Sheffield Utd 2 Albion 2 – Verdict
Saturday 29th August 2009, 5:10PM BST.
Albion go top of the Championship despite letting three points slip from their grasp with a draw at Sheffield United.
Roman Bednar sealed a dream return from his drugs ban by scoring twice, but the Baggies were denied victory by David Cotterill’s late penalty.
The Czech Republic international scored twice in six second-half minutes and looked to have handed the visitors their third straight away win in the league.
Bednar was making his first Championship appearance since his three-month drugs ban, in place of the injured Chris Wood.
But Ched Evans drew the Blades level, between Bednar’s goals in an eventful spell around the hour-mark.
Just as the Baggies looked set to tough it out for a hard-fought three points, Shaun Cummings was penalised for a foul on Darius Henderson four minutes from time and Cotterill converted from the spot.
Albion held their own against a physical home side in a first half that was keenly contested, but failed to capture the imagination.
The Blades threatened, first when a mistake by Joe Mattock handed Evans possession, but his pull-back for Stephen Quinn was poor and Jonas Olsson cleared.
Keith Treacy was the biggest threat for the home side and his early cross from the left flank reached the far post, but Henderson headed a difficult chance straight at Scott Carson.
Albion broke immediately and Chris Morgan’s error allowed in Luke Moore but he scuffed his shot.
Baggies loanee Cummings blocked a Matthew Kilgallon shot, before breaking to the other end and teeing up Jerome Thomas.
But the winger, making his first start, saw his shot deflect to goalkeeper Mark Bunn.
Nine minutes before half-time Robert Koren curled a free-kick well wide for Albion, before Evans flashed a shot just off target from 20 yards for United.
But the game livened up in the second half, with Albion goalkeeper Carson saving well from Quinn and Youssouf Mulumbu firing just over, before Bednar put the Baggies in front.
He fed Cummings wide on the right then charged into the box to meet the full-back’s cross with a fine header past Bunn.
The lead lasted for just 90 seconds, before Jamie Ward cut in from the left for the Blades and saw his inswinging cross turned in from close range by Evans.
But Albion were ahead again on the hour as Bednar utilised all his power. He collected a long clearance from Carson just inside the box and wrestled his way past Andy Taylo,r before hammering a shot past Bunn.
United had a goal by Ward disallowed for offside, while Jonas Olsson shot wide from a Marek Cech free-kick.
But, when Cummings tussled with Henderson and referee Phil Crossley pointed to the spot, substitute Cotterill made no mistake.
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Well done BAGGIES good point .Wait till Roman gets fit.WE ARE TOP OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP.
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I know one area we haven’t spent enough this season: referees. Sheffield clearly had the edge there.
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Great result against the blades on their backyard roman is looking good the penalty was a little harsh on cummings but still unbeaten
Great draw in the cup watch out arsenal romans gonna gun you down
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at the beginning of the day i would have settled for the point but i think we were robbed by a poor show by the referee…everything went the home sides way and he seemed to book every albion player but never a utd player!
ah well… we are top of the league say we are top of the league. x
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Good commentary on Beacon with astute comments from Bomber Brown. Sad it wasn’t three points, but we would all have settled for a 2-2 draw before the match. I’ve just read the best bit of news for ages in The Times. Football clubs will have to balance their books within 3 years or else! This will bring wages down and give the best run clubs a chance. Now those brilliant mathemeticians who want JP to take us into debt will need a new ‘moaning topic’. The only worry I can see is that some clubs will up the entrance price even higher, at least until their attendances fall.
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Their player went down very easily for a big strong centre forward, a little inexperience from Cummings in giving him the opportunity but he will have learnt from it.
5 Cyril.
Very interesting and very overdue. A bit of sanity back in the game? Perhaps our day has come.
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good point after a poor 1st half from albion
2nd half much improved
bednar is like a new signing for us and will get better as he gets back to full fitness top and there to stay i hope
boing boing
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gutted that we daint come away with a win,the ref was about as good as the seating arrangments aye boing boing top of the league.
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….now wheres that petition again? ;-)
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about the softest penalty ive seen for a while.
but a good result none the less.
boing boing doing the italian job on the championship.
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The tickets Ibought were clearly marked with seat row @ block number but like the referree the stewarts were a shambles , saying take your pick fromthe block to the right instead of centre,needless to say that after many years i will not go to bramall lane again.
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Significant points after 7 cup and league matches.
1.Despite riding our luck at times the 1st.team looks better organised and more direct.
2.The 15 goals have been shared around.
3.Great to see a more ruthless streak with 15 yellows so far.Could be a problem later on in season.
4.Massive plus from Mulumbu and Dorrans and better form from Carson.
Summary. The current squad is easily the best in the Division but still short of Premier quality.
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Dunno about third officials and video technology, i reckon refs should get sky+ and use the slow-mo feature! Using it last nite i could clearly see it was a dive and never a penalty. ;-)
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you have to hand it to Bednar, two goals after returning from a three match ban is not to be sniffed at
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6.RBH. It will take a lot of courage by Platini to get it going but he has promised to do it. With any luck it will break the ‘Big 4 Stranglehold’ on the Prem and teams like Villa for one should benefit. We may take a little longer as we have to get back up there first. To my mind, the present situation where teams like Luton, Rotherham, get docked massive number of points, yet Man.Utd., Chelsea, Liverpool, owe hundreds of millions and get clean away with it is totally immoral. Arsenal I leave out of this because they only owe for the new stadium and the fans are the beneficiaries there.
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14. In theory it was a 3 MONTH ban but you are right, it’s brilliant especially as he looked so rusty a few days before. I wonder if we ought to check a few others who play a little ‘dreamily’ in some matches? I doubt Roman is the only bad-boy we could find. Walking in Wednesbury centre the other day, the smell of ‘burning grass’ was strong and nobody in that bus stop cared the bus had just gone!
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The authorities are demanding respect for referees, but when you witness a performance like that of Mr Crossley, then the respect campaign becomes a mockery.
It wasn`t a Rob Styles blatant favourtism/borderline bent performance, no, this bloke took incompetance and inconsistency to previously unsurpassed levels, so much so BOTH sets of fans booed him.
How can he book Koren for diving, out side of the box, and then intimate a dive by one of their players IN the box and let it go unpunished ? and leading to the penalty there was a push on one of our players that was no different to the one Cummings commited on Henderson.
Five Albion bookings to one for the Blades……come on, the most physical and attritional team in this division.
Before the game i would have been happy with a point, but felt cheated of two more at the end.
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you cant beat route 1 carson to bednar in the net aye boing boing hooooooooooooof
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Iam absolutly shocked with how good Roman Bednars
fitness is,our squad is looking really strong
now so I expect us to win the league,maybe we
needed an extra striker but remember how well we
played under Mowbray when Phillips and Miller
got injured and we went with 5 in midfeild
with Bednar up front.
best 18:
Carson,Zuiverloon,Martis,Olsson,Mattock,
Dorrans,Koren,Mulumbu,Brunt,Bednar,Moore.
Kiely,Jara,Cech,Valero,Thomas,Wood,Cox.
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All hail Roman “sniffers” Bednar, just the kind of centre forward we have been missing for 3 months lol.
I think him and Lukey Moore will be a great partnership for us.
Interesting how in 2 months RDM has addressed our defensive problems that TM ignored for 2 YEARS, great chance of going straight back up for us.
Maybe this year the dingles will stop up too.
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