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Albion 3 Reading 1
Saturday 17th October 2009, 5:25PM BST.
Jerome Thomas returned from suspension to inspire Albion to a stirring comeback as they saw off Reading at the Hawthorns.
The winger was back almost a month after his red card shame at Arsenal and Thomas struck twice as the Baggies fought back from behind to win.
The victory was sealed by Youssouf Mulumbu’s stunning late volley. They were punished for a slow start when Matthew Mills rose unmarked at a free-kick to head Reading into a seventh-minute lead.
But Thomas seized on a Jobi McAnuff howler and ran half the length of the pitch to draw the home side level.
The Baggies then began to dominate and they deserved the lead that Thomas gave them on 65 minutes, when the wide man ended a quick break with a darting run and smart low finish.
Albion suffered an early blow when Roman Bednar fell awkwardly after just six minutes and was stretchered off holding his back to be replaced by Chris Wood.
It got worse for the home side a minute later when they switched off at a set-piece and were punished with the opening goal.
Brian Howard’s free-kick to the far post found the unmarked Mills, who planted a downward header past the helpless goalkeeper Scott Carson.
Albion struggled to increase the tempo although they fashioned a couple of half-chances, the best of which fell to Thomas, who cut in from the left and saw his low shot well saved by goalkeeper Adam Federici, although the officials inexplicably awarded a goal-kick.
But the Baggies were level just before the half-hour, as the visitors gifted them the chance to equalise.
A poor backpass by Jobi McAnuff was seized upon by Thomas, who sprinted clear from halfway and rounded Federici before defeating Shaun Cummings in a foot-race and scoring from close range.
Albion should have led seven minutes after half-time when Joe Mattock overlapped on the left and his hanging cross found Wood, whose shot on the turn at the far post was blocked brilliantly by Federici.
Marek Cech should twice have handed the Baggies the lead around the hour mark.
The Slovakia international fired over the bar after Thomas’s shot was saved by Federici and was denied by the goalkeeper moments later, as Cech tried to turn in a Luke Moore centre.
But the home side would not be denied and they broke from a goal-kick to take the lead.
A quick series of passes ended with Wood’s diagonal ball finding Thomas and the winger powered away from Cummings before poking a low shot past Federici.
The goalkeeper then produced a brilliant high save to deny Cech for a third time but he could nothing to keep out Mulumbu’s shot, which dipped over him from 20 yards after Graham Dorrans’ cross was half-cleared.
Dorrans almost topped Mulumbu’s goal with a wonderful dipping shot from the halfway line, which Federici backpedalled brilliantly to tip over.
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Im sure it was 3-1 or was my eyes deceiving me but u managed to get the wolves score right and he scored in 88 min no bias please boing boing
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I was at the game, I could of swore the result was 3-1. Typical Dingle rag (headline reads Albion 2 Reading 1)
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Headline fixed now. Everyone around me in the Smethwick thought it was Moore who scored the first!
Also no mention of the clearcut penalty we were denied?
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Great result back in the 1st position after a shaky start, well done lads, keep the momentum up on Tuesday.
C’mon you baggies !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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That was impressive performnace and win put distance between us and another team that will be challenging not sure how many performances Thomas has like that in him though
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impressed with JARA, centre defence though? i think he is abit to small to play there though.
oh can we get a new keeper please? scott is always glued to his line and makes simple passes the hardest thing to do.
is it me or does his heart not seem to be in the club???
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Great result and we showed some real backbone to come come back from an early goal. Thomas proved that our poor results whilst he was suspended were no coincidence…. just hope Bednar aint out too long now (if so, do we need to look at a loan signing up front ???)
Newcastle lost at Forest which now puts us TOP OF THE LEAGUE….. and I bet we still get posters moaning about RDM and the team…..
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A great result particulary in light of the terrible start we made and the disrupting loss of Bednar.
Why do we always give teams a goal start at the Hawthorns? Couldv’e been a very different game had Reading taken a great chance to 2-0 in front, i thought we only got in our stride after about 40 mins.
Jerome Thomas was superb throughout and head and shoulders above everyone else on the pitch, it was also good to see Tex back with a lively cameo – Steve Bruces’ man of the match?!
Can we at least score 1st against swansea on tues please? ;-)
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well it wont be me moaning mate!
Cant stand snarking save it for youtube.
Up the Baggies and Robby, the coolest manager in the world!
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I think Carson needs a reality check – he is simply not good enough to play in the Top Flight (ask Villa or the La La’s) so it ain’t going to get any better than playing for the club who currently top the Championship !
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nice to get back to winning ways, Swansea next up, they don’t score many but are 5 games unbeaten and home beat Preston & Sheff Utd at home in that run.
do like the way we are spreading the goals around the team, but when will the silly goals stop !!!!!!
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panic over,normal service resumed,bring another half decent striker in and we will walk this league,bring on the swans,aye boing boing
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I thought Mulumbu had a fantastic game (again) and probably pipped Thomas and Jara for MOTM let’s get him on a long term contract before the vultures start circling.
I think Jara played CH because of the midweek internationals. Jara said he felt fine after the travelling, I think you get jet-lag going in the other direction.
Doesn’t Jara look a Rolls Royce of a player? Seems to have so much time on the ball.
Stayed up til about half twelve to watch our highlights on Saturday night and then what happened? Damn if I didn’t blink and missed it altogether. Still I did see yet more extended highlights of Newcastle (again) surprise, surprise.
In view of the size of the crowd on Saturday and we’ll see what we get tomorrow night, perhaps not rebuilding to a 40,000 capacity ground wasn’t the worse decision in the current financial climate. Wolves are having trouble selling out in the Prem. There’s nothing worse than going to games in a half empty stadium, for the fans and the players.
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Great result with 10 men…okay, he did do a few things…10.5 then. How many Villa rejects make it into a top of the table team; answers to JP, please. Why am I negative today?
We were outplayed for first 20 minutes by an average team. Take Thomas out of the picture and what are we left with – two strikers out of their depths. Neither has great ball control and are poor decision makers. Sorry, we got lucky Saturday and I believe “support” includes being honest – otherwise one is no better than the Dangles or should that be Dingles?
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Great result, and a great game to watch. Its really good to see the flowing football back, even if it did take a while to get into our stride. I wonder if Reid might get a shot at his prefferred position of centre forward with romans injury. I thought Jara was immense in the heart of defense, it is his national position, and for me he offerred a stability as well as excellent distribution turning defense into attack in a flash, keep it up
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I thought we started off badly against a battling Reading team who appeared quicker to everything early doors. However it was great to see the boys win the battle to be able to play their football and dominate, particularly in the second half.
I am a little concerned though that our strikers are not scoring. Luke Moore played reasonably well but as ususal never really looked like scoring. He is so frustrating, as he always seems to come up just short.
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great result,great 2nd half,mulumbu is something special a great performance as was jara.little concerned up front we do need an extra striker in asap..but the team on a whole are looking good,welcome back thomas superb game…GOING UP THE DI MATTEO WAY,,IN STYLE OF COURSE,,OOOOOOOOOOH YES..
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More stupid comments from Baggiebob [ 14 ] . As we have scored far more goals than any other team except Cardiff it does’nt suggest a problem in the striking department does it ? . RDM points out that Chris Wood’s compusure in front of goal will improve with experience but he still forced a great save from their keeper and contibuted to the third goal. Luke Moore is coming back from injury and will improve as his match sharpness returns. Reading in case you hadn’t noticed Bob have one of the best away records in the league and play to a regimented system. It maybe took a little while to fathom a way to combat that system but once they did they dominated the game. Good players and coaches think about the game and I think that what you should do Bob – Think a little more before you publish anymore tripe.
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after a dire 1st half, thelads took the game by the scruff of the neck and wroung out a great result and if it wasnt for their keeper we could have doubled our score line. the midfield players upped their game so much so that they were unreconiseable from the first half. mulumbu, dorrans were fantastic along with thomas they are begining to show dividends.5/10 1st half, 9/10 2nd.it goes to show that when we get the ball down and start passing it we really are a force to be feared.
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Guys noticed how many times Newcastle are on Sky between now & end of December. How many times is the No1, the entertaining, the goal scoring team on just the once v QPR.
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20 Forever.
I alluded to this earlier. The BBC, our ‘national’ broadcasting service are managing to give us less airtime now than when we were in the Prem. They have no interest in football but are obsessed with what they see as PL big boys.
18 Robin.
Excellent post, hope you’re right. I’ve come to the defence of LM in the past. He is so frustrating, seems to have all the attributes to be top class but I was watching him on Saturday and he seemed to be a couple of seconds behind in reacting to things. Anyway, I for one won’t be getting on his back.
Sad to see David Burnside has passed away. I didn’t see him play for us but knew of his reputation.
I think he played against us for Wolves in 1967. They’d just got promoted and were playing us at Molineaux early in the season. I used to go to away games with my mates and we would tag along with the Smethwick Mob for added security. None of my mates were going, I think they were still on holiday. The SM used to go on the train and as they would invariably wreck it on the way back and there was every chance of getting arrested, I gave it a miss, I’d just started work and didn’t fancy losing my job.
Two mates from school were going and said come with us on the coach, we keep well away from trouble. I accepted the kind invitation. These well meaning morons took me into the North Bank, insisting it was where the Albion fans would be. As it was their first season back in the first division it was packed well past the rafters, they could do it in those days because of the standing. We were 3-1 down with six minutes left but scored two late goals, cue a little disappointment from the locals. We were stuck in the middle of thousands of Wolves fans, all swearing homicide against any Albion. I had my scarf stuffed down the sleeve of my jumper and was trying to look as angry as everyone else when all I wanted to do was jump up and down, shouting my head off. Eventually we got back to the coach, God knows how, after one of the scariest and uncomfortable nights of my life. This was the during the ‘good old days’ of football hooliganism, it’s the only thing I don’t miss about those days.
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