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West Bromwich Albion v Fulham
The Hawthorns, West Bromwich. 18th September 2004, 3.00pm.

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Result	West Bromwich Albion	1 - 1		Fulham
Scorers	Nwankwo Kanu (88)		Andy Cole (72)
Attendance	24,128
Teams	4-4-2 29 - Tomasz Kuszczak (GK) 19 - Neil Clement 4 - Thomas Gaardsoe 6 - Darren Purse 3 - Paul Robinson 2 - Riccardo Scimeca 8 - Jonathan Greening 10 - Andy Johnson 7 - Jason Koumas 34 - Robert Earnshaw 25 - Nwankwo Kanu		4-4-2 (GK) Edwin Van der Sar - 1 Adam Green - 30 Zat Knight - 6 Ian Pearce - 35 Moritz Volz - 2 Papa Bouba Diop - 14 Sylvain Legwinski - 5 Mark Pembridge - 7 Luis Boa Morte - 11 Andy Cole - 9 Collins John - 15
Substitutes	28 - Joe Murphy (GK) 14 - Martin Albrechtsen 18 - Lloyd Dyer 11 - Zoltan Gera 9 - Geoff Horsfield		(GK) Mark Crossley - 12 Alain Goma - 24 Steed Malbranque - 4 Brian McBride - 8 Tomasz Radzinski - 17
Substitutions	M Albrechtsen for P Robinson (25) L Dyer for A Johnson (66) Z Gera for M Albrechtsen (72)		T Radzinski for C John (57)
Yellow Cards	Darren Purse (27) Neil Clement (79)		Collins John (29) Edwin Van der Sar (30) Adam Green (43) Zat Knight (62) Sylvain Legwinski (63)
Red Cards	Neil Clement (84)		Papa Bouba Diop (61) Andy Cole (85)
Referee	M Dean (Wirral)

Of the six Premiership games played on the day, it was Albion's game that grabbed most of the headlines with a missed penalty, a proper punch-up and three players sent off. Unfortunately, the one thing we needed that we didn't get was a win.

Megson seemed to be getting some vocal support from large sections of the crowd early in the game despite the starting line-up. I have always been a staunch supporter of Megson, but I think he got his team wrong again against Fulham. It was a match that needed to be won and, by playing Johnson and Clement in the middle of midfield, it was always going to be a tall order. The invention and excitement offered by Gera when he came on would've made a significant difference, in my opinion, had he played the full game. And Megson stated that he bought Contra so that Scimeca could be played elsewhere - why has he not done this?

Having said that, Albion did look a reasonably potent force in the first half. After a nip and tuck opening, Albion started to exert some pressure and deserved to take the lead. An exquisite free kick from Koumas found Earnshaw six yards out after the Welshman had cleverly lost his marker but his goal bound header was brilliantly saved by Van der Sar. Kanu was on hand to follow up on the rebound but Adam Green somehow managed to deflect the ball over the bar.

Another excellent Koumas ball from the resulting corner found Kanu with a free header, but once again Van der Sar was on hand to deny the Nigerian with a strong one-handed save.

On 25 minutes, Robinson was forced off through injury to be replaced by Albrechtsen. While it looked like a straight swap initially, the team soon switched to a 3-5-2 formation with Clement and Scimeca playing as wing-backs.

A couple of minutes after the change, Purse was deservedly booked for a rash challenge on Papa Diop. Coleman has since described the challenge as a "leg-breaker" and, while it wasn't great, I don't believe that there was any malicious intent on behalf of the former Blues man.

A couple of minutes later, Albion were awarded a penalty when Volz handled the ball in the area. This was followed by a disgraceful display of gamesmanship when at least six Fulham players surrounded referee Mike Dean - it was evidently an attempt to get the referee to change his mind as Mark Halsey had done to Fulham's detriment seven days earlier. The vociferousness of the protests could've easily resulted in a red card or two but just one yellow was shown, to Collins John. Van der Sar was then booked for more gamesmanship when he walked up to the ball to further delay the taking of the penalty. Earnshaw had waited patiently to take the kick but he had obviously been affected. He blazed the ball over the bar, but even then the Dutchman was three yards off his line and the penalty should've been re-taken. Unfortunately, the linesman failed to spot this blatant attempt to put Earnshaw off some more.

Having said all that, you have to hit the target with penalties at least. It was a big, big moment in the course of the game and, had Albion scored, I feel confident that we would've gone on to win the game. Albion went close twice further before half time with Kanu's looping header striking the crossbar and Clement blazing over from all of three yards. As it was, Fulham went in to the break on level terms, and the penalty miss affected Earnie as he looked out of sorts for much of the rest of the game.

There was more controversy on the hour mark when there was some jostling in the Albion penalty area when awaiting a Fulham corner. Mike Dean warned players to calm down but as he walked away, Papa Diop lashed out at Darren Purse and was immediately sent off. The replay shows that Purse was standing on the left foot of the Senegal international, but even so, the reaction was worthy of a dismissal. Zat Knight was also booked for protesting the decision as the Fulham players were guilty of additional indiscipline.

Unfortunately, Albion failed to take advantage of the extra man and it was Fulham who looked more dangerous and Kuszczak was forced into a brilliant save to deny substitute Radzinski. Megson did make a substitution to try to inject some more attacking force into the side, but it was Lloyd Dyer who came on rather than Zoltan Gera who seemed the obvious choice.

On 72 minutes, Albrechtsen gave the ball away with a poor ball up front, Purse was drawn into midfield to make a challenge and when the ball was played through, Scimeca was left with two players running at him. He went towards Andy Cole who had the ball, but the former Blackburn striker switched it out to Green who was unmarked. With Scimeca now in no-mans land, Green squared the ball and Cole raced onto it to put Fulham one up.

It was a poor goal for Albion with both Albrechtsen and Purse at fault, but it is an example of the sort of swift counter attacks that we should expect at this level.

Gera immediately came on for Albrechtsen (himself a replacement for Robinson) and he soon made an impact on the right wing. He had been involved in a few neat moves before he produced a fine save from Van der Sar with a fierce drive.

With six minutes to go, Albion were caught on the break again when Boa Morte raced away from the edge of his own box. Clement was in pursuit with Dyer gaining fast. Thirty yards from goal, Dyer was about to make the tackle when Clement clipped Boa Morte's heels. It was debatable as to whether he was the last man with Dyer in attendance, but Mike Dean deemed that to be the case and sent Clement off. As he was walking off, Andy Cole decided to get himself involved again unnecessarily as he had done throughout the game. There were words exchanged and heads touched before Cole swung a punch at the Albion man. A brawl ensued and Cole was also dismissed.

With Albion still a man up, they continued to press for an equaliser and it eventually came a few minutes later. Another Koumas corner was met by the head of Kanu and this time, Van der Sar could not reach it although there were two men on the post, one of which, I think Papa Diop, watched the ball go in over his left shoulder.

There will be repercussions from the FA after this game and I guess that Clement will receive an extension to his automatic one match ban. The gamesmanship and indiscipline demonstrated by virtually the entire Fulham team was outrageous, and the fact that Chris Coleman has publicly stated that none of his players will be fined may be indicative of the root cause.

The more serious repercussions could be to Albion's season and, perhaps, Gary Megson's tenure. Albion deserved at least the point they got, but the lacklustre in the second half was worrying. They had chances in the first half and Earnie was guilty of the penalty miss, but once Coleman had sorted his team out tactically, there was little sign of a breakthrough from Albion. And when there are players of undoubted quality not in the team and, in at least one case, not in the squad, one had to question the manager.

This was a game we really needed to win. The next two games will be much tougher tests and if we get to the game against Norwich without a win in the Premiership, the pressure will be unbearable and the manager may be different.

A lengthy ban for Clement will force Megson into a change, hopefully he'll make the right one. He must also use the game against Colchester in Tuesday to try one or two new options - Sakiri and Contra perhaps?

Marks

Tomasz Kuszczak - 7 - A bit nervous early on, but otherwise an encouraging debut.
Neil Clement - 6 - Did OK still makes too many poor decisions.
Thomas Gaardsoe - 7 - Decent display from Tommy.
Darren Purse - 8 - Excellent showing apart from being drawn out too far for the goal.
Paul Robinson - 6 - Did OK until his injury.
Riccardo Scimeca - 7 - Left on his own for the goal, otherwise did well.
Jonathan Greening - 7 - Another solid display.
Andy Johnson - 5 - Typical headless chicken mode from AJ.
Jason Koumas - 5 - Few good set pieces; otherwise anonymous.
Robert Earnshaw - 6 - Did well until the penalty miss; never really recovered.
Nwankwo Kanu - 8 - MOM. Dominant display; great to see his first goal

Martin Albrechtsen - 7 - Did well although gave the ball away for the goal.
Lloyd Dyer - 6 - Did OK without really producing anything.
Zoltan Gera - 7 - Another good display from the Hungarian - he MUST start.

Gary Megson - 5 - Bad day at the office for Gary. Although his starting line-up produced a decent first half display, they didn't get in front and when they ran out of ideas, he was too slow in substitutions.

Jon Want, 19th September 2004.

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