 |
Southampton
v West Bromwich Albion
St. Andrew's,
Birmingham. 22nd March 2003, 12.00pm. |
| Back
to Reports Menu |
Yet another bitterly
disappointing result for the Baggies as for the second time this
season, a local derby is lost to a last minute goal. Relegation
was almost certain before this game, it is much closer now. The
game was high on excitement in the second half, but low on quality
throughout. It was difficult to choose between the sides - it's
hard to understand why Blues will be staying up and the Baggies
won't. Maybe it's just luck.
Megson was forced to make changes through injury but made one unforced
change that I found frankly unbelievable. Hughes was dropped in
favour of Dichio and while Deech proceeded to have a good game,
his striking partner did not. The back three was an unfamiliar line-up
of Sigurdsson, Wallwork and Clement, but both Gregan and McInnes
were fit enough to line-up along side Koumas in the middle.
The first half was a very poor spectacle. There was very little
goalmouth excitement as the Albion defence coped well with the threat
of Morrison and Dugarry, and Dichio and Roberts proving ineffective
up front. Dichio won plenty of balls in the air but Roberts failed
to put in the effort required to make anything of them.
Albion's only real chances were a free kick from Clement that flew
just wide, a header over from Dichio from a Koumas corner and a
late effort from Udeze that found the side netting after a good
ball from Wallwork. Blues had a few more efforts but Hoult remained
untroubled.
The second half was much better and Albion started brightly. Koumas,
easily the best player on the field, found Balis wide on the right
and his cross was inches away from the on-rushing Dichio (well,
as much as Deech can ever be deemed to be 'rushing'). Minutes later,
Roberts made one of his very few positive combinations to the game
when he held off Upson to find Koumas. JK's firm shot was parried
by Bennett before being put out for a corner.
Albion came closest to scoring ten minutes into the second half
when a Koumas corner was headed goalwards by Dichio, and then onto
the bar by Roberts.
Blues' best chance to date came minutes later when a cross from
Clapham found Dugarry just yards from the goal, but his header was
superbly saved by Hoult. But minutes later, he turned to villain
when he dropped a Clemence cross, but Clement rescued him by blocking
a resultant Dugarry shot on the line.
Bennett joined in on the goalie-blunders when his poor kick went
straight to Koumas 40 yards out, but he managed to scramble across
his goal to keep out the Welshman's quick strike.
Megson finally brought Hughes on with just 4 minutes left (why bother?)
and Roberts started towards the bench for the inevitable substitution.
But it was Koumas's number that was held up as Megson decided to
go 4-3-3 with Udeze moving into midfield.
Without Koumas's creativity in the middle of the park, the change
succeeded only in making Albion weaker at the back. Blues pressed
on into the four minutes of injury time, and when substitute Stern
John's shot was blocked by Clement, it fell invitingly to his fellow
substitute HORSFIELD, who headed home from three yards.
Ten seconds after the re-start, it was all over.
A sickening defeat that will probably matter little in the grand
scheme of things, but it was a defeat that Albion scarcely deserved
and one that left the players and fans distraught. We may be going
down, but we'll keep fighting.
RESULT - BIRMINGHAM CITY 1 WEST BROMWICH
ALBION 0
Marks
Hoult - 8 - Excellent performance.
Balis - 7 - Looked more like the Balis of last season.
Udeze - 8 - His best game in an Albion shirt.
Sigurdsson - 8 - Solid performance from Siggy.
Wallwork - 7 - Played well, but he's no defender.
Clement - 7 - Did well in what is probably his best position.
Koumas - 9 - MOM. Pulled the strings in the second half.
Gregan - 8 - Excellent performance of tackling and distribution.
McInnes - 6 - Typically mixed DM performance.
Roberts - 4 - Lazy, moaning, doesn't look interested. Must be dropped.
Dichio - 7 - Did well with no support.
Hughes - 6 - No opportunity to do anything.
|
Birmingham
City (4-4-2):
Bennett; Kenna (Carter 68), Upson, Cunningham, Clapham; Devlin,
Clemence (John 79), Savage, D Johnson; Morrison (Horsfield 56),
Dugarry. Subs not used: Marriott (GK), M Johnson. |
West
Bromwich Albion (3-5-2):
Hoult; Sigurdsson, Wallwork, Clement; Balis, McInnes, Gregan, Koumas
(Hughes 86), Udeze; Roberts, Dichio. Subs not used: Murphy (GK),
Dobie, J Chambers, Lyttle.
|
Scoring: Horsfield
(90+5) 1-0.
Bookings: None.
Referee: P Durkin (Portland)
Attendance: 29,449. |
| ^ Back to Top |
|
