 |
West
Bromwich Albion v Southampton
The Hawthorns,
West Bromwich. 22nd February 2005, 7.45pm. |
| Back
to Previous Page |
Match
Preview |
 |
 |
| Result |
West Bromwich Albion |
0 - 0 |
Crystal Palace |
| Scorers |
None |
None |
| Attendance |
25,865 |
| Teams |
4-4-2
1 - Russell Hoult (GK)
14 - Martin Albrechtsen
19 - Neil Clement
4 - Thomas Gaardsoe
3 - Paul Robinson
24 - Ronnie Wallwork
8 - Jonathan Greening
15 - Kieran Richardson
21 - Kevin Campbell
34 - Robert Earnshaw
11 - Zoltan Gera |
4-4-2
(GK) Paul Smith - 13
Olivier Bernard - 23
Andreas Jakobsson - 6
Graeme Le Saux - 3
Claus Lundekvam - 5
Rory Delap - 18
David Prutton - 20
Nigel Quashie - 40
Jamie Redknapp - 38
Henri Camara - 37
Peter Crouch - 14 |
| Substitutes |
29 - Tomasz Kuszczak (GK)
6 - Darren Purse
2 - Riccardo Scimeca
7 - Jason Koumas
9 - Geoff Horsfield |
(GK) Michael Poke -
25
Calum Davenport - 39
Danny Higginbotham - 19
Paul Telfer - 33
Kevin Phillips - 7 |
| Substitutions |
J Koumas for K Richardson
(74)
R Scimeca for Z Gera (81) |
None |
| Yellow Cards |
Kieran Richardson (34)
Zoltan Gera (45) |
Rory Delap (25)
Olivier Bernard (47)
Jamie Redknapp (58) |
| Red Cards |
None |
None |
| Referee |
M Riley (Leeds) |
It was another disappointing
night for Baggies fans, although for once, it could be said that
we had the rub of the green. It was a poor performance from Albion,
which is particularly galling given the recent displays, and it
was the visitors that deserved to take home the three points. Thankfully,
some glaring misses and some excellent goalkeeping means that Albion
remain just two points behind their relegation rivals.
It was one of those rare occasions when I correctly predicted the
starting line-up. Richardson, Greening and Earnshaw came in for
Scimeca, Koumas and Kanu. Having said that, I would have chosen
a different set of substitutes - Robson opted for Purse, Scimeca,
Horsfield and Koumas in addition to Kuszczak.
It was a tense affair from the first minute with both sides making
mistakes. Neither side was tentative, however, and the game swung
from end to end. There wasn't that much quality football being played
as most opportunities came from defensive errors.
The first effort on goal didn't arrive until the 8th minute. Campbell
had a goalbound shot cleared off the line and a few minutes later,
Hoult, who had looked nervous in the opening minutes, was beaten
to the ball by Camara whose header struck the post before being
cleared.
Albion were awarded a free kick on the right edge of the area and,
with everyone expecting an effort from Koumas, it was Richardson
that brought an excellent save from Smith as he curled the ball
towards the top corner with his left foot. At the other end, the
pace of ex-Dingle Henri Camara was causing all sorts of problems
- he raced through down the right hand channel and caught Hoult,
who started to some but stopped, in no mans land. Thankfully, his
attempted lob went wide.
Richardson, who was having an excellent first half, came close on
two occasions in quick succession. He first had a shot blocked by
Lundekvam and minutes later struck the bar with a vicious effort
from 30 yards. Back at the other end, Hoult redeemed his shaky first
half display to superbly turn over a close range header from Camara
who had been left unmarked in the centre of goal.
But if Hoult had seemed nervous for much of the first half, he was
in superb form in the second. Unfortunately, he was the only Albion
player to whom that adjective could apply. The first half was no
vintage display, but at least they created chances and seemed able
to keep the ball on occasion. The second half was a different story.
To be fair, it started OK with Smith forced to save from another
Richardson free kick early on, and Albion keeping the play largely
in the Southampton half. But there was no fluency to the football
and the possession advantage that Albion were enjoying was largely
thanks to the visitors' deficiencies.
One of the biggest problems for the Baggies was Zoltan Gera. In
Albion's recent performances, that Hungarian has shone, so often
being the orchestrator of the majority of their attacking success.
Harry had obviously done his homework and man-marked Gera with Olivier
Bernard, and the Frenchman did a wonderful job. Gera won virtually
nothing in the air and was given no time or space in which to work
his magic.
It can't all be blamed on Gera, however. As the second half wore
on, the performances of all the midfielders were suffering with
a lack of composure and passing ability. Richardson faded after
a good first half and was replaced by Koumas, who did little to
improve the situation. Wallwork was not the master of simple intelligent
passing that we have become used to, and Greening was well below
the performance level we have come to expect.
Scimeca eventually replaced Gera with 15 minutes left, which seemed
more of a defensive move because, by that stage, Southampton were
well on top. It was particularly concerning that, given most of
the Saints players had played in the cup game against Brentford
on Saturday, they seemed to have more energy than their Albion counterparts
who'd not played for ten days.
Personally, I would've liked to have seen Kanu on the bench as he
is the one player that could have changed the tone of the game -
I'd have brought him on for Campbell shortly after half time.
As the game wore on, the visitors had several excellent chances.
Hoult made some great saves and there were a couple of glaring misses
from Camara and Prutton. Because Albion were riding their luck,
I was beginning to think that we would nick a goal at the end and
take the points, such are the vagaries of football. But it was not
to be, despite a couple of late corners.
A point does little to enhance Albion's survival chances as they
remain four points behind that elusive 17th place, but given the
second half performance, we have to be happy to have not lost. It's
not been very often, if ever, this season that we've been able to
say we got a result we didn't deserve, but that was certainly the
case last night. It may have been a downcast feeling that pervaded
amongst the Baggies faithful at the end of the game, but the eternal
optimist in me that keeps popping to the fore suggests that the
nature of the game could turn to a change in fortunes.
Who am I kidding?
Marks
Russell Hoult - 8 - Dodgy first half hour, but made some superb
saves in the second half.
Martin Albrechtsen - 7 - One of Albion's better performers.
Neil Clement - 8 - MOM. One of the few that maintained his performance
level of recent weeks.
Thomas Gaardsoe - 6 - Did OK.
Paul Robinson - 5 - Dreadful first half, slightly better second.
Ronnie Wallwork - 6 - Less than impressive but better than some.
Jonathan Greening - 5 - Probably his worst game in an Albion shirt.
Kieran Richardson - 7 - Great first half but faded in the second
Kevin Campbell - 5 - Looked tired and lacking in ideas.
Robert Earnshaw - 6 - Worked hard but had little support or service.
Zoltan Gera - 5 - Marked out of the game.
Jason Koumas - 5 - No impact.
Riccardo Scimeca - 5 - Ditto.
Bryan Robson - 6 - Can't fault the starting line-up, but he needed
to change it earlier and needed something different on the bench
- JK is lacking the spark that was needed.
Jon Want, 23rd February 2005.
|
| ^ Back to Top
|
|
