Albion's home form is starting to look pretty impressive. In the last four at the Hawthorns, the Baggies have won three and drawn one scoring eight goals without reply; if they can repeat their home form of the second half of last season, where only Arsenal were victorious after the turn of the year, safety should not be too far away.

Spurs may have been below par at the Hawthorns on Wednesday evening, and it is true that poor defending was a significant factor in both goals, but Albion put in a very strong performance and were well worth their victory. Ellington and Kanu both worked tirelessly up front and showed good skills on the ball, Wallwork and Carter stood up well to the quality of Jenas and Davids in midfield and the defence were dominant throughout. Kuszczak had a few saves to make, but they were all comfortable as the visitors struggled to break down the Albion back line.

Robson brought Kanu, Kamara and Clement back into the starting line-up in place of Robinson, who is still recovering from the concussion he suffered at Old Trafford, Gaardsoe and Chaplow. Albrechtsen and Watson swapped fullback positions. With Inamoto injured and Kamara on the left, Carter occupied the central midfield slot alongside Wallwork. Gera had felt a slight reaction after his involvement at Old Trafford and was left out of the squad.

Kanu was outstanding. He is now the player we all hoped he would be when he signed and is a huge influence on the team that will be missed when he goes off to Egypt next month. His ability to retain possession is breathtaking and his coolness under pressure was demonstrated by the quality of the two finishes. The first goal came to him fortunately; as Kamara ran at the Spurs defence, the ball was inadvertently poked into Kanu's path by Carrick; but the finish was exquisite. He waited for Robinson to commit himself before calmly side-stepping him and slotting the ball home from an acute angle. The second was equally impressive. His long legs enabled him to intercept Gardner's pass, and as he ran at Dawson in the box, he sold him with a quick glance to the left at Ellington and a drop of the right shoulder before drilling the ball past Robinson. On both occasions, he picked up the nearest ball boy during his celebrations, a symbol that the goals were for his own young son.

The Nigerian may have grabbed the headlines, but a huge amount of credit must go to Ronnie Wallwork. He was criticised by many Albion fans, including me, earlier in the season, but he is now starting to show the form that was so influential in Albion's recovery last season. Against Spurs he was excellent, especially considering the quality of the opposition he was up against. Jenas was virtually anonymous and Davids was kept largely quiet thanks to efforts of the former Manchester United man, and to a lesser extent, Darren Carter. Wallwork was a little fortunate to escape punishment when he had hold of Davids' arm as the Dutchman ran at the Albion box in the first half, but the Dutchman's mistake was to try to get into the area before going down as Ronnie had the sense to release him at the crucial moment.

Davids was castigated by the Hawthorns crowd from then on for cheating, but that was less blatant than the occasion later in the half when Defoe simply fell over in the box in an attempt to con the referee, an act that surely deserved a yellow card.

The timing of the second goal was important as Tottenham had started to make small inroads into their attacking thirds, although they weren't particularly threatening. It meant that the introduction of Keane and then Mido were too late to have much of an impact and, indeed, the Albion defence stood firm against both. Defoe and Mido both had weak shots saved by Kuszczak and the England striker wasted Spurs best chance late on when the ball broke to him five yards out. His shot was saved by the Pole in Goal as the linesman's flag was inexplicably kept down - Defoe was a good three yards off side.

Albion kept working hard throughout the ninety minutes and the visitors became more and more frustrated. In the end, it was a comfortable victory that lifted Albion above Everton into 16th place.



Marks

Tomasz Kuszczak - 6 - Little to do but had one crazy moment in the second half when he needlessly charged out of his area and got nowhere near the ball, but got away with it.
Martin Albrechtsen - 7 - Decent defensive performance and looked to get forward well.
Neil Clement - 8 - Excellent performance from Clem.
Curtis Davies - 7 - Good display from Davies.
Ronnie Wallwork - 9 - Superb performance; worked hard, tackled hard, passed well.
Steve Watson - 6 - Did OK, but a little careless in possession now and again.
Darren Carter - 7 - Much better performance; seems more comfortable in the centre.
Jonathan Greening - 6 - A bit in and out from Jonno.
Nathan Ellington - 8 - Worked hard; showed good skills.
Diomansy Kamara - 6 - One or two good moments, but still runs down blind alleys too often.
Nwankwo Kanu - 9 - MOM. Sublime. Two superb finishes and an excellent all round performance.

Kevin Campbell - Not on long enough.
Geoff Horsfield - Ditto.
Darren Moore - Ditto.

Bryan Robson - 8 - The right team from those available; sensibly made no substitutions until the game was effectively won as the team was working well.


Jon Want, 29th December 2005.