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Albion – the verdict
Saturday 1st September 2007, 6:15PM BST.
Albion 2 Barnsley 0
Albion once more found the Hawthorns a happy hunting ground as they enjoyed a comfortable victory stroll against Barnsley, writes Martin Swain.
The damage was done in the first half when two of the club’s new boys, Filipe Teixeira and Craig Beattie grabbed their first Championship goals for the club.
But there were times when the Baggies threatened to put Barnsley to the sword with the most impressive exhibition of passing football delivered so far this season by Tony Mowbray’s side.
As it was, the Hawthorns faithful were happy enough with the two goal victory and style of play which frequently brought standing ovations pouring down from the seats as Albion did pretty much as they pleased.
And the goals will be memorable for both players.
Teixeira had been desperate to get off the mark and the jinks and feints which set him up for the 30th minute right foot shot which flew into the bottom corner was joyously celebrated.
Eight minutes later Beattie expunged the memory of some recent misses in front of goal by running clear to coolly strike home his team’s second.
This was a much stronger Barnsley side than the one Albion spanked by seven goals at the end of last season but it was no more successful in finding any kind of joy in the fixture.
Dean Kiely, making his 700th senior appearance, needed to make only one save in the game to prevent Anderson De Silva scoring with 15 minutes left.
But it was the quality of Albion’s football which provided the lasting image as time and time again they opened up Barnsley, hit the woodwork twice and saw a cluster of more openings just elude them.
What will have the Hawthorns fans even more encouraged was the sense of so much more to come from Albion. Mowbray left his £3 million midfielder Chris Brunt on the bench for 65 minutes before the Northern Ireland international came on and wetted the appetite with a string of silky touches and testing crosses.
The Baggies also had top performances from Zoltan Gera and James Morrison while Leon Barnett was again watchful and strong at the back to cut down counter-attacking threats.
Albion fans have your say on the result below the story.
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Starting to come together now, the games cant come quickly enough for me!
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By far the best performance so far,a fine team showing,if we can sort out the away form then we won’t be far away come May.The new signings that are currently in the team are now settling in nicely.
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WE ARE STARTING TO ROCK AND ROLL,PLAYERS ARE STARTING TO GEL,THINGS ARE STARTING TO LOOK SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD AND IM LOVIN IT LOVIN IT LOVIN IT….SOON BE SAT AT THE TOP LOOKING DOWN ON THE DINGLES……..LOVIN IT,YOU HAVIN THAT HAPPY BAGGIE….ME AND YOU ARE LOVIN IT…
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it was just a stroll today we should be in top 2 soon and we will stay there boing boing
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Not 100% there yet – but some fantastic displays – SO pleased to see two new boys score, Texiera’s goal was as good as anything Koumas did. And when we needed to freshen it up – Miller and Brunt came on – now THATS stregth in depth. Fantastic result.
A typical example of ToMo football – graet to watch.
Also well done everyone for cheering AJ – nice to see !!
We are starting to gel really well and it will just get better and better.
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We are going up say we are going up. Boing boing top two finish, boing boing top two finish!
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sandwell will win most of their home games cos the players fear the usual tesco crowd reaction when things dont go their way, it is when they play away we will see why they will only finish midtable. unlike at the molineux where the fans are more knowledgable and get behind their team no matter what. most of their fans seem to be women anyway (tesco checkout girls)p.s like happy baggie
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well done. its great to see your blind optimism swelling over. Can’t wait to see what happens when you play a half decent team. moanbury to stay ten years please. hahahahahaha
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Yeah you clearly have the best side in the league that make you feel better?
OMG you lot are so diluded it makes me howl.
Yes you are contenders but what makes you think your better than us?
When our injuries are gone. We’ll be even better, watch out Albion.
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Top two finish. right below us!
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To all you dingles who think we are being too positive – i see gary breen has said he expects wolves to win the league… not just old and slow, but deluded too !
At least with us, its just fans that get abit over excited – to have a player say you will win the league this early in the season is just mad – we look forward to reminding him of it soon !
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Will we all get real here please. Both Wolves and Albion will not finish in the top two! Albion will not win many games away from home playing attractive football. In the Championship you need to grind results out, especially away. There are no easy games (look at Sheffield Utd on Saturday against Scunthorpe!). Wolves still have much of the same squad as last year so play offs at best. Stop living in fantasy land…
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12 – albion have almost built 2 teams now… one for playing fast attacking football at home, and another more resiliant team for the difficult away games. it will take a few matches to bed them in – but our manager has looked at all types of games and has bought accordingly.
On the other hand MM feels that your squad will be good enough whoever you play – and Breen thinks you will win the league. Talk about getting real…
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Happy Baggie – I see your point, and think that we will win most of our home games, even if we do concede a few. I just think even if he does play the likes of Pele/Chaplow away we are still too lightweight. All teams seem to do to cause us trouble is lump the ball up top and we struggle to cope. We knew what to expect at Sheff Utd and trained on it but it didn’t stop Beattie from scoring. I will reserve my judement mate until after 10 games and see where we are.
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7 MMDP
We know where we can come for advice on crowd reaction, especially after the Morecombe debacle
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Built two teams !!! hahahaha great building big things but your foundations are laid on quicksand. Look at the stats, played one decent team – sheff u – and lost !! 15 bongaboggiebongbong mentioned morecombe – so what ?? id rather go out a mickey mouse cup to morecombe than lose to burnley in the league hahahahahahaha
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16 wanna look at the stats ?? you played one decent team (Watford – at home) – lost.. also played one Mickey mouse team (at home) lost !!
Suppose THOSE stats don’t mean anything though – suprise suprise.
Do you get ya ticket half price if you are one eyed ???
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