Albion Sporting Star columnist Neil Whitehouse saw bad memories rush back after another another game file under the ‘what if’ in the Carling Cup this week.

Looking back at Tuesday night’s game at Arsenal and, although the result went against us,  it was great to see us play our part in a tie that was a good advert for the much-maligned Carling Cup.

It was my first visit to the Emirates and I have to say it is the most impressive stadium in the country, and for me that includes Wembley.

Secondly, our away following was again absolutely top drawer and – although we were outnumbered by a ratio of 10 to 1 – we more than held our own in terms of noise generation compared to the Londoners.

It was unfortunate that a highly entertaining game was spoilt as a contest when Albion winger Jerome Thomas got his marching orders for what looked little more than a petulant push, rather than a ‘lashing out’ as it was described in some quarters.

Although Jack Wilshere went way over the top with his reaction to the slap, the referee had little or no option but to brandish the red card because of the intent shown by Jerome.

Up to that point, I thought we looked more than capable of continuing our unbeaten start to the season but lost much of our attacking momentum after going down to 10 men. It was good to see us create some good goalscoring opportunities during the opening exchanges and Simon Cox can count himself unfortunate not to have added to his solitary goal tally for the season.

He continues to show plenty of effort and movement but at the moment, he looks a little short of the composure required to score goals at the higher level and the longer his search for goals goes on, the more he is likely to snatch at the chances that come his way.

Perhaps he needs a couple of reserve outings to get back on the goal trail. Arsenal’s young bucks showed that there is plenty of talent still rolling out of their finishing school, but the game also provided evidence that Graham Dorrans looked more than comfortable in their company as he again starred in our midfield.

He seems to get better with every game and is certainly behind most of our attacking ploys. Gonzalo Jara also showed up well on his debut and he certainly looks as if he likes a tackle. I liked the way he got close to his man throughout the game and he could prove to be another shrewd signing.

As the game entered the final third, their one man advantage started to show as we were forced to chase the ball more and more. Their goals were typical of the type we know Arsenal are capable of creating but I am sure Leon Barnett will be disappointed that he didn’t make a clearance for their second.

For me, the defeat brought back the frustrations and memories of a good proportion of last season’s Premier League reversals that were filed under the ‘what if’ category.

But we can now forget cup football until January and concentrate on showing the rest of the Championship are table topping credentials.