West Bromwich Albion 0 - Fulham 0

Dave Watkin:

Albion are unlikely to have a better opportunity to pick up three points this season. We were comfortably the better of two poor sides in the first half before, in injury time, the visitors were reduced to 10 men. Unfortunately, after the break, we failed to make any impression against a team who once again used time wasting and foul play as their chief tactics.

Fortunately, all of our defenders were sound, meaning we were never seriously in danger of conceding a goal. However, once Kanu limped off midway through the second half, we lacked the guile to break down a stubborn defence. At that stage surely the pace of Earnshaw would have been a bigger threat than Horsfield, especially against defenders who were pushing up all the time. Only the hardworking and skilful Junichi Inamoto looked likely to create any goalscoring opportunities.

Overall, this was probably the worst game we've seen in the Premiership. I will struggle to pick out any highlights.

TEAM NEWS

Albion were unchanged from the last league game at the Riverside.

HIGHLIGHTS

Albion were camped in the Fulham half for much of the first period but failed to produce any direct shots on goal during open play.

Our two serious goal attempts were both from free kicks. After Kamara was fouled on the edge of the box, Nathan Ellington swung in a low shot which Crossley saved at full stretch. Then a long free kick from Neil Clement was headed across the area by Kamara to Kanu. The Nigerian's shot from point-blank range was well saved by the keeper but following up he bundled the ball over the line, only to find he'd been flagged offside for straying a foot ahead of the last defender. That second free kick had been given for a rash tackle by Boa Morte on Inamoto for which he was booked and when, in first half stoppage time, the same player hit Steve Watson with a late lunge, he was shown a second yellow card and sent-off.

We waited for Albion to take advantage of the 10 men after the break, but it never happened. Midway through the half Darren Carter came on for Kamara and then to the disappointment of the crowd Kanu limped off to be replaced by Geoff Horsfield. A neat flick from Inamoto did set up "The Horse" but on the turn his weak shot was easily saved.

At the other end the hard working Inamoto made a brilliant sliding tackle in the penalty area to dispossess Fulham danger man Malbranque.

Late on Rob Earnshaw was brought on for Greening, but he wasn't involved in the only other chance we created, when Ellington ran at the defence and shot low for the bottom corner bringing a regulation save from Crossley.

Remarkably, the only save I can recall Kuszczak making in the whole game, was actually from a tackle come back-pass by Curtis Davies.

ALBION FORMRATE : POOR

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH : JUNICHI INAMOTO

Jules:

I'm relieved more than anything that we got through this game without conceding, Fuham looked even less like scoring than the Albion but remember Wimbledon? Rotherham? Fulham away last season forthat matter. Fulham made it impossible to penetrate their penalty area, with tackles flying in from all players it wasn't a pretty sight. However we did keep them penned in their own half for most of the play, Fulham restricted to a few long range efforts - our defending wasn't too bad thinking about it.

But when they went down to 10 men Albion failed to take advantage, furthermore they got worse, passing was none-existant, if fulham couldn't tackle the ball off Albion, Albion would do their best to relinquish posession. Horsfield replaced an injured Kanu with 20 or so minutes left which completely removed our only attacking option - the few chances we had we created solely by the Nigerian by then. Earnshaw came on with 10 minutes to go but yet again this WAS NOT LONG ENOUGH. Robson says he's not going to let him go, prove it worth while keeping him and play him please, isn't that logical?

All in all it was a fair result because neither side really turned up. Not too dissapointing a result in this inconsistent season.

We miss Gera.

Be plenty of goals next week i'm sure.

Cuzer:

Shocking performance today, clueless!

All we had was the lump up front, this when they brought on 6ft 7" Zat Knight. Fulham were deep, showing little attacking intent so we take off both our wingers? Why oh why? Sure Kamara wasn't having the best of games but he has the ability to make something happen, once more Carter showed absolute zip in an Albion shirt. After his comical efforts on Wednesday amazed he made the bloody 16! Kanu was the only option we had to make something happen, once he went off it was game over. Watson should have gone CM, Wallwork off, three at the back and Kanu playing behind Earnie and Ellington, however we see Earnie on 83 mins, what's the bloke going to do in 7 minutes? The way results have gone today hopefully Cliff will see why today was a "must win" we never even looked likely!

Shocking, appalling, clueless, no heart, no desire, no guile......I'll leave the proper reports to those more talented, only ones to escape criticism are Ina, Ellington, Kanu, Robinson, Watson as for the rest, forget it!

Lord Charles:

As I walked out of Old Trafford on Wednesday night quietly seething I wondered what effect our non-performance would have on Today?s match. After the 3-1 defeat a Man Utd fan summed up the whole night. He said "The West Brom fans were great and helped make a fantastic atmosphere but what happened to the team? They never even tried; it was like a training match." Quite.

So, onto today when, my worst fears were confirmed. We were marginally better early on but the game got worse as it progressed. It took an hour to make Crossley make a save and by the time Steve Bennett had put us out of our misery by bringing it all to an end we had managed just one more effort.

Inamoto for me played too deep (although he was one of our better performers) and both Greening and Kamara created little. Kamara frustrated the life out of me but my frustration turned to anger when he was replaced by Darren Carter. How Carter keeps getting in the squad is beyond me and I can only feel sympathy for Chaplow who never seems to get a chance. Carter, who somehow survived 90 minutes at Old Trafford carried on where he left off where he seemed to give the ball away continually and was totally ineffective - Steve Bruce must have been having a laugh!

Fulham?s defence must have howled with laughter when Horsfield (I?m always off-side) arrived on the scene. So, we ended the game with a Horse and Cart in the line-up which was appropriate given the tripe we had to endure. I can understand why Earnshaw is frustrated; he was given just 7 minutes today and was only introduced at Old Trafford when the game had been lost. I would like to be positive but that was the worst game of football I have seen for a long time. I suppose you could say that at least we didn?t lose and another positive was that Boa Morte, who is a dirty little sod got what he should have had in all three of our last three games with Fulham; a red card.

My mate summed it up at the final whistle when he said... "This will bring the crowds back".

Pete Cottrell:

I was going to write a report on the Fulham match, but then realised that there was nothing to write about. It was like eating cold unsalted mashed potato, washed down with luke-warm water, watching a blank televison screen, listening to Coldplay...

Any half-decent ref would have stopped the contest after an hour and the management would have given us our money back - preferably deducting it from the wages of Robson, Pearson, Kamara, Greening and Horsfield. If the match was a horse, they would have shot it.

Worst I've seen Inamoto play, but he still shaded MoM ahead of Davies and Kanu [7 points each]. Kamara, Greening and Horsfield were utter crap [3 points each]. The rest somewhere in between.

paulie:

pete, watching that crap was even worse than listening to coldplay... more like listening to james blunt, while watching a freshly painted wall drying, followed by a compilation of trevor francis anecdotes.

i did not bother to renew my season ticket (mainly due to the cost) so i pick and choose my games.... jees, do i pick em!!!

did kamara actually beat a single man the whole time he was on the field? what a fairy that bloke is. the african nations cup can't come soon enough for me... let's hope he stays there.

Brendan Clegg:

I was pretty pissed off having spent the money and taken the time off work to go to Old Trafford only to see such a negative team selection so I was pleased to hear all the changes, my only gripe being Watson at right back instead of Albrechtson. Watto is great on the ball and solid but I was worried about his lack of pace against Boa Morte and also thought we'd need Albrechtson's pace and overlapping runs to break Fulham down. I think I was probably right having seen the game.

We started well and were doing ok, looking solid and getting into decent situations but lacking the killer touch. Voltz played Kamara very well so you have to give credit but I thought having two wingers who can play either side would mean Kamara and Greening switching to see if Joe could get any joy on the other flank as all this game needed was for something to come off once. If we'd got a goal I think winning would have been a formality.

Instead of switching the wingers Robbo took off Kamara for Carter (if anyone went to Old Trafford they'd be amazed he even made the squad) which is just a defensive and negative substitution. I'm not really going to knock Carter as I don't think he is comfortable playing wide left. He's a centre midfielder (although the jury is still very out on if he's good enough) so in that respect it's the same as putting Ronnie W out on the right wing simply because he's right footed- I'm sure if Robbo did that we'd all think he was crazy!

Just couldn't understand the point in that substitution at all and as soon as Joe was off so was Voltz for the towering Zat Knight. Well done on that one Robbo.

At this point I was just thinking get Alby on to try and get round the back with some pace, either a straight swap for Watto or rejig anyone from Greening, Walwork & Watto to get him on whilst retaining a bit of quality on the ball. Never happened.

When Kanu took a kick too many I thought we'd see Earnie come on which would at least give us so extra pace. The Horse took his track suit off to the chorus of "Feed the Horse he'll be off side". 20,000 people know this statement to be fact but Robbo just can't see it.

Have we ever scored a goal with Horse & Duke as a partnership? Can't remember if we have.

I can only recall Earnie & Duke playing up front together for longer than 10 minutes once, our demolition of Bradford. Why not give it a go? What does the Horse bring us going forward? I understand you might want him to come on in an away game if we're up against it but at home against ten men? Bizarre.

Finally Earnie came on for our only wide player left on the pitch, removing all chance of using the extra man. For 6 minutes or so. What was the point? What do you expect him to do?

We have to win this sort of game if we wish to stay in this league. I'm not knocking the players today - Robbo you got this one very very wrong. Pearson.. Are you a moron? Did you suggest these subs? If not couldn't you see what was going to happen?

The squad looks ok to me, probably good enough to stay up... The management are a real concern.

• Pole- 6. Nothing to do. Poor kicking but decent handling today.
• Robbo- 8. Did everything he could to get us going. Couple of stray passes but otherwise top.
• Davies- 7. Coming on really well. A couple of pointless hoofs but I'm very happy with him.
• Clement- 7. Won most stuff in the air. Couple of over hit passes but if a midfielder wanted the ball he would pass to them.
• Watto- 7. Good game. Nice on the ball. Nothing going forward.
• Kamara- 6. Didn't beat his man once but pace is a threat. Some decent set pieces. Shouldn't have been taken off.
• Ina - 6. Very in and out. Got lost in the 2nd half but neat and tidy.
• Wallwork - 6. Steady 6. Playing much better now but should have influenced the game more when we were a man spare.
• Greening - 6. Always has to beat his man 3 or 4 times before hitting the ball against the first defender. Again it only needs one to come off though so did alright.
• Kanu - 8. Boa Morte was allowed 4 kicks at him before he finally was sent off. Simply our best player today.
• Duke -7. Strong, held it up well but not given any through balls or decent crosses to work with. Touch gets better with every game.
• Carter- 4. Why?
• Horse- 4. Why? And coaches please teach him the offside rule.
• Earnie 4. Why so late? Did he have a touch?

Des:

One F in Fulham

And that particular effer was Boa Morte. Not only is this guy one of the most cynically dirty players in the greed league, he also put paid to us winning yesterday by getting sent off. It was clear that Chris Coleman, one of the most talented managers in the prem IMO, had given a half time team talk along the lines of "what we have we hold". He is quoted this morning as saying that it was the best Fulham have defended in years. As soon as Coleman set out these tactics a bore draw was a nailed on certainty.

The first half had been quite entertaining, with everyone turning in a reasonable performance, maybe with the exception of Kamara. What annoys me most about Joey is the way he always bottles a 50:50 challenge, even losing challenges where the odds are stacked in his favour, out of sheer cowardice. Kamara is the other end of the bravery spectrum to Robinson who would run across no mans land into the face of machine gun fire if it was necessary to win a tackle. Have we ever had a braver player wearing a striped shirt?? Anyway up until Boa Morte went off it seemed to me that both teams were trying to win the game and could win the game. The result was a reasonable first half, withh Albion playing particularly well for the first half hour.

Then there was the red card and over a pint at half time I said to my brother "we always play s**t against ten men" You didn't need to be Mystic Meg to predict what was going top happen next. The second half was absolutely desperate, a really shocking affair. The sort of game where you think how much money and how much time has it cost me to be sitting here watching this shite, life is just too short. (It was made all the worse by some tosser behind me continually using the C word despite the fact there were young girls and ladies of a mature age within ear-shot. Mate, if you are reading this, the biggest c*** in the Hawthorns yesterday was you)

The situation was made for Kanu, Kamara and Greening, players with the speed wit and guile to get behind a packed defence. Kanu went off injured. Kamara decided he would adopt the persona of a truly hopeless, cowardly footballer. Also why do we allow this guy to take wide free kicks, he just hits them low and hard into a defender. He should never be allowed to take another free kick IMO. Fulham were bright enough to make sure greening got jumped by two defenders everytime he got the ball, something Greening just couldn't cope with.

What was incredibly disapointing was the hopeless distribution from the back. Clement was really bad, on more than one occasion sitting comfortably with the ball on the half way line, he just blasted it past everyone and out for a goal kick. Davies was as bad, but we've come to expect useless passing from this lad. Watson also wasted more than one good chance to get the strikers away.

I thought Ina and Wallwork had good games in the middle. The best about yesterday however was Ellington's performance. He held the ball well and used it intelligently, I only counted him losing it to a fulham defender once. IMO he played better yesterday than he did against Everton when he scored two goals.

No complaints about Robbo's team selection. Also understood the Horse being brought on, to try and hold the ball and bring in the midfield on the attack. It's not Robson's fault he is such a clueless fecker that he doesn't understand the off-side trap. Taking Kamara off, who was playing shite, also was the right thing to do IMO. However I would have taken Davies off instead of Greening with 15 minutes to go and played 3-4-3, as by then Fulham were only interested in defending. All in all a frustrating day at the office, the only bright thing you can say about it is we have now gome three prem' matches without losing.

nick wood:

I am beginning to believe I have the evil eye, since I have now seen Albion fail to score in the last 5 Premier League games I have watched. And to be honest it will be more than that before I see my next goal if we don't play with more wit and creativity than yesterday. If we spent 3 million quid on Earnshaw then at least let's try and get our money's worth from him before flogging him to a Championship side in January and give him more than 10 minutes in a match weeping for someone with a little nouse. (If we do flog Earnie any chance we could chuck in Wallflower and a bag of gobstoppers as well?)

AJ-B:

Well for those of us who have followed the baggies over the years, we should really expect there to be a totally negativeley boring game at least twice in a season - this game was one of those. Maybe the whole team had a 'communal' dip in their bio-rhythms, there certainly was no passion or flair displayed. Also Fulham are a noted band of 'spoilers', with cynical challenges in all departments, this was never going to be pretty. Sad thing is though, with the exception of Gera, this was arguably our best team, but we had no-one who had the nouse as to how to break down the ultra defensive wall Fulham put up - especially in the second half whilst they were playing with 10 men. Why oh why do we continue to hike long balls down the middle? All we played all game was these hideous 'up & unders', sadly Eddie Waring is no longer with us to appreciate this style of kicking. Why did we not play the ball on the deck, down the flanks & stretch their defence? Only Inamoto displayed any quality at all as once again he was our best player by a country mile, the cheeky back heel to put Horsefield through was superb, sadly it went to a non-striker, Horse is back to his best sitter-missing form of last season as he put the ball straight into the 'keepers waiting hands. This apart from an Ellington free kick first half were our only 2 strikes that the keeper had to deal with all game.

My thoughts were in second half why did we not bring on Earnie & operate with 3 strikers & use pace to spread their defence? Also why were Greening & Kamara not swapped over, as I feel sure 'Jesus' would have had the run around of the poor Fulham right back, Kamara although pacey was not up to it & never once beat his man, maybe if he swapped sides with Greening he could have been more positive. Also I worry about the poor distribution out of defence, Curtis Davies is developing into a fine defender, but his passing is awful, does not bring the ball out of defence & play probing forward balls, instead his only option seems to pass it square to Watson & occasionally to Clem. Thomas Gaardsoe at least does have the ability to create attacking movements with his passing out of defence. Clem also hardly got a pass on target, overhitting balls consistantly. He also lost too many heading duels with a very liveley McBride, who for me was a constant danger. Robsons choice of substitutions was again poor, how Carter got on the bench is an amazing statistic, whats happened to Chaplow?

Anyway, at least we did not lose, as the game neared its dreary end it seemed Fulham were more likeley to score than us with big Papa Diop always a threat. We need all departments working hard & to the best of their abilities if we are to beat Man City next week, we cannot afford a defeat that is for sure.

MY PLAYER REVIEW:

• KUSZCZAK: Had very little to do, not troubled but thought he would liven things up by passing out to Davies I think it was, only for the ball to be played closer to an opposing forward! maybe Tomaz wanted some action!
• WATSON: Not one of his better days, on the ball he was OK but his passing was really poor at times & he got outpaced too easily.
• DAVIES: Defensiveley he was excellant, especially when he was left stranded in a one to one against Boa Morte, he gave not one inch of ground & forced the forward wide until help arrived, this was world class defending. Sadly, as mentioned, his passing is a big weak point he must work on.
• CLEMENT: Did OK, missed out on many heading duels against McBride, overhit too many long balls but was never in any real danger.
• ROBINSON: Much better game than against Middlesbro' & Man United in midweek. Capitulated Fulham right back Volz who cynically went after Robbo, the mid air collision that resulted, left the Fulham guy in some pain, whilst Robbo just got up & walked away!
• GREENING: Another 'in & out' display, when he crosses early he does damage, but why does he have to repeat his 'one trick' dribble upteen times & then fluffs his cross?
• WALLWORK: Paddled around in his usual laid back style, never extrovert, made a few poor passes & missed too many tackles. Did not seem to be able to create much.
• INAMOTO: Another STAR MAN showing, by far the best midfielder we have & maybe is our best all round player.
• KAMARA: The worst I have seen him play, could not beat his full back once, pulls out of too many 60-40 challenges even, in HIS favour! Maybe he would have done better swapping wings ith Greening.
• KANU: Not one of his better days, got caught up in too many tussels, at times tried knitting legs! with his markers. Was given harsh treatment by Fulham, should have earned a penalty when he got sandwiched in the first half.
• ELLINGTON: Did not get anything like good service, only real attempt on goal was from a free kick that was easily saved, worked hard though.

SUBS:

• HORSEFIELD: Replaced Kanu, don't ask me why, a poor choice this.
• CARTER: Replaced Kamara, again don't ask me why, another even poorer choice this, did nothing at all constructive.
• EARNSHAW: Yet another 10 minute 'cameo' again don't ask me why, should have come on at half time alongside Ellie & Kanu, we needed to ATTACK the negative Fulhame side, not sympathise by being negative too!!!

UNUSED SUBS:

• HOULT: I wonder why???????
• ABRECHTSEN: Again I wonder why, this time I am being serious rather than flippant, he should have replaced somebody, even be used as an out & out winger, especially in the last 20 or so minutes to TRY to get a winning result.

BRYAN ROBSON: Reverted back to the starting line up thet has done really well in recent league games, however he is letting negativity rule, we were at home, we NEEDED 3 points, second half he did not implement any tactical nouse that could have succeeded, his substitutions were really very poor. We now need to win next week as yet again we are unable to get a win from teams around us in the league, POSITIVE thinking please Mr Robson.

Kev Buckley:

Just when you thought it was gone forever ... It's back.

No, no, no, not The Liquidator, but the aimless route one football we played around the last time it's strains were heard. The centre-back, here it was Clement, rolls it into midfield, the midfield pass it sideways, wide man passes it back to them, the midfield lay it back to Clement, and Clement punts for field position towards the forwards, only we no longer have the pace and sheer bloody minded drive of Lee Hughes but the target is now Ellington, a player who already only looks decent with the ball at his feet as opposed to chasing seemingly lost causes down "the channels". And let's all face it, most of Clement's deliveries were lost causes from the moment they left his boot.

And if Gregan, Moore and Gilchrist had come on in the second half to take up their places in a "slow but solid back five" when the first notes of the Harry J tune floated across the air, well there'd have been a good few folk scratching their heads, wondering what year it was, and no mistake. You thought those days were gone: but their memory lives on!

The bookies, we are always told, are supposed to know a thing or two about the markets they create the books for and so I found it most interesting to read the first-goal odds on the back of the programme: for some reason you could get 33-1 on Scimeca scoring yet on Steve Watson, there wasn't even a price ! And to compound the agony of seeing those odds completely justified out on the pitch, Albrechtsen, the only full-back at the club who looks anything like going forwards was out at 50-1. They do like to tease you, bookmakers, don't they.

After the game Robson said that he thought that, whilst, quite rightly to his mind, the fans would criticise the way his players lost their patience and resorted to the long ball, they would probably forget the first-half - well he's right there, and pretty forgettable it was too. I managed to catch the second half of Worcester vs Hudderfield and aside from the dreadful state of the pitch, it might have been misaken for highlights of our match at times.

Fulham showed the away form that they've shown most of the season, awful, whilst Albion's slick passing from the Everton game, though only after the pen, and from the first half of the Boro match was little in evidence.

Kanu looked the biz again and at least Inamoto, who for me went missing second half against Boro, got into the game enough to draw countless fouls from a Fulham side obvioulsy content to keep the ball as far away from their goal as possible, by conceeding free-kicks in the middle third and double teaming the man on the ball.

I am sure I read somewhere that they way to defeat such tactics is to play with width and try and create one-on-one situations well up the field. Sadly we had zip-all width from the full backs, a left winger, Kamara, who seemed unable to show the ball to the defender without giving it away on a plate and the enigma of Greening, certainly crossing the ball better today than at Boro but not exactly staying all that wide all that often.

Of course, with Fulham losing a man just before half time as their niggardly tactics finally cost them, and haven't they become a pale shadow of the side that Coleman played in under Tigan when they took the second tier by storm with some glorious football, we all expected to see a second forward, presumably the pacier of the two on the bench, to come on to play off Kanu's passing and make the most of the extra man: what we actually got was another dose of The Liquidator and a sorry reminder of the long-ball football last associated with it.

Horsefield shot straight at the keeper ... err ... that's it.

BRE Baggies:

First 60 mins were good and then Kanu went and we did nothing. Take away the wingers and we played the long ball for half hour which was just rubbish. Shows we have no plan B and looks as if the 2 months where Kanu and Kamara are out we are going to be left helpless unless Gera can come back and still keep his form and Greening can get last years form back. Don't blame Horsefield or Greening for this because Greening played okay first half but faded second and Hosefield did everything he could with the long ball game being played.

Ratings:

• The Pole: Had nothing to do
• Watson: Great first half but had nothing to do second half really. He is an older player so dont really expect him to run the wings like Action man.
• Robinson: Was rusty first few games back from suspension but played better today. Not to much to do mind.
• Davies: Looking good and although sometimes he looks like he wants to play up front he is a good defender. One of the better players today.
• Clement: Played okay and did everything he needed to do.
• Inamoto: Very good and was the best player second half.
• Wallwork: Very good first half but got a bit slopy second half. Someone tell him to shoot when in front of goal though because he seems to freeze when getting the ball in the box.
• Kamara: Worst game for us so far. Seemed to lose all confidence from his good start to the season.
• Greening: Played okay first half but faded. Not the same player as last year although not as bad as some one here have said.
• Kanu: First half was the best player on the pitch and when he got injured we fell to pieces. When he is gone in january for 2 months we are in trouble.
• Ellington: Good first half and is better on the ball than Earnshaw. Faded when we played the long ball game.

Subs:

• Carter: Rubbish. They were right when they said you don't know what to expect from him, good one minute, crap the next. Not consistent enough to play every game and seems more of a cm than a lm.
• Earnshaw: Not enough time to make any impact and besides - did he have any chance with the long ball game?
• Horsfield: Offside most of the time but blaming him for the loss is just plain daft. When he came on we played long ball and he won headers. What else can he do with such a boring and useless (accept for Bolton) tactic.

I think we don't have enough to survive this year. Us pompey and Sunderland for the drop. Without Richardson or Kanu we are back to not having a tactic and unless something happens in january or Gera becomes even better then we are going down. Hope Robson has a secret weapon somwhere.