Manchester United 3 - West Bromwich Albion 0

Dave Watkin:

A belated Merry Christmas to you all coupled with hopes for a Happy New Year at the Hawthorns.

The match turned on an incident just before the half hour mark when Paul Robinson was knocked unconscious. Up until this point a well organised Albion team were holding United, but minutes after the game restarted. A home player raced through the gap left by the missing influential defender to set up the opening goal.

Earlier the leniency of referee Clattenburg had benefited United, as O'Shea was insufficiently punished for both chopping down Albrechtsen as he was breaking clear and then bringing down Greening. The first foul was both violent and cynical, borderline red, definite yellow, but received simply a finger wagging.

The Albion team was below full strength and realistically unlikely to pick up points from the fixture, but the two incidents outlined above certainly didn't help.

Martin Albrechtsen edges the man-of-the-match award, but Ronnie Wallwork and Steve Watson (before he was moved to replace Robinson) both worked very hard in the centre of midfield and Nathan Ellington threatened on occasions in the lone striker role.

In truth however, for whatever reason, we failed to show sufficient enterprise to score the goals needed to get a result against an in-form Manchester United side.

TEAM NEWS

Albion made four changes, two of them enforced. Neil Clement and Junichi Inamoto both failed to recover from the injuries they picked up at Portsmouth and were replaced by Thomas Gaardsoe and Steve Watson. Darren Carter was selected ahead of Diomansy Kamara and Kanu was presumably rested, as Richard Chaplow joined a five man midfield. Zoltan Gera made a welcome return as one of the substitutes.

HIGHLIGHTS

The Baggies had the first shot of the game, when Nathan Ellington fired well wide, before an incisive move at the opposite end led to a Gary Neville cross being headed just over by Scholes.

A blatant foul by John O'Shea on Martin Albrechtsen, as he raced into clear space behind the United defence, looked certain to bring at least a yellow card, but amazingly the referee only ticked him off. When on twelve minutes the same player brought down Jonathan Greening he did receive a booking, leaving fans to reflect how fortunate United were not to be reduced to ten men.

There followed a succession of near things in and around the Albion penalty area which were thwarted by some vital last second blocks, tackles and clearances. However in general, Albion's five man midfield was successfully frustrating United's superstars as we retained a reasonable amount of possession and gave them a few problems down our right wing.

In the 27th minute came the game's turning point. Rooney petulantly pushed Paul Robinson in the back causing him to stumble and bang his head against Gaardsoe's thigh. He was out for the count, stretchered off and replaced by Diomansy Kamara. The game was held up for five minutes and almost immediately after the restart, in the 35th minute, with Albion struggling to reorganise, United struck. A cross by Ferdinand was laid back to SCHOLES by Park and he coolly slotted the ball into the bottom corner of the net.

Worse was to follow three minutes into first half stoppage time when FERDINAND met a brilliantly directed corner kick from Giggs and headed decisively past the keeper.

Kieran Richardson came on immediately after half time to help nullify Albion's breaks down the right wing. Rooney came close to scoring a memorable goal, with a run and a shot which rather than dipping under the crossbar rose just over.

United were looking for the killer third goal and it came in the 63rd minute, just after Albion had brought on Kevin Campbell for Ellington. It was United sub Alan Smith who made it, with a perfect right wing cross inviting VAN NISTELROOY to head home from close range.

The Dutchman almost scored a second with a shot which Kuszczak, diving low to his left, just pushed around the post. When Gaardsoe limped off Zoltan Gera came on, with Watson switching to a defensive role. Late on a neat one-two with Kevin Campbell set up Ronnie Wallwork for a consolation goal, but his shot was straight at the keeper and anyway lacked the power to cause him trouble.

ALBION FORMRATE : FAIR

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH : MARTIN ALBRECHTSEN

Kev Buckley:

Any of the "goodwill to all men" that is going around at this time of year which Bryan Robson might have generated towards himself, by the plan to man-mark Wayne Rooney, a tactic that did actually seem to be working, was swiftly replaced with a good deal of "bah humbug" by the time the game, though not the contest, finished, the contest long having been decided, with Albion still seemingly content to hold what they had - what they had being by then, a 3-0 reverse.

With Paul Robinson given the man marking duties and Clement's injury withdrawl also seeing a return for Gaardsoe, one might have expected Steve Watson to replace Martin Albrechtsen at right back, especially given the latter's poor showing down at Pompey, yet oddly we saw Watson deployed on the left, with Albrechtsen keeping his right back place.

Not so though any place keeping for Kamara, who missed out in favour of Carter, meaning Greening, depsite showing his best form on the left, was once again posted out on the right flank. Inamoto also missed out, giving Chaplow a start alongside Wallwork in centre-mid whilst up front, the lone targetman role was handed to Ellington, which seems odd reward for a player who has looked good so far in playing alongside a prompter in Kanu - odder still perhaps when there were two back-to-goal players on the bench. Other than the man-marker then, it seemed very much a case of a management training course, or perhaps a fantasy football game, exercise in which the aspiring boss has to "find some way to play these eleven", knowing full well that you would never normally have that starting eleven.

As it was, Robinson did keep Rooney quiet, and, whilst you couldn't say that Albion really threatened, Ellington never looking like he knew where to run let alone how to hold the ball up, there was a case for having seen Utd down to ten men, after O'Shea, looking all at sea at left back, twice brought down an advancing Albrechstsen, who had isolated him one-on-one on both ocasions, though he only receieved a booking for the second, and from my vantage point, much less worse of two obviously (though again, from a distant vantage point) deliberate fouls.

That was pretty much it and now I have to admit to a "dose of the Wenger's" in that I didn't actually see how Robinson came to be lying prostrate for six minutes, though many around me suggested Rooney played a part in it. After the St John's ambulance had unvieled the second of their two stretchers, Robinson was carried off the pitch, but not before there has been a good deal of bad-natured chanting between the supporters and a couple of evcitions from the terraces.

You might have though that this might have seen the tempreature and pace of the game heat up but sadly Albion, with Kamara coming on for Robinson, though not in the man-marker role, were caught stone cold down the left, were Carter did himself no favours in a woeful performace by simply watching a player run past him, and Scholes scored from the cut back. Shortly after that it was more or less over when Ferdinand was left completely unmarked to head home and Utd took a 2-0 lead down the tunnel with them.

There wasn't really all that much to cheer about in the second half and indeed the home fans didn't cheer all that much either which made for a pretty lifeless forty-five minutes on and off the pitch.

Bryan Robson's attempt to "claw something back" from the game saw him tamely swapping our only striker, Ellington, for Campbell (why not Carter, who was awful, both in attack and defence, all game) who gave little sign of turning his wish to become a player-coach next season into reality, indeed on that showing he'll be lucky to be offered a playing role, and then later on giving Gera a run out in place of Greening (again, why not Carter, who was awful, both in attack and defence, all game). I suppose there is some solace to be taken in that Gera looked all energy and willing not that it rubbed off on anyone else.

Whilst the substitutions mostly saw us able to maintan the getting of eleven men behind the ball in our half whilst Utd passed it around in theirs, perhaps the ease with which their third goal was scored could be considered a warning towards any suggestion of throwing caution to the wind at 2-0 down, which the fans obviously like to see but which those "in the game" never seem to, as another attack down the left (Carter's) side seemed to open us up and Van Nistelrooy, seemingly unchallenged to me, finished it off.

Given how few problems we were able to cause for the home side once we went behind, a cause not helped by there being so few players ahread of the ball when we did have it, it is worrying to comtemplate what will happen if we do go behind at Spurs, Liverpool and, god forbid, Villa, though if we have to surrender so much attacking threat in order to play defensively and not go behind, well, we might be looking back on a very bleak Xmas and New Year in which only the other results going our way bring any comfort and joy at all.

nick wood:

My new year's resolution will be to start doing something meaningful with my Saturday afternoons, like watching Macclesfield Town. Today we rode our luck for the first 35 minutes until Robo went down injured, and with him went any chance of stealing a point. The only man with any wit or creativity for us was Greening. Wallwork and Albrechtson acquitted themselves just about, but where were the rest? Carter looked like he'd had a couple of helpings of pudding too many, while Chaplow looked as nervous as a dog trying to sh*t a razor blade. At least we outsang their limp fans for the first 40 minutes, despite having 64000 less than them.

For the second season running it looks like we are going to have to rely on 3 other teams being even worse than us to avoid the drop. Bah, humbug!

robsqu:

As usual watched the game via satellite.

This was never much more than a damage control game. Right from the kick off it was plain that we were playing for the draw. We might be desperate for points, but I really can?t fathom the logic with our defensive record. Be that as it may, Robson?s plan of containing Rooney by having Robinson mark him seemed to be working, but just before the half hour Robinson collided with Gaardsoe, with Robinson ending up concussed and, within minutes of Robinson being stretchered off, we were a goal down. From that point onwards it was just a matter of how many United would score. A second goal for United in injury time of the first half and our task seemed insurmountable.

Many fans have bemoaned the fact that some of our lads do not appear to turn up and this was yet another such example. Did we actually have shot in the first half? I must have blinked. Boy, did we ever miss Inamoto and Kano? Chaplow had a poor game and gave away far too many loose balls. Ditto many other players. We just gave up. United were much, much sharper and played as if the game mattered to them, which of course it did, with Chelsea getting a result against Fulham. (The earlier kick-off of meant I could watch it and, no matter how dull and unsportsmanlike Fulham were at the Hawthorns recently, they took the game to Chelsea today in the second half and fought for everything). If only we had done the same. No fan likes to see us lose, but at least we could have put up a fight and lost with style and determination. The closest we came to scoring was in the last ten minutes of the game when Wallwork was one-on-one with Van der Sar and should have got a consolation goal, but he fired at the keeper.

Good to see Gera back on the pitch but he made little impact. We need results against Spurs and the Villa.

Cuzer:

"Lifeless West Brom........." according to the BBC and after witnessing that, impossible to argue!

So the official line is Clem and Ina are injured and maybe Kanu overdosed on Sherry trifle yesterday, who knows, personally I reckon we will see them on Wednesday against Spurs and Robbo's "squad rotation" policy is in full swing again, ah la Chelsea away prior to Blues at home, let's hope this time it works!

The game is gone now, frankly we created zip, never intended to create much and sure, things were going "OK" until Robbo's unfortunate injury but the chances of us lasting 90 minutes playing like that and getting a point were frankly non existent. United had just shifted from neutral to first after 20 minutes!

Let's hope we get the points against Spurs as we need to beat them or Villa and at least draw with the other one, I'm off to Liverpool but I think I'll be witnessing much of what I've just seen today in terms of tactics and performance.

Man Marks

• PIG! Pole In Goal 6: Couldn't really blame him for anything, couple of decent saves, difficult to bring Kirky back in on todays game but at some point I think BR will be looking for that opportunity
• Alby 6: Bombed on in his own unique style whenever he could, did his best v Giggs
• Watson 4: Not at his best today, not helped by playing oddly at left back, clearly struggled on his weaker foot
• Davies 9* MOM by a mile, got his foot to everything he could, made some great interceptions and challenges, looked very assured, best I've seen him in an Albion shirt. He's done well for me since he got here yet I've not gone overboard on the whole next England CH chit chat, on todays performance he showed all the credentials
• Tommy G 7: Him and Davies were too far apart when Ruud scored but that apart Tommy IMO had a very good game, couple of great last ditch tackles, good distribution and read the game well. Good to see him back involved as we all know he CAN play
• Carter 3: Still continues to look like the biggest waste of money in an Albion shirt since David Mills all those years ago. Too slow, no skills, no engine........ as Richbaggie summed up perfectly Iggy Pop "The Passenger" was written for Carter in an Albion shirt!
• Wallwork 5: Pick of the midfield but it's not saying much! Some good stuff, had a decent first half, faded in the 2nd though, not helped by having nobody ahead of him to pass to such was our defensive mentality
• Chaplow 3: At times looks like a proper player, yet normally when he's in 20 yards of space and we are 3 down away from home! He is a luxury player we can ill afford at the mo. So want him to succeed as I've seen what he's done in a Burnley shirt and the lad can play, needs a run here though and he ain't gonna get it putting in performances like todays'
• Greening 3: Biggest underachiever this season by a mile. Doesn't beat a man anymore, comes inside WAY too much and doesn't give us the option of width. Such an important player for us last season, this year has been a pale shadow of that player, needs somebody breathing down his neck for his place as is clearly in cruise control
• Ellington 5: Thought he did OK given the lack of service or support, some decent hold up play and tried to run at the heart of the Utd chance whenever he could. Robson booed on his withdrawl but I called it with the Spurs game in mind, game was lost already today, pointless leaving Duke out there
• Robinson 5: Difficult to mark as he barely touched the ball in 30 minutes, mind you neither did Rooney so in that sense he was doing his job. Good to hear the injury looked a lot worse than it was, need him fit and available

Subs

• Cams 4: Held the ball up OK at times, nice little reverse ball for Wallworks back pass to Van Der Saar late on
• Gera 4: Good to see him back, would have done him good, little chance to shine or show much though
• Kamara 3: Looked lost playing the fifth midfielder come second striker role, barely touched the ball or got in the game in the hour he was on the pitch

Roll on Wednesday night.......and quickly!