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Albion 4 Colchester 3 – report
Saturday 29th March 2008, 6:55PM GMT.
West Bromwich Albion 4 Colchester United 3
Roman Bednar headed a stoppage time winner as Albion came out on top in an exciting clash at the Hawthorns.
The Baggies battled back from 2-0 and 3-2 down before Bednar glanced home the winner from Chris Brunt’s cross in the 93rd minute.
Substitute James Morrison had equalised in the final minute of normal time with the Baggies seemingly on course for another damaging home defeat.
The day began with Albion knowing victory against the Championship whipping boys was vital to heap pressure on the glut of other clubs chasing promotion.
But, after making a tidy start, they found themselves 2-0 behind as the Us struck twice in as many minutes with goalkeeper Dean Kiely clearly blamed by supporters for both goals.
On 14 minutes a poor header in his his own box by Zoltan Gera was allowed to drop and Chris Coyne scored with an overhead kick.
And two minutes later a poor punch by Kiely fell for Medy Elito to blast home the second.
But Albion threw caution to the wind for the rest of the first half and they scored twice in two minutes themselves to level the game.
First Gera and Carl Hoefkens combined to set up Kevin Phillips for his 22nd goal of the season.
And then Chris Brunt curled home a wonderful 25 yard left footer to ensure honours were even at half-time. The second half was all about Albion as they penned their visitors back in their own half and created a host of chances.
But with 14 minutes left Colchester broke, Kiely spilled a shot, and Lisbie planted home the rebound.
With defeat looking certain Morrison crashed home a dramatic equaliser but a draw would still have been two points dropped.
But Bednar proved the match winner to send the home fans delirious.
The win puts Albion three points outside the top two with two games in hand.
Albion fans have your say below
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lucky lucky tescos, pity cardiff won’t be so charitable to you on tuesday tho’.
DID YOU SEE HOW WE TOOK CHARLTON APART, WHERE YOU LOT COULD ONLY DRAW IN A VERY DRABB GAME.
roll on april 15t when the mighty wolves can finally put your promotion hopes to bed for this season.
oh by the way, play anything like you did against colchester, and we’ll give you your heaviest defeat of the season. seb’s on fire and your defence won’t know what’s hit ‘em when he gets amongst them.
going up the mcarthy way..in style of course..oh yes.
THE SOUTHBANK BARMY ARMY..COME ON YOU WOLVES.
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Winning the Ossie Ardiles Way – “You score tree, we score four.”
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Well I posted on Friday I’d gladly take any win – so job done!
But really this was a game of 2 goalkeepers.
One poor one playing for a promotion chasing team and one good one saving a team at the bottom of the league! Great win – total entertainment again!
Don’t wanna p*** on the fire here but, we will really struggle to go up I’m afraid to say. You cannot keep conceeding so many goals from set play like we do, even after going 2-0 down and getting back on even terms, Colchester have 1 attack into our half, win a corner, and we go and self-destruct again – ABSOLUTELY CRIMINAL!
At this point it would be nice (and sporting) to say fair play to the U’s on giving us a real run for our money, but the fact is they were poor (sorry colchester, but true)and were only ever in this game because Albion gifted them 3 goals! Saying that their keeper played an absolute blinder, the sheer volume of chances and possesion/pressure we had should’ve seen us well clear by the hour mark (even allowing for us giving them a 2 goal start).
I did say before on here it would be wrong to change keepers at such a crucial stage of the season, but Keily is starting to really cost us now – Mowbray has a tough call to make, his goalkeepers confidence is shot to pieces and not helped by the minority of idiots who booed him – for gods sake get behind ALL our players and support the team.
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Perhaps it’s time for Tony Mowbray to give Danek a run out on Tuesday. Keily is not brimming with confidence at present. It must be a worry for the defence, especially in this vital part of the season.
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I DONT KNOW WOT TO WEAR FOR WEMBLEY,ANY IDEAS ANYONE BOING BOING MITE BUY A NEW FLAG
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Can any baggies fan tell me why we always play a poor game against teams in the bottom half of the league. Example Preston Bradford leicester colchester e-c-t
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How much longer is Mowbray going to persevere with Dean Kiely. Every cross into our box starts a major panic. Please give Danek a chance against Cardiff.
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Great result, poor defensively but the main concern for me is some of TM,s tactical changes. I know he’s the manager and lives and dies by reults of his team selections but some of them at times are ludicrous. Clement for Caesar was a good call because he was really struggling against their big no.9 but why take off Hoefkens (who time and time again with gera had the beating of their full back) put Miller at wide right when he cant kick a ball with his right foot and then that made Gera more defencive in having to cover at times the right back position that was left void by the substitution, I think that left us really short at the back and we lost some attacking impetus…strange decission …but we got the 3 points we really needed so its not all bad !!!…as for the so called fans booing Kiely….ok ..he aint in good form but that was disgraceful!!
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A squeaker but we got there so onwards to our friends in Cardiff and another 3 points.
Ceasar was again found wanting against a big awkward striker in Platt and was lucy to make it to half time. Kiely was in my opinion at fault for al three goals. Instead of claiming Gera,s skyward header he stayed rooted to his line and gave them the opportunity. as most other goalkeeprs he can reach 8ft so why did he not come for it???? Second goal a poor punch and flatened his own defender in the process and for the third although Bednar lost his man the initial shot was straight at him and he should have dne better. I think a lot of our defensive frailties are caused by the indecision Kiely creat’s in the back four. Maybe its time for Danek to have a run?
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Diabolical defending again. How can a team begin to consider promotion with that sort of defending. Its been the same most of the season. Unable to defend set pieces, crosses, no command of the penalty area from either central defenders or goalkeeper. Why did he spend £3.5m on a striker when we all new he needed a quality defender. I reckon he got the wrong Moore (Darren).
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Fair play you guys that was a good comeback but have you seen the goal of the season? We will meet again more than once in the weeks ahead.
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show up at wembly with a defence like that and it will be over at half time… the only chance i give you is the fact tha portsmouth have a kanu in the team without a paddle
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What a strange game!!!
In my opinion Colchester were the poorest team I have seen up the Hawthorns this season, but they managed to score 3 times. Why??
Defensively we did’nt turn up, Kiely had 4 touches all game, and 3 of them were out the net with the 4th being the parried good save which then fell to them for the 3rd goal. It was the game where you could say “if you score 3 we will score 4″ infact other than great goalkeeping at the other end we could of had 6.
We all said we will be happy with any win, and that has got to be the most excitable win we have had all season, that kind of win may just be a turning point for the rest of the season. Lets hope so!!
(sigh of relief)
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3, 8& 9.
Good well thought out postings. I’ve defended Kiely all season but Saturday was a bridge too far. There seemed to be little communication between him and the defence and some of the defenders seem to have lost confidence in him. Dean Kiely doesn’t need to prove that he’s a good keeper but he may need a spell out of the firing line. As for the idiots booing him and the sheep that join in. Yes it was a tiny minority but one person booing his own team is one too many. Clem’s display should guarantee his place in the starting line up on Tuesday, looks back to his immaculate best.
12 Malvern.
I commented on your site about him being overweight, saying that he looks a great find, a really exciting player. I have noticed that he forages a lot of the goals himself, ie doesn’t recieve great service. This may be a problem against teams that don’t give the ball away so much but I’m sure he’ll score a lot of goals for you.
PS TWB.
Not the time to change now. Stick with the lucky blue and white striped tail coat, bowler hat and gold lame thong ensemble.
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1. Kiely doesn’t command his box and this puts added pressure on the Defence. 2. Gera should be banned from coming back into his own box, that was the fourth goal he has contributed in giving away this season.
3. Malvern Wolf, be careful, predictions are not a strong point among the Black and Gold.
4. Steve read 3.
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Reading my last comment it looks as if I was saying he was over weight, I wasn’t, it was the article in the E & S that said this.
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I think those last few minutes saved your season. I can see you going up automatic now as no-one else seems to want to grasp the opportunity. Had you dropped points against this team I think you would have blown it.Lots of late goals this weekend.
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Southbank……..Took Charlton apart ?? Were you watching the same game on TV a me ?? you will find, that granted you played well in parts, so did Charlton. It was a very good game to watch and your keeper kept you in it at 1-1 with some great saves. Again. The derby game may just be a decider, whether we go up and whether your are in the play offs, as 4 of your next games are against Bristol City, Ipswich, Cardiff, Plymouth,who are all within a chance of glory. On Saturday i will be cheering you on to do us a huge favour….plus you get the chance to watch us again on TV !!
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Well if one game could sum up our whole season – that was it.
We attacked from the off and never really stopped – but somehow we went 2 down.
To go in level at half time showed the character of the team – same with the end of the game. This squad is never going to take the easy route – we are capable of scoring for fun – and we leak goals like a conference side.
I was plaeased to hear TM NOT bigging us up at the end of the game – he said his main emotion was disappointment – GGOD !!!
There is a lot of work to do with the squad and TM knows it – however we are still in the driving seat and with Stoke and Watford failing to win we are (somehow) in a better position than before the game.
I also think it may be time to give Danek a try – Deanno IS a good keeper but his confidence is low – also our midfielders cannot defend – Gera was awful at the back again (but fantastic going forward.
As I say – our season summed up in one game – and we won it !!!!
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I agree with the majority of comments about the tactical changes, Kiely, and the booing. I do not think that the defence is a major problem noe we have Clement back and Barnett recovering well, its Kiely behind them. We probably have one of the best shot stoppers in the league with Kiely but his indecision and poor ability when it comes to crosses and set pieces is costing us. Time for Danek tuesday surely.
What a result in the end though – People say we won’t go up conceding 3 goals at home, well your wrong, because we can and will, especially with that team spirit and belief.
I think SEB will really test us when he comes to our place. Wolves have a top class striker there, you can tell he learnt his trade under Thiery Henry and Wenger at Arsenal, what a goal.
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1… I did not watch the first half of your game so I cant comment but the 2nd half I thought Charlton bossed the game but fair play . you played till the final whistle and won fair play you.
Granted our defence was poor so TM made the change with clemmo coming in for cesar so “seb” may be on fire but Clem will be his match . It should be a good tussle against the two of them.
How come when we score the winner 2 mins into added time we are lucky?
your lot scored 2 mins into injury time and you tore them apart (Yellow and black spec’s me thinks your wearing)
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kiely has been poor for most of this season
and is the main reason our defence is letting in so many goals
hes too quiet and does not command the back line at all
when we signed a keeper in january i thought it was the end for deano but he somehow still remains in the team.
its time for a change before its too late
boing boing
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11. Malvern ,, We sure have .. A 50 yard cross field ball up to KP, the ball drops over his head and without even looking up in one fluid motion, a 25 yard Volley into the top left hand corner
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SouthBank….Er that place was empty and condemmed last time I saw it(on a 4th division highlights programme)…bit like your head really..
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