West Bromwich Albion 1 - Reading 1

Dave Watkin:

Albion drew with runaway Championship leaders Reading in perhaps the dullest F A Cup tie I've ever witnessed.

The Baggies missed a golden opportunity to take the lead early in the first half. From then on defences were dominant and a goalless encounter looked likely, until inside the last ten minutes two penalties were awarded and converted, one by each side.

Curtis Davies gave another assured display, in a defence which looked very secure. Ronnie Wallwork was the pick of a disappointing midfield. There were few direct threats on goal from any of the four strikers we used. The early miss by Ellington was a shocker. Once more Earnshaw was not on the bench, do we assume this was to prevent him being cup-tied? If we intend to sell him, then we MUST bring in a better replacement quickly. Otherwise, I foresee a very unproductive run during Kanu's enforced absence.

TEAM NEWS

Albion chose Chris Kirkland ahead of Thomasz Kuszczak, but otherwise the team was the strongest available, with Darren Moore replacing the injured Neil Clement, Junichi Inamoto recalled in place of Diomansy Kamara who has already departed for the African Nations Cup and Ronnie Wallwork preferred to Steve Watson.

HIGHLIGHTS

The first significant action came just before the quarter-hour mark and should have ended with Albion taking the lead. When Kanu clipped the ball into the area, Nathan Ellington charged down an attempted clearance and the ball beat the keeper and struck the inside of the right hand post. Ellington followed up and the ball fell perfectly for him with an empty goal gaping. However, rather than tap it in with his left foot, he trod on it with his right and a covering defender managed to make a scrambled clearance.

Reading immediately broke to the other end and when Kitson was played through, Chris Kirkland made a good save with his legs to divert the striker's fine drive for a corner kick.

The visitors had a good spell of possession in the middle of the half, then Albion came into the game just before the break, but neither side made much impression as both defences were well on top.

The second half saw Albion pushing forward and Reading content to sit back with men behind the ball, hoping to take advantage of a quick break. The Baggies countered by bringing on both Kevin Campbell and Geoff Horsfield, for Ellington and Inamoto and switching to 4-3-3. However there was little change until, with just under twenty minutes remaining, Zoltan Gera was introduced in place of Jonathan Greening.

In the 82nd minute the Hungarian whipped in a wonderful curling cross, for the first time the Reading defenders were under pressure and Makin nudged Horsfield as he rose to head goalwards. A penalty was given and ZOLTAN GERA stepped up to calmly place his shot just inside the foot of the post.

It looked as if we would sneak a win, until in the 84th minute a header from Reading hit Albrechtsen on the arm. Another penalty and DOYLE was equally efficient as he scored from the spot.

The first penalty was a little harsh and the second one avoidable, if Albrechtsen had been positive and chested the ball away.

ALBION FORMRATE : DISAPPOINTING

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH (SHARED) : CURTIS DAVIES and RONNIE WALLWORK

Chiang Mai Baggie:

Curtis Davies takes the Captaincy again today.

Wallwork had the first shot on 3 minutes after a good move. Albion are comfortably in control after the first 9 minutes. Ellington hit the post on 11 minutes with a header from a Kanu cross, and he stood on the ball and fell over as the rebound came back to him. Kitson had a shot on 12 minutes and Kirkland saved for a corner. Ellington shot just wide on 15 minutes.

Reading have got back into the game in the past 10 minutes. Reading pressured Albion after a free kick on 23 minutes. Lost commentary for a few minutes, back on at 30 minutes. Carter sliced a clearance on 33 minutes to concede a corner after a Reading free kick. Albion cleared to Ellington who fed Greening and Albion attacked. Kanu eventually fed Davies in the box, but he didn't connect cleanly and the ball went wide.

Greening attacked on 36 minutes and seemed to be fouled on the edge of the box, but the ref didn't give anything. Greening crossed for Wallwork to head and the ball was cleared for a corner on 39 minutes. The ball was played short and then crossed for Moore to head goalwards, but Stack saved. Reading won a free kick outside the Albion box on 41 minutes, and Kirkland saved easily. 1 minute added. HT 0-0.

No changes at HT. Cuzer got a mention from the Albion World commentators for 'not being bothered' to go to the match today! Carter fed Kanu on 48 minutes, but the shot went just wide. Campbell and Horsfield on for Ellington and Inamoto on 53 minutes.

Albion playing 4-3-3 with Kanu just behind the front pair. Attendance 19,197 - Reading end full, but lots of space in the home stands. Lita on for Long on 58 minutes. Carter shot over the bar after a lay-off by Wallwork on 62 minutes. Sidwell had a chance on 63 minutes, when he ran past Moore. Kitson booked on 66 minutes after a foul on Davies. Doyle on for Kitson on 69 minutes. Campbell went down in the box on 71 minutes, but the ref didn't give a penalty. Gera on for Greening on 72 minutes.

Hunt broke and shot on 73 minutes, but wide. Albion put together a good move through Wallwork, but the Horse misplaced the return pass and the move broke down on 77 minutes. Lost my connection again for a few minutes. It seems that Zoltan Gera scored from a penalty while I was offline, and just as I got back on Reading equalised, also through a penalty.

Little on for Hunt on 85 minutes. Davies named Albion sponsors' MoM. FT 1-1. Horsfield fouled for our penalty, and Albrechtsen handball for the Reading one.

Jules:

An improvment over the display against villa but both sides treated the match like dodgeball. No-one wanted the ball, no-one wanted to keep it. The whole team seemed to be missing chances on purpose.

Personally i wouldn't have fielded a full strength side for this fixture. The third round is for fringe players to get their chance in my view. If they perform well then they're serious about staying in the team. Players like todays 11 (except big dave) can take it easy for 90 mins because they know they'll be picked next week. Plus it's more entertaining for the fans if the weakened side is up for it rather than watching the strongest side play crap- after all we are paying to be there, not BEING paid! Plus wouldn't this have been a perfect game for Earnie to 'redeem' himself to Robson?

My season ended today because i'm leaving the country this week. For me it finishes in 17th place, exactly the same as last season. I hope it finishes higher for the sake of the rest of you. I'm leaving with a very low opinion of Albion, my two last games being Reading and a non-performance against Villa- for which no fan has recieved an apology for i believe.

Atitude is everything.

Pete Cottrell:

Given that the least satisfactory result from the Albion?s point of view was a draw, and that 88 of the 90 minutes were spent with the teams level I find it difficult to believe that they could have played with such a lack of passion, will or general ability. It was just as if it were a routine away match and they had settled for a draw. There were exceptions, albeit very few: Wallwork was exceptionally and unusually industrious, Big Dave tried his hardest and Small Dave gave a good captain?s performance, but the rest might just as well not have turned up. To be quite honest, an all out attacking effort which ended in defeat would have been far better in terms of both entertainment (there was precious little of that) and in terms of not cluttering up the fixture list with needless mid-week away games during the coldest part of the year.

Player ratings:

• Kirkland 6: No better and no worse than the Pole; little to do but kicking became more ragged as the game wore on.
• Albrechtsen 5: Given the runaround at times. Tantalisingly showed what he could do in attack a couple of times, but seemed reluctant to do so.
• Davies 7: Very cool and always seems to have more time to decide what to do than other players, but got dragged out of position a few times today.
• Moore 7: Excellent defensive heading and good positional play. Still can?t pass accurately, though.
• Robinson 5: Possibly his poorest game this season. Showed very little of his customary dominance or ability.
• Greening 5: With no Kamara he should have been our best creative option from mid-field but just didn?t seem interested.
• Inamoto 5: Was he still carrying an injury? He played as though he was, and was way off his best.
• Carter 4: Had plenty of opportunities to shine, but just didn?t take them. Possibly the least skilful (in basic footballing terms) in the team.
• Wallwork 7: MOM. Industrious, skilful (!) and involved in all aspects of the game, including attack. Unfortunately the last let him down with weak finishing.
• Kanu 6: Flashes of his usual skill but didn?t really seem interested. Thinking of Egypt?
• Ellington 4: Poor positional play, poor on the ball and fell over when faced with an open goal. On second thoughts make that a ?3?.
• Campbell 5: Better than Ellington but too slow. Why not do the kind thing and pension him off?
• Horsfield 5: ...or send him to the knacker?s yard?
• Gera 6: Three shots (including the penalty) and one cross. More than Ellington and Inamoto put together.

As a final note, it was good of the Albion Management to reduce the entrance fee so drastically, but as a woman two seats from me yelled out: ?Come on Albion, make some effort ? I?ve paid extra to watch this.?

Andy & Jon:

First timer so bear with me...

Went to the game today with my lad Jon as a treat for doing well at school - what did we enjoy most...? The Pie!! I'll admit I can't afford to go to the Hawthorns these days due to the cost and we spend most Saturdays watching our local side Kidderminster Harriers who are pretty ropey as well, but I will always look on the Baggies as my one and and only team - whatever! As a kid I remember the seasons I had a season ticket 1976 to 1981 in the Rainbow stand and the excitement we all felt when Cyrille got the ball - remember that???

But enough of the old days - back to today.

Jon and I sat in virtually the same postion that I used to when I had a season ticket in the Rainbow and we were so disappointed with the performance today. How many second balls did we not go for? How many times did we get into their penalty area? How many times did we curse the players for not having the heart to get into these premiership hopefuls? It's all very well chanting "premiership, you're havin a laff" when they're not even there or know what it's like to survive (which is what they'll be up against if they get up!) but today they were better than us IMO.

There were so many players under par today - the worst? Darren Carter - words fail me - I can't see a place for him in the Kidderminster conference team on today's performance and the goal against Arsenal is becoming more and more a fluke IMO - sorry.

Otherwise? I thought Ronny was my MOM, he was the only player to seem to want to win the ball although when he'd got it he wasn't sure what to do with it! Greening is much better than he played today and Ellington as well, although I think that knock he got in the first half was in Robson's mind when he was taken off to be replaced by Dad's Army up front. Great to see Gera back, let's hope he can get match fit very soon and a great pen, theirs looked dodgy from our view but what do I know!

Kanu will be an enormous loss when he goes to the ANC - he's class.

Rest assured we'll be in our local to watch the next two games against Wigan and Sunderland - vital games - come on you Baggies!

p.s. Big thanks to WBA for a great deal on the ticket prices for today - would love to turn out more often!

Lincs:

Another first timer on here!

Unfortunately (or maybe that's fortunately judging by todays performance) we can't get to see The Albion very often because of the cost. This weekend however as the club had reduced the prices I thought I would treat the family to a day out at the Hawthorns. Living in Lincolnshire it takes us about three hours to get to the ground, we started out at 11:30 and arrived at the ground at about 14:50. The children were really excited and were looking forward to the game.

We seemed to start ok up until Ellington missed the open goal, then it seemed as if no-one wanted to commit themselves apart from Ronnie Wallwork and Curtis Davis. There didnt seem to be any passion in the side, why? this is the FA Cup it used to mean a lot to the Albion I used to watch in the seventies. Darren Moore was fairly good in the air but his passing seemed a little off. I know a lot of people on this site have berrated Darren Carter in recent weeks and to be honest I thought some of the comments were a little harsh, until I saw him play? today. He couldn't seem to do anything right, I can't understand why Robson didn't take him off, he may be a nice chap but on todays performance how does he get in the side? Kevin Campbell when he came on seemed to be off the pace by a few yards and apart from the penalty Geoff Horsefield didn't seem to do too much either. Apart from Kanu where are our quality strikers? I wasn't that impressed by Ellingtons performance either.

I thought we were lucky to get the penalty but Gera did take it well. Then we went and gave a stupid penalty away, in fairness to Albrechtsen from where I was sitting in the Brummie Road End he did try and get his hand out the way.

Overall I thought it was a very lacklustre performance with very little commitment or desire, if I was to perform that bad at work I would be in trouble.

The oldest two of my boys love the Albion with a passion and as I mentioned earlier don't get to see them very often because of the distance and cost (6 of us is a bit expensive), they wear their West Brom tops all round Lincolnshire and even wore them in the Liverpool and Everton club shops while we were on holiday, can anyone please tell me what to say to them with tears in their eyes when they say to me why didnt they try Daddy, I couldn't because I don't know.

Finally please keep up the good work on this site, it is one of the few ways we can keep up with whats going on at our beloved Albion.

Easters:

Sometimes it must be immensely difficult being a manager and trying to work out what you need to do to improve a team. This is not one of them.

Most of the West Brom players just wouldn't run. Didn't close down, didn't support the strikers, wouldn't take people on etc.

I would love to see the "pro zone" statistics. We need to either get this lot to work harder or bring in those that will.

I went with a Reading fan who had told me that their success is based on work rate. No stars, just 11 players trying very hard (like Wigan). The difference between the 2 teams' appetite for work was staggering.

If we don't match this we will struggle. Imagine this as a premiership match as it could be next year. Imagine they hadn't rested their 5 best players. Not a pleasant thought.

John Painter:

This is the first time this season that I have posted but could not let this non-performance go without comment.

For the first 45 Duke's Music Hall act and a couple of alert saves from one of the two best English goalkeepers was all to speak of that was positive. Carter was asked to play wide left but kept turning up on the right hand side of central midfield, meaning that we had neither width nor penetration. It would appear that he is the worst of Robson's signings by far and unless he improves with some good performances in the reserves I would offload him in the summer. To hear some Blues fans after the game bemoaning him leaving St Andrews made me smile because if he is better than the players they have then their squad must be absolute pants.

The second half was little better. 2 fairly obscure decisions by a poor referee lead to 2 well taken penalties. But I can only ask one question, why wasn't Carter taken off? The biggest plus of the second half was to see Gera back in action. He was clearly feeling his way though (as was Inamoto) and lets hope that starting next Sunday they begin to find their old form.

We were bad but Reading worse. They will need at least 15 new players if they are to make a fist of the Premier League next season.

Delighted to hear that Robson kept them locked in the dressing room for an hour after the game and that he and Pearson were not amused. The players now owe the fans a few performances beginning with Wigan where it would be good to get our first away win of the season.

Finally to those who think that Earnshaw is the answer to our problems. His first touch is woeful, his work rate is appalling and he is too easily pushed off the ball. Ellington is having a difficult time in front of goal but he tries and can control a ball much better. Inamoto was unhappy about being left out of the team, listened to Robson and improved his game, so why hasn't Earnie? Perhaps the reason why he is not even on the bench is that he isn't trying to improve. If that is the case perhaps he will be another Bull and only be able to play below the top flight.

Lamp Baggie:

Yet another 3rd rate performance whats happened since our tremendous displays against Man City & Spurs?

Robsons negative vibes have now become a factor in our last two home displays - lack of passion & belief is unbelivable - without a serious improvement in these areas the only team were going to finish above is Sunderland.

The first quality wide ball played in by Gera resulted in a penalty it beggars belief why we cant move the ball out wide & get some quality crosses in - bringing on the Horse & Campbell was pathetic they are too similar - absolutely no width with both Carter & Jesus playing inside all game - the one thing these guys need is service.

Abie & Robinson shocking today.It says something that our most positive player was Davies - but if he keeps improving he'll be gone in the summer. Big Dave was well... Big Dave you know what you're getting.

Kanu with little support kept the ball well but once again the Duke offered little. Ronnie Allwork another decent display but in the last 3rd he just cant cut it. Kirkland sound enough - at least we have 2 quality keepers.

Carter is not a wide player so why Robson persists in playing him there is beyond me especially after his Villa display - why isn't Chaplow given a game at home? Ina not at his best.

Gera at last a little bit of hope - come on Zoltan we need you back at your best.

Re Earnie he's probably not the solution but if he's not injured he should be on the bench & should have played at Manure & Liverpool both games we targeted not to wi... not to lose. I note he's been given a video by Robson as some wag said on Sat perhaps someone should give Robson a video on how to manage!