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Albion blog: Another Chance Wasted
Tuesday 17th March 2009, 9:25AM GMT.
Albion blogger Jarrod Hill feels the Baggies should have got more from West Ham – but saw enough to suggest the outlook is not as bleak as first feared.
Not sure how you guys feel this morning, but my overriding feeling is that West Ham where there for the taking and we missed a great opportunity to get three points.
It was a dire game for the neutral, but I thought we were the better team and had the better of the few chances.
James Morrison, Jonathan Greening, Marc Antoine Fortune, and Shelton Martis all went close to opening the scoring, but we lacked the killer touch.
Our five man midfield and new look defence ensured a rare clean sheet, but the change in formation meant we witnessed a completely different game to the one between the two teams at the Hawthorns.
Although it was poor to watch, if manager Tony Mowbray had adopted this approach earlier in the season, we may have had more points on the board from our away games.
But hey, hindsight is something we all wish we had. It was fantastic to see our boss eventually drop players who had been in poor form, although I must admit the inclusion of Martis shocked me quite a bit.
Combined with the returning Jonas Olsson, our centre-half partnership looked comfortable, but to be honest West Ham had little to offer and I am amazed they find themselves pushing for a place in Europe.
It highlights a point made by Mowbray this week, the margin of success and failure in the Premier League is tiny. Injuries, refereeing decisions and the general rub of the green can swing games and seasons either way.
I thought Martis played well, especially when you take into account his lack of experience and first team action this season. I would definitely keep him in for Saturday, his height and physicality should help us cope with Bolton’s directness.
I also thought young Graham Dorrans took his chance to impress, his energy and endeavour was good to see. After he had accustomed himself to the pace of the game, you could see his confidence growing.
My man of the match was Chris Brunt, he tormented West Ham and whipped in a number of his trade mark crosses – combined with a few dud ones.
Unfortunately his confidence seemed to be shattered when a handful of West Ham fans decided to throw the ball at him and give him a bit of abuse.
Mowbray quickly spotted the difference in his play and body language and replaced him. His crosses all too often didn’t find a Baggies player, but to be honest our midfielders reluctance to get into the box meant his only target was Fortune.
Greening was used in a supporting role to our lone striker Fortune and, although it has worked to some degree earlier in the season, it didn’t really come off this time.
Paul Robinson caused two areas of debate for me at Upton Park, the first being the shirt pull in the first half. For me it’s not a penalty, but by the letter of the law it is, so all I ask is that the FA and the Referees Association get together and decide which it is, and then maybe they can impose some consistency.
For the same offence we had a penalty given against us when we played Blackburn at home, in my opinion neither are penalties, but it seems to be the luck of the draw on who is refereeing on the day.
The second point of debate was his post match interview. He openly stated he had had issues with a number of his fellow players and his perception of their lack of desire.
Personally I applaud him, but I wouldn’t be surprised if his outburst had more than a small effect on team selection for the game.
Maybe the players have realised they are drinking in the last chance saloon and there is no time left for patience.
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I cant comment on the game, I didnt see it, but a valuable point just the same, though I guess the Braggies fans would suggest 2 points lost.
I will however comment on Mowbray’s interview on Sky TV!!! Not for the first time, he is talking about the next two games and “if we can win them its 6 points” counting chickens is as bad as the “we have games in hand” syndrome.
It seems TM has run out of positives, but at least he hasnt resorted to the same tired old excuses, I have to admire him for that.
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Jarrod.
Interested to see you say ‘if we’d played this formation earlier in the season etc’ about the one up front system. I know that you remember that we did and TM took a lot of stick for not playing two strikers. Therefore I assume that you’re suggesting playing a different formation home and away. I’m not arguing against it just asking does it really work? Perhaps we should also play this system at home to the big clubs on a damage limitation and hope to pick up a point basis, I know a lot would be critical but we may have a few more points now if we had done this. I also realise that I’m taking advantage of hindsight, which the manager can’t. unfortunately.
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and which saloon are we drinking in before the game on saturday,aye boing boing john smiths plz cock
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While generally I am against one up front, I have to say it did a job last night. However surely it would have been better to have Jonno “holding” and the more pacey Morrison supporting Fortune?
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it may have bin 2 points lost but we wernt expected to get anything,lets just hope we can build on it now,aye boing boing staying up the MOWBURY WAY
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after a long time away from the forums in a big old stonk over WBA I havent really come back to much of a change. From what I saw on live text commentary we had a few chances and the lack of fire power (i grit my teeth whilst imagining KP/Saha etc up front for us)We really should have made more of an effort to pursue these signatures.
We’re 7 points off safety with 9 games left, it techinically can be done however I have finally been broken down to thinking the game against Blackburn will be all too late to save our skins. Baggies…make me eat my words, please.
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It was a little bit Eric Morecombe for me:
“All the right players, not necessarily in the right positions”
Greening is not a support man. Koren is.
Koren is not an anchor man. Greening is.
Greening is not a left midfielder. Dorrans is.
Brunt is not a Premiership footballer. Tex is.
Apart from those few tinkerings we weren’t far away last night.
Now, don’t get me wrong, it was a poor match – anyone who walked in late to see Setanta in the top left corner of the screen could have been forgive for thinking they were watching a Blue Square Premier match – but we deserved more than we got from it.
I guess Olsson was fortunate to get away with his ‘mistimed’ jump and I would expect further developments from the FA for that one as the ref obviously didn’t see it.
But the defence looked secure, albeit against one of the worst forward lines I’ve witnessed.
Midfield was dominant, even though my man of the match would have been Parker.
And Fortune did a cracking job up top on his own.
I still don’t see what people see in Simpson. He can run.
Quickly.
Big deal.
He does nothing with the ball except run into cul-de-sacs.
And IMO when Brunt went off Dorrans should have gone wide left as that’s how he built his reputation in Scotland – as a goal scoring left winger.
I can see us winning games – but whether I can see us picking up 6 more points than those around us I’m not sure.
Time to throw caution to the wind now I reckon.
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Delighted to see you thought Brunt had a good game. I did too, until those evil bullies screamed abuse. TV evidence, so ban them! Had Morrison scored first half, we would have beaten them by two or three because West Ham were very poor. To be fair to us, they could only play as well as we let them, and we didn’t. They were moaning on their website about injuries before the game. Just in case they lost I suppose. Nobody mentioned the injured we’ve had and have. I’d like to see THAT same team with it’s tails up. It could work the oracle. A big hill to climb, so low gear and rev like ****!
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going down going down !!!
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TM Changed things too late. Didn’t give Moore and Simpson enough time to get into the game – approx 11 minutes and Tex comes on for the last 4 minutes!! Why?
Also. Why not keep Brunt on or move Dorrans to give Moore and Simpson a supply line??
Another great opportunity lost!
In TM we trust??
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9. I’m not going to lower myself.
———–
Doesn’t it say something when people think Brunt had a good game?
It must show how poor he usually is.
I could count the number of good crosses he put in on the fingers of one hand – AND THAT’S HIS JOB!
If my productivity was that low I’d be fired! (He says typing on a message board while he’s supposed to be working – just call me Brunty!).
He had the beating of the fullback, sorry RESERVE fullback.
Wow.
Being better than he normally is is not a big achievment.
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Jarrod, Bully- Interesting debate about the formation.
My personal opinion is that if TM sets us up as an open, creative outfit, then playing 4-5-1 is restrictive and self-defeating. We didn’t really look like scoring very often last night and in truth, against better opposition, probably would’ve conceded.
I can see why he does it, as our midfield (especially when Valero plays) is very lightweight at 4-4-2, but I think the answer was either playing Greening and Koren from day one or going out gung-ho to get a sitter in the midfield before a ball was kicked (and replacing Phillips). Then again, like you say Bully, hindsight’s a great thing!!
Positives…..Dorrans, Martis, Fortune (excellent again), and you could see the players getting more confident as the game went on, hopefully take that into Saturday. Just seems all a little bit too late though, if only we’d beaten Newcastle……..
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Oh…..another positive, Big Jonas…….boy we’ve missed him!!!!
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Olliec. You are a tit. Enough said. One win in how many games for the dingles now?
As for last night’s game I thought some of the football Albion played was great to watch yet again. The problem is as the season goes on it is getting less and less each game. I dont think we’ll stay up now but I’d like to see ToMo keep the players from last night in for a few games. Dorrans, Olsen and Martis were excellent and if only Olsen hadn’t been injured and we’d tried them just a few weeks earlier
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ok so looking at the game last night we should have took all 3 points but there cant be a fan on here that would not have took a 0-0 drawbefore the game if it where offered.
Cyril 8..100% correct in your assesment of the game I dont think we allowed West Ham to play football we broke up play ,we hounded their players when they had the ball ok we never did the most important thing in football which is to hit the back of the net but you cant knock the commitment of the team last night we actually looked as though it meant something to the players for once!!
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Can anyone explain why TM keeps playing Robinson?
He’s suspect as left back and I have yet to see him cross a ball, they are either over hit or scuffed along the ground. He has passion I agree but lacks in quality for me.
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A desperateley poor game. If we cannot beat teams like West Ham on that form we deserve to go down.
Such a frustrating season. Just hope we can start playing the exciting football of last season when we are in the Championship again.
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14 . dawnswanseabaggie :-
The answer to your question for March is:-
Played 4
Won 3
Drawn 1
Lost 0 .
Watched the game last night , as a neutral there didnt seem to be much between the two teams in terms of relative positions in the table ! & with more of a cutting edge in final third , the team in yellow could have won it .
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In agame we had to win one up front is not the answer. For once this season we had supremacy in the air, even more so when Upson went off yet we did not make the most of it. Most puzzling given the above was why he replaced Fortune with Moore and Simpson when adding Bednar to the fray seemed the best option. It was nice to see Dorrans given a game but why has it taken so long for TM to realise that he is a good player? I fear we are doomed and it was another missed opportunity in my book.
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Well done Mowbray its only taken 28 games
to realise that Borja Valero is total garbage.
I totally agree with the 4-5-1 formation although
Jay Simpson,Luke Moore,or Roman Bednar should of
been on at the start of the 2nd half when surely
Mowbray realised Westham were there for the taking
THAT WAS YET ANOTHER MOWBRAY MISTAKE!
Martis and Dorrans both had good games so expect to see them vanished in the reserves
for the Bolton match.Its also good to see Brunt
fighting to keep his place.
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no goals against ,ollsen & martis,dorrans all positives .come on you baggies.we must now start to believe again.
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7. Tex is not a prem player
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i would like to say once again im a big baggies fan. i dont care if we stay up or go down i will always be proud to be a baggies fan.
so a note to all stop moaning and be a proud fan too.
COME ON LADS BOING BOING
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Sorry for the delayed response. We were the better team and really it is 2 points lost as opposed to 1 point gained despite the fact that before the game we weren’t even goven a chance. West Ham were awful as opposed to us playing well though.
Any decisions upon where we’re meeting up on Saturday and when?
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SAMANTHA EVANS I LOVE YOU XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
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In a nutshell Jarrod we will find out next match
how good we are TM should have given the subs
far more time on the pitch two points dropped.
Bolton will present more of a concern to our
defenders than West Ham did.
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