Albion 0 Swansea 1 - analysis

A defeat brought about by one of the primary laws of football – that discarded former players will return to score against you – cost the Baggies the chance to restore a little daylight between themselves and the rest of the field.

Swansea's rising reputation for flowing football amid the Championship scramble was confirmed by an impressive performance and Craig Beattie's fine, match-winning goal after 50 minutes.

On a night when Albion struggled to dominate their opponents, Beattie's big moment strangely came against the run of play but the truth is that Robert Di Matteo's team perfectly mirrored the supporters' struggle to rouse themselves for battle.

This is not surprising. There cannot be a set of fans more familiar with the challenge of reaching the Premier League from the second tier and it would be unreasonable not to expect the Baggies faithful to be suffering from Championship fatigue.

This is the fifth time they have been on this course in the Noughties during which they have pretty much experienced the entire range of emotions and frustrations.

There was the sheer, undiluted joy of Gary Megson's first unexpected triumph and the grinding, gruelling efficiency of his second; then came that mish-mash of the Robson-Mowbray season, ending of course in play-off final disappointment, before the goal-spangled march to the title under Di Matteo's predecessor.

No wonder, then, that this new campaign is struggling to fire the imagination of fans sufficiently versed in the marathon of the Championship to know it is best to reserve the thunder until the deciding days of March, April and May.

Until then, it is all about the steady accumulation of points which despite this and other recent setbacks has been conducted well enough to leave the team still top of the division.

Much was made of the goal spread around Di Matteo's side as Albion got off to that splendid start but there have occasionally been times when the lament for the trio of strikers who fired the side to the title two years ago has risen above the acclaim for the midfielders and defenders who have been scoring.

Oh what Albion would have done last night to have had SuperKev to call on or even a fit Ishmael Miller and/or Roman Bednar.

For while there was much to admire about their play, particularly in a second-half spell when a five-strong midfield fizzed the ball about admirably, turning that into a coherent goal threat at the business end of the pitch eluded the side and left you aching for the players who repeatedly pulled games such as this out of the fire for Mowbray.

This only served to remind us of Di Matteo's caution about the inexperience of Chris Wood, who took up target-man duties in Bednar's absence, and renewed struggle of Luke Moore to regain the promise of his opening weeks of the campaign before a knee injury took the wind out of his sails.

Di Matteo tried everything he could to find a solution. On came a lively and clearly determined Filipe Teixeira and Robert Koren at the interval, replacing Moore and Marek Cech in a response to the midfield control Swansea had established before the break and one which certainly gave Albion plenty of possession.

The head coach then finished the night with a three-man back-line and a two-man spearhead as Simon Cox launched another attempt to get his Albion career into forward momentum.

As luck would have it, no sooner was Cox on the pitch then he was played clear after Graham Dorrans and Youssouf Mulumbu had hunted down Darren Pratley to win back possession.

It was one of the rare moments of intensity Albion were able to produce and every Hawthorns fan prayed for the break Cox needs as he moved into an angled shooting chance on the right-hand side of the area. But he pulled his effort wide by a foot or two and Albion were never able to again craft such a clear opportunity to retrieve the game, save for some last-ditch scrambling which saw Wood glance an injury-time effort just wide after Jonas Olsson had been sent forward in desperation.

And the reality is that they were grateful to Scott Carson for keeping them in such close contention because Swansea were the more threatening team.

Carson produced an amazing, goal-line stop from an Ashley Williams header, grabbing the rebound before the disbelieving Swansea defender could follow up, and then got his positioning right to defy the same player when Albion's marking proved equally deficient from another corner.

In between times, they were cut apart by the slickest of moves which finished with Cedric Van Der Gun wasting a wonderful opportunity with Carson at his mercy with a dreadful miscue.

Albion's sole threat of the first period had been a volley from Wood just a little high as he moved in on a flighted pass from Gonzalo Jara – amid the frustrations of this result, the continuing excellence of this newcomer must provide at least some compensation for supporters.

But just when it seemed Di Matteo's half-time changes had returned control back to Albion, Swansea broke away to benefit from a kind ricochet, a well-placed pass by Mark Gower and then a finish from Beattie which painfully reminded the Hawthorns why their former manager felt the Scot had a chance in English football.

The threat of Jerome Thomas on one side and Teixeira on the other hinted, rather than promised, a response from Albion but despite arriving in any number of threatening positions, a conclusive final ball could not be found.

Instead, it was Carson who needed to make the most testing save of the second half when he flipped a goalbound effort from substitute Thomas Butler onto his far post.

By Martin Swain.