West Bromwich Albion 2 - Tottenham Hotspur 0

Dave Watkin:

Albion gained a comprehensive victory against a Tottenham Hotspur side currently occupying the fourth Champions League slot. Before tonight's game they were unbeaten in six games, had only lost one of their last twelve fixtures and only suffered two league defeats all season. So whichever way you look at it the result was impressive.

Star of the show was Nwankwo Kanu, who orchestrated many of the best moves, showed bewitching skills at times, scored both goals and gave two small ball boys the memory of a lifetime, when he included them in his goal celebrations.

For readers in warmer climes, the match was played in temperatures of five degrees below zero and maybe that was a factor in Tottenham's lack lustre display. Certainly, Albion were up for it and every team member played his part. The spine of the team was particularly strong, with Curtis Davies, Ronnie Wallwork and Nathan Ellington all impressive. A word too for Darren Carter who looked more at home in central midfield. Overall an excellent team performance.

TEAM NEWS

Albion brought in three fresh players, Neil Clement, Diomansy Kamara and Kanu, as replacements for Paul Robinson, not recovered from concussion, Thomas Gaardsoe and Richard Chaplow. There were several other positional changes, as the manager reverted to a 4-4-2 line-up.

HIGHLIGHTS

Albion made a brilliant start to the game with a flowing move that almost led to a goal. When a Tottenham attack broke down, Kanu won possession and fed Kamara. With bewildering speed Kamara hit a pass to Ellington and he switched it on to Darren Carter. Carter pushed the ball past the last defender but just as he was about to shoot, he was tackled and the ball deflected for a corner.

Albion continued to press and Kanu rose to nod on to Nathan Ellington. "The Duke" cut inside and shot left footed at Robinson, who was lucky when his fumble fell to a defender who hacked clear.

In the 23rd minute Albion deservedly took the lead. Kamara won a tackle just inside the Albion half and played a one-two with Ellington before running at the Spurs defence. An attempted tackle rebounded to KANU on the shoulder of a defender. He calmly pulled away and waltzed the ball around England keeper Robinson before side-footing home from a narrow angle.

Albion were looking for a second and threats from Tottenham were few, however the Baggies did survive a scare when the referee ignored a blatant dive from Defoe, as he threw himself over Clement's legs in an attempt to win a penalty.

In the 52nd minute the home side scored another and this time KANU was both creator and scorer. He intercepted an attempted pass, shrugged off a challenge and with Ellington inside him calling for the ball, dropped his shoulder, went past Dawson as if he wasn't there and belted a low drive inside the near post.

Almost as memorable as his goals was a brilliant piece of trickery by Kanu down on the left hand touchline. Surrounded by three defenders, he shifted the ball left and then flicked it over them with the outside of his right foot into the path of Jonathan Greening. His goalbound shot was deflected over the bar for a corner.

From then on Albion quite easily nullified any threat from Spurs and continued at times to play some delightful football. In the dying minutes Kanu left to a standing ovation, replaced by Kevin Campbell and Geoff Horsfield came on for Ellington and Darren Moore for Kamara.

The only serious save by Kuszczak came in the second minute of stoppage time, when Defoe shot on the turn from close range. Even then the Spurs forward should have been flagged offside.

ALBION FORMRATE : VERY GOOD

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH : KANU

AND FINALLY ...

Normal service was resumed against Tottenham at the Hawthorns after a gap of almost twenty-four years! The Baggies have an excellent league record against the Lillywhites, particularly at home, but hadn't won there in six games, dating back to March 1982 when Cyrille Regis scored the only goal of the game.

Albion were the only side outside of the top six to win and so gained points on all their relegation rivals.

The Premiership at the halfway point of the season reads:

                P       W       D       L       F  -  A       PTS   GD 
13. VILLA       19      5       6       8       23 - 29       21   - 6
14. Fulham      19      5       5       9       23 - 28       20   - 5
15. Boro        18      5       5       8       23 - 28       20   - 5
16. ALBION      19      5       4      10       19 - 28       19   - 9 
17. Everton     19      5       2      12       10 - 30       17   -20
18. Portsmouth  19      3       5      11       14 - 31       14   -17
19. BLUES       18      3       4      11       13 - 27       13   -14
20. Sunderland  18      1       3      14       14 - 35        6   -21
   

..... a big improvement on last season, when we were bottom of the table with only 10 points.

Incidentally, tonight's crowd of 27,510 was the best home gate so far and the attendance at Old Trafford on Monday of 67,972 was the largest for any Premiership match this season.

Sarky Parky:

That was probably the best performance I've seen from an Albion side since the present manager was in his pomp. The 5-0 thrashing of Portsmouth nearly four years ago was impressive but that was in a lower league against a very poor Pompey side. This was against a team in a Champions' League spot with just two previous defeats all season. In addition we played what was virtuall 4-3-3 which meant pitting Carter, Wallwork and Greening against a midfield that consisted of Routledge (one of Palace's big players in their attempt to stay up), Carrick and Jenas (World Cup hopefuls) and Davids (ex-world class player and still formidable). Suffice it to say that our three 'rejects" hardly gave them a meaningful sniff.

The win was as comfortable as it sounds. 2-0 never looked like becoming 2-1 let alone 2-2 while it often looked like becoming 3-0 which would have been a better reflection of the play. Three players I think are making a massive difference between now and our form of a few weeks ago. Kanu of course is massive and with his two beautifully taken goals and general all-round management of our forward play was the obvious choice for MOM. Ellington is now looking like a Premiership forward. His leading of the line,control, pace and movement made him look a far more likely England candidate than Defoe. But perhaps the most significant contribution has come from Wallwork who must have run Kanu very close for MOM. Ronnie was the most influential midfielder on view, constantly breaking up Spurs attacks by anticipation and harrying and setting Kanu, Ellington and Kamara off on their destructive paths.

So an outstanding result and one achieved without three players who one feels would always be in Robson's best starting eleven - Gera, Robinson and Inamoto. And with five (effectively six) points between us and the relegation spots and with home games against Villa and Sunderland to come things suddenly seem a whole lot brighter. I suspect the Redknapp bubble will quickly burst as it did at Southampton, Blues are playing a bit better but have a lot to do (a win by us at St Andrews would make their task a lot harder), Everton are in free fall, and a Sunderland escape would completely eclipse what we achieved in the second half of last season - it aint gonna happen! Not only that but 'Boro, Fulham, Villa and Charlton are now within our reach.

• Kuszcak. Not much to do but looked utterly secure. And to think we have England's Number 2 on the bench - and likely to stay there. 7.5
• Watson. A few wild tackles but generally sound. 6
• Davies. Grows with every game. 8
• Clement. Rock solid. 7.5
• Albrechtson. Good, but seems more comfortable on the right. 7
• Carter. A good first half but faded after the break. 6
• Wallwork. What a game by Ronnie. Whenever Spurs threatened, Ronnie was there, and made you realise that Robson has more knowledge of the game in his little finger than some fans have in their entire bodies.
• Greening. Good defensively but still not the attacking threat of last season. 6
• Kamara. A constant threat with his pace. Links well with Kanu and Ellington. 7
• Ellington. The same as Kamara. A top-class Premiership striker in the making. 8
• Kanu. The main man. On this form irreplaceable in the current squad. 9

The problem arises when Kanu and Kamara go off to Africa. Kamara will presumably be replaced by Gera which certainly wouldn't weaken the team but Kanu can't be replaced by anybody in the current squad.

What BR will do at Anfield is anybody's guess - whatever team we put out to come away with anything will be very tough. But for last night's win to be underlined we really have to beat the Villa. For that match, and assuming everyone's fit, i would like to see the following team:

Kusczak, Albrechtson, Davies, Clement, Robinson, Gera, Wallwork, Inamoto, Kamara, Ellington, Kanu.

Pete Cottrell:

Somewhere in the deepest recesses of my memory, I can recall going to matches week after week expecting a good performance, a good match and maximum points. OK, in the pre-match debate in the pub we might settle for a single point against Liverpool, Leeds or whoever the Chelsea were of the day, but three home wins out of four was nothing remarkable, and only the occasional unexpected home defeat kept our feet on the ground. After all those years it is difficult to know how to react now. Of course, we are used to winning runs in what is now laughingly called the Championship under Megson, but we have to admit that the standard of play was pretty awful.

So what is the appropriate reaction now? Elation? Relief? Disbelief? Complacency? (there was a lot of the last in 2003-04!) Maybe a mixture of the first three when we beat Arsenal and then walloped Everton, but with convincing victories against Man City and Spurs perhaps I can recognise the glimmerings of confidence and belief that we can stay up another season and start 2006-07 in style without being plunged into despair by every performance such as those against Wigan at home and Portsmouth away.

Last night?s match will not have offered a great deal to neutrals (exciting incidents were few and far between) but any Baggies supporter who was there will have been delighted by the teamwork, effort and dominance that the team showed. This was demonstrated most admirably by yet another first class display by Ronnie Wallwork ? I thought that his recent revival stemmed from his forming a relationship with Inamoto, but last night he was in amazing form. As of course was Kanu; quite apart from his goals, his vision is astonishing: who else could have dinked that pass that set Greening up in the Spurs penalty area in the second half?

It also needs to be remembered that we were not at full strength ? Robinson, Inamoto and Gera were all missing ? which has to add to any growing confidence. If only we had a decent striker to bring on when Kanu gets tired ? let?s face it, Horsfield and Campbell are no alternatives and the kindest thing to do would be to put them out to grass.

Player ratings:

• Kuszczak 7: Little to do, but his positional play was for the most part excellent.
• Watson 7: Some things didn?t quite come off, but he had a good effective game.
• Davies 7: Just the occasional panic, but he is becoming increasingly Mr Dependable.
• Clement 8: Best game for ages ? good positioning, tackled well and made a number of constructive clearances. Plus excellent heading.
• Albrechtsen 6: Defended OK, but didn?t seem to (want to?) make the best use of his speed.
• Greening 6: Linked well with the defence, but reluctant to take on his man on the wing.
• Wallwork 8: Inspired and inspiring ? seemed to pop up wherever and whenever he was needed.
• Carter 6: Solid enough, but his first touch often let him down.
• Kamara 5: Not one of his better games, but some flashes showed what he could do.
• Kanu 9: Another brilliant performance; outlandish tricks, two goals. What more could we ask for (except perhaps an explanation of why we never saw this sort of display last season)?
• Ellington 6; Good game overall, but you can?t award top marks to a striker who never came close to creating even half a chance for himself.
• Subs: Not on long enough. I?m no fan of Earnie?s but wouldn?t he have been a better bet in this sort of game than the Horse?

So... half way through the season and 19 points. 40 is the usual target, which realistically means 6 wins and three draws (and 10 defeats!). How about Villa, Middlesbro, West Ham, Blues (away), Blackburn and Sunderland, with draws against Bolton, Villa (away) and Fulham. Not too much to hope is it?

thecads:

Two superb home games in a row - someone pinch me.

-4 degrees at pitchside, but i felt a lot warmer walking home. I've got to say i gave us not a chance, although i did think if we could get the first goal it would be interesting. 2 magnificent individual goals from kanu - he has got to be the most skilfull player wearing an albion shirt i've ever seen.

awesome performance, despite having 3 players who at their peak would probably be straight in the team: gera, robbo & inamoto.

to be honest, i gave us no chance tonight; i thought spurs would pass us off the park. however, i felt we matched them and from the start we looked more threatening. spurs passed it well, but didn't really create a clear cut chance.

our defence was superb, as was ronnie in the middle - his best all round game in an albion shirt??

manmarks -

• PiG - 7 kicking was good, handled well and took some good crosses - kirkland who?
• albie - 7 did fine - some good runs, poor passing at times
• watson - 7 thought he was solid, read game well, experience showed. (why does the bloke behind me slag him off so much?)
• clem - 7 solid, read game well
• davies - 8 well done - this kid will be great, if only he could pass (one shocking pass second half, right to their feet, when about 3 yds away)
• ronneh - 9 thought he did everything well - awesome
• carter - 7 good legs - did a job - thought he tracked well and got stuck in
• johnny - 6 didn't notice him - not the player like last yr - however, has his role changed? he sits a lot deeper now
• kamara - 6 either brilliant or terrible - a slow decision maker at times too. still did ok - worked hard, electric pace
• ellie - 8 one of his best games - good skill, passed it well, looks a good partner with:
• kanu 10 - awesome - he ran for the cause, scored two sublime goals, tackled - could he have done any better - i think not - he had dawson absolutely terrified of him.

our back 4 were much better than theirs - cannot see how dawson keeps his place - ellie's pace and kanu's skill had them in tatters.

we're really going to miss kanu next month - i hope that doesn;t wreck our home form. however, i have a sneaking feeling, we're goign to sell earnie and get a forward in. earnie wasn't on the bench again, so somethign must be going on

gera - where was he? i hope he hasn't had a reaction to his 20 mins at man utd - we'll need him desperately when kamara goes to africa.

it's looking good at home - if only we could transfer it to away games and we could do pretty well. i reckon 6 more wins and we could be safe - 6 home wins?? might well have to be.....

very nice xmas present, thank you

Jules:

While our away form is pathetic, our home form is getting better and better. Last opposition to score at the Hawthorns was Newcastle in October. It looks very likely that if we beat Villa on monday we'll go above them and climb further up the table.

I thought the absence of (our) Paul Robinson would weaken us but Albrechtson marshalled the left flank extremely well. I noticed he doesn't run as fast down the left though. Watson began the game slowly but faded into the game as it went on creating another problem for spurs. Kanu was out of this world. WE WILL miss him when he departs for Africa. We are at our best when he's at his best. Spurs just couldn't handle him, he twice pulled of a cheeky dink to Greening which really took the micky out of his former local rivals. Ellington was also a pain in the arse for Spurs. My only complaint was Carters selection over Chaplow, yes Richard is still prone to mistakes but he does put effort in, he actually attempts to tackle. Apart from one fantastic winner against Arsenal what has Carter done? Risky keeping him in the team 'just in case' he has a lucky strike again.

I'm expecting a non-performance from a weakened team at Anfield, but as long as it means a strong performance and three points against Villa who cares?

Well Done Albion, absolutely brilliant.

AJ-B:

Excellent post from Stuart Russell, says it all really & I cannot dispute his team selection for Villa.

This was another terrific TEAM performance with everybody doing their job. A performance laced together with exceptional skills from Kanu, what a formidable partnership he is developing with Ellington, also Kamara jinks in & out, get Inamoto back fit & he dovetails perfectly with Kanu, they are both on that same class wavelength.

But last night inspired us again to believe we may have a longer future in the prem than we envisaged a couple of months back. Darren Carter at long last gave a performance worthy of praise, he snuffed out Edgar Davids & almost scored! Ronnie Wallwork was again immense, as he was against Man U last Monday. We have now played 4 home games won 3, drawn 1, giving us 10 out of a possible 12 points, & NO GOALS CONCEDED.

If Robson keeps his sanity & selects a good team for Saturday, we may bury ghosts of Anfield past & get a result, I think we will get a draw, then go on & beat the Vile next Monday. We have to keep the momentum going & not fall back into the mode we had against Fulham & Pompey.

MY PLAYER REVIEW:

• KUSZCZAK: Another excellent display, looks as though Kirkland will have to wait until we are safe from relegation before he gets another chance, how can Tomasz be dropped with all the clean sheets he has kept?
• WATSON: What an experienced pro he is, used all his know how in protecting the rash young Curtis Davies, a big influence.
• DAVIES: I am not one who enthuses over this young man, potential he has BUT! his positional play is at times all over the place, he mistimes more tackles than he times, his distribution is at times dreadful as displayed several times last night. He is good in the air but he has an awful lot to learn. To have made him skipper against Man U was -in my opinion- sheer stupidity.
• CLEMENT: Outstanding performance, his best of the season by far.
• ALBRECHTSEN: Another marauding display, made many good tackles, made a couple of customary over eager surges down the wing that malfunctioned.
• KAMARA: A busy little bee, buzzes in & out links so well with Kanu & Ellington.
• WALLWORK: Joint M.O.M. with Kanu for me, terrific game, gelled the middle line superbly.
• CARTER: Well well I never thought I would be writing a piece of PRAISE for this young man, against Man U he was truly awful, for an athletic looking young man, he has been lazy, slow & afraid of going in where it may hurt, but last night he tackled fiercley, passed intelligently & took some very penetrating free kicks that went right into the danger zone, if he was a yard faster he would even have scored our first goal. The way he kept Davids quiet impressed me most, his best game by far for us.
• GREENING: Another who frustrates, yet there were signs of his impressive form of last season, he also tackled back when needed & linked with Kanu well.
• ELLINGTON: Kanu gets all the plaudits because he scored the goals, but Ellie's running off the ball and skilful holding & passing made the goals possible, also created openings for the midfield to storm through, a terrific game.
• KANU: What can you say, he makes it all look so easy, he seems to play in slow motion at times - especially as he homed in for his second goal. Such natural ability, wonderful. As a guy said to me in the gents after the game, how come we can have a player like that at the Albion?

SUBS:

Personally I cannot agree with Robsons decisions to put on 3 subs at the end of the game mereley to kill time, he should not have made any changes at all but he brought on:- Campbell, Horsefield & Darren Moore - WHY????

BRYAN ROBSON: Got everything right (except the futile subs at the end) good well balanced team, had the vision to play Carter centre midfield instead of Chaplow! Interesting.

Goulds Coffin:

I feel I should eat a bit of humble pie in public with regard to Wallwork's performance against Spurs. He was fantastic and got my vote for MOM. Not long ago he was up there with Stalin, Pol Pot and Lee Hendrie in my eyes, but if he keeps playing like this he'll be up there with Derek Statham, Noddy Holder and Stu Francis.

I would say, though, that Stuart Russell's comments are a bit out of line (re: Robson's little finger/Wallwork critics). Wallwork has been rightly criticised when he's played like he couldn't give a toss, which has been pretty frequent. But if he keeps up the form he showed against Spurs he'll be cheered to the rafters.

I'd also praise Robson for sticking with the Pole even after Kirkland returned to fitness. We have two great keepers at the moment, but I'm only sorry it looks like we won't get the chance to give Hoult the send-off he deserves. Let's hope he comes back to the Hawthorns with whoever he joins.

Lamp Baggie:

A great performance against a poor Spurs side chasing a Champions League spot? At home we now appear to be more than a match for all the mid table sides, however, we now need to ensure we take points off our relegation rivals make no mistake both Blues & Pompey will improve squads in Jan & apart from Sunderland there is going to be a real relegation scrap.

Defensively we were superb tonight restricting Spurs to mostly tame long range efforts - special mention for Watson - was he up for it & did he enjoy it.

Also Ronnie W - best display for us? Carter did much better in centre he's a big lad & he needs to put himself about.

Kanu - fantastic - 2 class finishes - all round excellent performance.

I thought Spurs were there for the taking in the second half but we sat back & played tippy tappy football which nearly got us into trouble a couple of times - why can't we push on & create chances - Paul Robinson like Kuzzy really had little to do.

So to BR's squad rotation - are we going to Liverpool & defend for 90 mins without conceding? - with 4 games in 8 days I accept we need to target games - who'd be a manager - however after this period we need to be 4-4-2 & full strentgh for all games & be positive - if we can improve our away form I'm positive we can stay up.

robsqu:

Well, the roller coaster ride of emotions in supporting the Baggies continues. A total capitulation at Old Trafford and followed by a convincing victory over Spurs. My dad always used to say that the Baggies were nothing if not consistently inconsistent. He got that one right sure enough.

As for the game - didn?t we do well? Spurs, sitting fourth prior to the game, are no slouches and must have fancied their chances. Obviously, Jol hadn?t counted on our Jeykll and Hyde character as we were sharp and up for it from the start ? totally the opposite to our previous couple of games. What this game proves is that we can cut it at this level and we deserve to be in this league. The midfield prevented Spurs from playing well and, apart from some well placed, but powerless shots from Defoe which Kuszczak had covered; they were thwarted by a dogged Baggies defence. Davids was their best player constantly pushing forward, tenaciously holding onto the ball and then putting some good balls through but even his skill was countered by our eagerness to take on a man. For me, Wallwork was a tower of strength at the back and up front, our man in form, Kanu, was a delight to watch scoring two top notch goals. (A nice touch picking up the ball boys after each goal ? on a cold December night something to warm the heart of all concerned, especially the boys themselves).

Great game. Great form. Great way to wind off 2005, but I hope we don?t go to Anfield just hoping to hold out for a draw. Attack and be damned.