Albion 2 Ipswich 0 – Verdict
Saturday 22nd August 2009, 7:00PM BST.
Dominant Albion cruised to a third successive Championship victory with only Ipswich goalkeeper Richard Wright preventing a Baggies rout against Ipswich.
Roberto Di Matteo’s men were 2-0 ahead at half-time through Youssouf Mulumbu’s emphatic maiden Albion goal and Robert Koren’s superb first strike of the season.
It could have been several more were it not for a man-of-the-match display from Wright between the sticks for the woeful visitors.
His heroics continued after half-time, as he saved well from Jerome Thomas and kept out a weak Luke Moore penalty.
Albion were well on top in the opening half-hour and they could have been in front as early as the fourth minute.
A sliced shot by Robert Koren turned into a useful pass for Brunt, who advanced down the right and crossed into the box, to where Koren had continued his run.
The Slovenia’s downward header hit the ground and was creeping inside the post, until Wright thrust out his right hand to save.
It took just six more minutes for Albion to get their noses in front, as their pressure paid off.
Jonas Olsson’s header from a Chris Brunt corner was blocked on the line by David Wright by Jonathan Stead cleared only as far as Mulumbu, whose low skidding shot flew past Wright.
Brunt and Luke Moore were then both denied by the goalkeeper as Albion continued their domination, with Connor Wickham’s shot straight at Scott Carson in the home goal the closest the visitors went.
The Baggies doubled their lead six minutes before the break. A fine move ended with Koren playing a neat one-two with Chris Wood on the edge of the box, before rounding Wright and finishing neatly.
On the stroke of half-time Moore teed up Wood, whose low shot was turned around the post by Wright.
Ipswich rallied briefly at the start of the second half and Carson had to make a smart double-save to deny Alan Quinn and Liam Trotter, but the Baggies continued to make the running.
Substitute Thomas was denied by another excellent Wright save and Ipswich’s only other chance was a header from a corner that Pim Balkenstein thundered wide.
Albion should have wrapped it up on 74 minutes when Shaun Cummings was sent tumbling in the box by Tommy Wright.
But Moore’s tame penalty was saved by Wright and the striker put the follow-up wide.
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we played fantastic at times. key players were Mulumbu Koren and Carson.
bit worried about the fullbacks though.
oh and why is luke moore our penalty taker?!?! we should have learnt that at pre season. cant wait for bendar to be back, he was lovein the reception given to him, well done smethick!!
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Well done boys super Performance moore and woods did well as did Koren but i think mulumbu was my man of the match He was outstanding today what a bargin and a clean sheet as well looking good lets keep it going now boing boing keep the faith
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Mulumbu!
150thousand?
What a bargain!!
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A good performnce but we must turn our dominance into goals. Richard Wright had a great game for Ipswich but we must be more clinical in front of goal as it may be important at the end of the season. Mulumbu was fantastic again.
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Saw this game today in a pub in Ealing, London when setting up equipment for a gig – we are awesome ppl watching were saying aswell as me. Di Matteo best dressed manager in championship! BRING ON PLYMOUTH finally got time off to go up!!!
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Early days to get carried away but the defence is tigerish without being dirty, the midfield creative and destructive, the forwards making enough chances to ‘win the sweep’, (There’s an old one for you young uns to find out the meaning). Now it needs a finisher who resembles a young Kevin Phillips. That M.o’M could so easily have been Olsson (immense performance) or Mulumbu who is surely the find of the season. Koren got it and I’m happy with that too.
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Good Performance! Entertaining, that Keeper Richard Wright always seems to have a super match vs the Albion, remember that 1-1 vs Southampton 2 seasons ago? he was fantastic.
Get rid of Beattie! he’s useless – an amateur. Sorry but I dont like him.
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I would have gone for Mulumbu as MoM but can’t argue with Koren or Olssen. The thing is it was an excellent team performance when we were missing a number of key players. Shame some people still can’t be pleased without having a go at some of our players. I’m sure Cyril will vouch for the fact that it was ever thus, even years ago we had the moaners, it’s just that they didn’t have web sites to vent their spleen on.
Let’s get behind the lads, all of them. On this theme, it was good to hear the BRE in such good voice.
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A really encouraging performance , especially in the first half where our attacking play was quick and incisive . I still have serious doubts over Carson , who cannot inspire much confidence in his defence as he never comes out to catch or punch any crosses. Compare the domination of his area of Richard Wright to our ‘captain’, (god knows why it is him).
Nice to see Koren back in the centre of midfield where he is much more comfortable than out wide. Excdellent displays from Olssen and Mulumbu. plus Moore looked a class act despite his penalty blunder.
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I’m sorry too you don’t like him Alfred, but if Roberto thinks he’s good, that’ll do me! I am impressed very much so far with what he’s done with Mowbray’s Misfits. Confidence for any player is a mighty plus and it is beginning to show already. The team has quite a few new boys too but it’s almost gone un-noticed. There’ll be a few hiccups no doubt but I’m impressed. Very impressed.
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great game the defence is improving but mattock and cummings are a worry. Mulumbu is a bargain (my moneys on him being player of season) koren looks good wood and moore arent doing bad and i think koren should have took the penalty
cant wait for bednar to be back
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That was a quality performance, but Ipswich were very poor! I had expected they would give us a good game but other than a brief 5 minute spell just after the break they were incapable of stringing 5 consecutive passes together – constantly giving possession back to us! Can only imagine that dressing room after Roy Keane had entered! An emphatic a 2-0 as youre ever likely to see.
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I thought we looked like a old fashioned Albion team of latter yrs.Young Cummings was super and i think mattock will prove hinself.Koren played his heart out in his rightfull position,Wood looked as though he had played there for yrs.Luke Moore, i thought had one of his better games,forgiving him the pen miss.He harassed the Ipswich defenders to death.Mulumbu,……………O’h i could wax on,but i do relly think we played ever so well.Lets hope we can continue to play like this for rest of the season.
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Loving the revolution!!!
Mulumbu! Class Act!!
Good atmosphere in the Brummie!! Couldn’t really hear the Smethick!!
Boing Boing!!
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RBH. I can even remember one or two moaning because Ray Barlow didn’t get picked for England as if it was HIS fault! That man was a complete genius on the football pitch. I thought Carson did very well yesterday but it says it all that Richard Wright played a blinder. He damn well HAD TO! It’s sometimes harder to stop a goal when you aren’t having much to do and Carson DID stop two or three blinders. We’re equal top, what more does R.diM. have to do? Let him pick the team , the captain, the subs. It’s what he’s paid to do and his job depends on it. He’ll keep the players he needs and shift the ones he doesn’t, so if he picks a bloke, support him.
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An excellent start unlucky v Toon otherwise wed
be clear very impressive all round. Chris Woods
will be some player only 17 is he still growing ?
in fact were spoilt for choice. Moore looking a
15-20 striker unlucky with penalty How good is
RDM he looks so laid back I like the Chelsea kid
make him permanent. Were on our way.
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The guy who criticised Robert Koren last week really has egg on his face today. He proved Saturday what any sensible fan knows that he is probably the best attacking midfield player in this league. The second goal came about because Luke Moore won the ball back before giving it to Koren. This is something we did not see from him last year and it seems that RDM is transforming him into a very good player. In fact the performance of the whole team seems to have gone up a level. What a pity RDM was not here last season , we may have survived with him in charge.
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If Malumbu had not been injured we may have stayed up. Luke Moore did ok, I felt he shaped up BADLY to take the penalty, he stood absolutely square behind the ball – try taking a penalty yourself from that position – it always goes down the middle -
very hard to direct to the corner. Of course if Lee Hughes or Tony Brown had taken it they could have done this but then they would have lamped it just below the crossbar, instead we had tippy-tappy. As per my post last week I have some concerns over young Mattocks who seemed somewhat ponderous, playing within himself, technically average, nervous and not looking like a class act, so let’s hope he was playing to orders and he improves at this new level for him. Richard Wright – always impressive, why on earth is he at Ipswich? I felt Martis had a very good game, anticipating and intercepting, one or two mistakes later on. Him and Dorrans cost us all of £180k to buy. Valero seemed somewhere else, which hopefully will prove the case shortly.
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The embryonic stages of RDM`s tenure look very promising.
The changes between the style of play of RDM and the previous encumbent is the thing that can ultimately make a huge difference.
We still play nice passing, pleasing on the eye football…….but in the right areas.
Another big change is the energy levels, everyone is now pressing the ball, as high up the pitch as is possible.
Whilst Mulumbu and RoKo were the stand out performers (£150,000 the pair) despite what some say, i thought it was a good performance by all concerned, and the critisizm of the two YOUNG fullbacks is somewhat baffling, give em a chance people, new club, new teamates, etc.
Finaly, does anyone agree with me that Ipswich were a dirty team ? For me they played in the image of their manager, watching Brunt Koren and Mattock come off with injuries could be a concern.
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Some excellent posts.
The criticism of Cummings I find mystifying. He’s a 20-year-old who’s never played at this level, yet for me he’s looked reasonably solid, lively and shown a lot of potential in the 2 games he’s played, what more do people want?
Mattock’s distribution has been a worry, but as a few people have said, he’s a 19-year-old England U21 international, he’s obviously got talent, give the lad a chance to get comfortable in his role.
Excellent point about pressing teams. We never did that under TM, often sat and let teams play. Mulumbu makes a world of difference, still the odd error but what a player he could be, MOM on Saturday for me.
Wood did well, but I don’t think he’ll fire us into the Premiership at 17, hopefully that’s where Roman Bednar comes into the equation!!
One more thing, Thomas. At Peterborough, was skill, skill and more skill. Could be another gem.
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