. Haas misread one and was lucky not to give away a penalty. And then Scimeca was beaten to the ball by Heskey who flicked on for Purse to climb all over Morrison. One could argue that the first offence was outside the area and that Morrison made the most of it, but both Scimeca and Purse were poor.

For the second goal, Purse gave away a silly free kick, which he is doing time and time again at the moment. Instead of thinking about defending, he was too busy complaining to react to the quick free kick. But if Purse was asleep, Clement was utterly comatose as he watched Morrison run past him, skipped a bit, and then stopped again as he scored. And to complete the blame picture, I thought Hoult was very slow to get down to Morrison's shot.

On to the third goal, it was Gaardsoe that was most to blame when he inexplicably tried to flick the ball to Greening when he was marked by two players rather than put his foot through it - maybe playing in midfield has dulled his instincts! And then Scimeca was half asleep when he allowed Heskey to get away to finish the chance.

And finally the fourth goal - talk about the parting of the Red Sea. Heskey made a gap in the wall and then ran out of the way - Anderton missed the gap but still managed to find another gap that Gaardsoe and Purse had made between them, and the ball then hit Heskey and went wide of Hoult.

A catalogue of dreadful defending that led to the Premiership's least prolific attack scoring four times, I should say formerly least prolific as that particular mantle has passed to West Bromwich Albion after today's game.

Amazingly, the worst player on the field managed not to be involved directly in any of the goals. Bernt Haas was simply awful and, in my opinion, he should not wear an Albion shirt again. His positioning was abysmal, his tackling feeble and his distribution wayward. Bryan Robson has stated that he played the best players he has available today - is he saying that Martin Albrechtsen is worse than Bernt Haas? He must be joking! OK, he's left footed, but Purse could've done a better job at right back, and Purse was awful too!!

Albion's chances were few and far between but I thought that was more to do with the formation than the players. In the first half, Gera was unlucky when he hit bar, but Kanu was so isolated up front, that there was rarely any outlet for the defenders to pass to. Gera provided it more often than not, and I thought he was unlucky to be the man substituted at half time.

In the second half, both Koumas and Clement went close with free kicks, and the best chance fell to Earnie following a mistake by Taylor, but he failed to take it. But it was difficult for Earnie because, although Albion had most of the possession, they'd lost the drive and invention of Gera, and Birmingham had lost any desire to get forward, packing the defensive third.

So where are the positives? I thought Koumas had a decent game but he needed Earnie to make the runs in the first half, and lacked the space in the second. Greening was back on the wing and had a good game, particularly in the second half. Kanu worked hard again with little support in the first half, and Earnie caused some problems when he came on. Perhaps my most surprising comment of this report is that I thought Wallwork did OK when he came on - I didn't see a huge amount of him in the highlights, but he made some good runs and I didn't see him give the ball away. In fact, the eleven we finished with, with Scimeca at right back and Gaardsoe back in defence, looked much better than the one that started.

It was another bad day to be a Baggie, and if we defend like that next week, the 6-0 drubbing we got last time will be a good result. Defending is our problem at the moment - going forward, we looked better in the second half today than we did against Charlton, and although the first half formation put the defence under great pressure, they crumbled very easily.

I still can't see much hope of salvation and I fully expect the next two games to end in defeat, but if Robson can work some magic in the transfer window, and if the rumours are true he may well do, we could give ourselves a slight chance. Ever the optimist....

Marks

Russell Hoult - 5 - Poor for the second goal, otherwise blameless.
Neil Clement - 5 - Lost concentration a few times.
Thomas Gaardsoe - 4 - Looked very uncomfortable in midfield, but doesn't look like the answer in defence either at the moment.
Bernt Haas - 2 - Abysmal.
Darren Purse - 4 - What has happened to this guy - he used to be good!
Riccardo Scimeca - 4 - A slightly below adequate right back, a dreadful centre back.
Jonathan Greening - 7 - MOM. Good display although allowed Savage to wind him up.
Andy Johnson - 6 - Did OK.
Jason Koumas - 7 - Decent display.
Zoltan Gera - 6 - Lively, unlucky to be subbed.
Nwankwo Kanu - 6 - Worked hard with little support.

Robert Earnshaw - 6 - Did OK although missed a good chance.
Ronnie Wallwork - 6 - Did OK.

Bryan Robson - 4 - Needs to get back to where he started with an attacking 4-4-2 formation; at the moment, he's looking out of ideas and that is the biggest worry.

Jon Want, 18th December 2004.

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