Taking the weekend as a whole, it was one of mixed messages for the Baggies. Portsmouth's victory over a weakened West Ham side could arguably make them favourites to avoid the drop. Birmingham's surrender to Spurs leaves them still struggling, while Albion's performance against Manchester United showed promise at times but was ultimately unsuccessful.

Robson opted to keep the same 4-5-1/4-3-3 formation that had threatened success in the previous two games, but ultimately failed to deliver it on both occasions. In the early stages of the game, Albion once again played some good stuff and had United on the back foot, but they never created any clear cut chances.

Cue another lapse at the back, and the visitors took the lead. This time it was Ronnie Wallwork who completely lost Louis Saha and the Frenchman was unmarked as he headed Giggs' corner into the net. While Ronnie was at fault, it certainly seems a strange tactical decision for him to be marking Saha in the first place.

Albion picked themselves up and pushed on once again forcing Van der Sar into two excellent saves from Kamara's free kick and Davies' header to keep the scores level. In open play, however, Albion rarely threatened.

Campbell won absolutely nothing against Vidic, and Kozak failed to offer the creative threat we had seen in the previous two games. Greening and Kamara did offer some attacking prowess, but while they were able to get down the flanks, there was rarely any support in the centre bar the lumbering skipper.

I thought Robson had done the right thing in bringing Kanu on for Campbell, but it now transpires that it was a forced change due to an injury to the skipper. Ellington's appearance was also forced due to a hamstring injury to Kamara, but once those two were on, Albion did look more potent up front.

Unfortunately, the game was more or less over shortly after the Duke's introduction. Kozak lost the ball in midfield and United broke quickly with slick passing. It ended with a smart finish from Saha for his second goal of the game.

From then on, Albion attacked without looking too threatening and United always looked dangerous on the break. Some last ditch defending and a few good saves from Kuszczak kept the United total down to two, before there was faint hope when Ellington got his second goal in two games by heading home Greening's corner.

In truth, Albion never looked like getting the equaliser, although Carter almost got onto the end of Greening's through ball in a rare moment of danger for the United defence, and the game petered out.

At the end of the weekend, Albion remain out of the bottom three but now have both Blues and Pompey just three points behind. Fulham pulled away with an unexpected win over Chelsea to leave Middlesbrough in 16th position some seven points ahead of the Baggies.

With Albion not playing until Monday evening, an unlikely win at Old Trafford for Birmingham would see them leapfrog Albion. Portsmouth could draw level on points with Albion, although they too face a tough home game against Arsenal.

It's going to be another tense finish to the season for Baggies fans.



Marks

Tomasz Kuszczak - 7 - Another good performance. No fault with the goal and a couple of good saves in the second half.
Martin Albrechtsen - 5 - Did OK, but never looked entirely comfortable defensively.
Curtis Davies - 4 - Probably his worse game for Albion. How he got the sponsors' MOM, I'll never know. Looked very uncertain in possession - his recent mistakes seem to have unsettled him.
Paul Robinson - 6 - Decent performance.
Ronnie Wallwork - 6 - Not as influential as usual as Giggs ran the midfield. At fault for the first goal.
Steve Watson - 7 - Best of the defenders; made some crucial challenges.
Jonathan Greening - 8 - MOM. Albion's best player by far as he tried to open up the United defence with little help from anyone else.
Junichi Inamoto - 5 - A fairly anonymous performance.
Jan Kozak - 5 - A less than impressive display; gave the ball away too often.
Kevin Campbell - 4 - Poor display; never threatened at all and failed to hold the ball up at all.
Diomansy Kamara - 7 - Decent performance; unlucky with the free kick.

Nwankwo Kanu - 6 - Offered more of a threat than Campbell, but never really got the service to make much of a difference.
Nathan Ellington - 7 - Looked lively once again, offered good movement and took his goal well.
Darren Carter - 5 - Made little impact.

Bryan Robson - 6 - Was forced into changes he should've made anyway. 4-5-1 experiment is not offering the attacking threat we need to win games, which we need to start doing again. Will not have made many friends with Albion fans for acknowledging the Man Utd fans on three occasions.


Jon Want, 20th March 2006.