West Bromwich Albion 2 - Coventry City 4

Date: Tuesday 4th December 2007 
Competition: Coca-Cola Championship
WBA:
4.3
(4-4-1-1) Kiely 3.5, Hoefkens 4.4, Barnett 3.6, Cesar 4.4 (Hodgkiss, HT 5.5), Robinson 3.9, Gera 5.4 (MacDonald, HT 6.3), Koren 5.4, Greening 5.2, Brunt 7.0, Filipe Teixeira 6.1 (Pele, 71 4.7), Bednar 7.2
Unused subs: Steele, Beattie
Manager: Tony Mowbray 5.0
Coventry:
6.5
(4-3-3) Konstantopoulos, McNamee, Ward, Turner, Borrowdale, Hughes, Doyle (Osbourne, 88), Tabb, McKenzie (Gray, 81), Best (Adebola, 87), Mifsud
Unused subs: Marshall, Cairo
Scorers: Bednar (51, 64)
Referee: Mark Clattenburg (Tyne & Wear) 5.0
Attendance: 20,641   Home Fans 4.9   Away Fans 5.8

Summary:

Does concededing four goals at home and having a man sent off have a familiar ring? It should, as it's exactly what happened last time we met Coventry City, three weeks and a day ago. The only difference is the sending off came within the last twenty minutes rather than the first, which is perhaps why the game ended 4-2 and not 4-0.

Rumours suggested that some of the Albion players, as well as manager Tony Mowbray, were suffering from 'flu - but Mowbray simply conceded that they looked mentally and physically jaded after a tough week of games and travelling. Coventry didn't, and took full advantage of sloppy defending early on through Leon Best and Michael Mifsud, playing his first game after the suspension earned in the last encounter.

Half time changes rejuvenated the home side, with Chris Brunt looking the pick of the midfield. Jonathan Greening played the ball out for Paul Robinson to cross and Roman Bednar to head home, and Brunt himself equalised thirteen minutes later although Bednar seemed to have claimed a very slight final touch.

But any hopes that Albion might have carried on and taken all three points were dashed five minutes later when Robinson went in late on Mifsud and picked up his second yellow, leaving Albion to finish the game a man down. With just over ten minutes left, that nearly became two men down when Dean Kiely handled outside the box, arguably denying a clear goalscoring opportunity - but with the Coventry fans baying for another red, referee Mark Clattenburg chose just to book him.

With a nervous keeper and a rather makeshift back four playing in a rather makeshift manner, midfielder Pele at centre half and Jared Hodgkiss swapping to left back after Robinson's dismissal, Coventry took full advantage and scored twice in as many minutes to bring Albion's undefeated home record crashing to an end. Albion hang on to second place, but with Watford, Charlton, Bristol City and Stoke all winning this would have been a very useful three points.

Col:

I've not read any of the other reports but lets be frank. Robinson aside the defence were a shambles first half, the two full backs (Hoefkens especially) were far to eager to push forward and considering the Coventry formation 4-3-3/4-5-1 (whatever you want to call it) this allowed space for their wide men to run into.

At centre half second half I thought Hoefkens was solid. Cesar had been awful, his fault both goals.

We played really well to get to 2-2 second half and this match would have been 3 points in the bag but for two moments of madness from Robinson. The first was a stupid booking, the second he would have gotten away with having not been previously booked but it was still unneccessasy.

I hate it when Barnett gets the ball, but defensively he is usually in the right place at the right time. Why Keily passed back to him instead of lumping the ball to row Z I have no idea for Coventry's third goal and I believe the pressure to be more of a footballer is the reason he tried to keep it in play and then attempt to retain possession. Every once in a while as a defender row Z is the right option.

Greening, Teixeira & Koren weren't great tonight but Brunt, who I thought was excellent made up for their lull. Bednar is playing up front of his own, he's winning the flick-on's but whomever out of Gera & Teixeira is detailed to do so, they are not getting beyond him, so it's a pointless excercise. He did a decent job in a difficult role.

I was impressed with the Coventry travelling few, they made a lot of noise. I think the fans & team were stunned by the first ten minutes and to be fair we weren't as vocal as we could have been.

Once we got back to 2-2 someone out on the field should have been saying right lets be sensible for 10 minutes, hold what we've thrown away but earned, then go for it in the last 10, don't do anything rash. Sadly it became a mad scramble to win the game in the next 5 minutes. I'd have settled for 2-2 tonight after the start we made to the game.

I'm not going to start about the officials, they were iffy, but the second Coventry goal wasn't offside. I didn't think so at the time and having watched the reply I'm sure they weren't.

yoggibear:

drove from london to watch the coventry match in freezing weather and im fed up. two things to note. firstly and very importantly is that kiely needs to be shipped out. he is a weak link for our team. he made the defence look unstable. his kicking and distribution of the ball was very very poor. secondly robinson lost his head once again and his first booking was totally silly and this guy is a big liability big time.

robinson's sending off completley changed the game and before then we were the team that was going to win the game, no problem. i reckon we are going to struggle now for december until miller, phillips and caesar return. we do not have strength in our squad because pele, beatie, chaplow, martis, tininho, steele, mcdonald are poor championship players...

we need to spend 6 million at least and buy 4 quality players inc goakeeper. gera will go in january for definate as he has been tapped up now. we need a quality young goalkeeper who will be good for the premier as well.... tactically TM screwed it up as well tonight. gera should not have come off it should have been greening who was poor. also caesar should not have played because he was injured...

Kev Buckley:

Robinson refuses to be outdone in defensive nightmare

Before we study the negatives, there were a number of positives to take from last night's game, which, but for a moment of madness dressed up as passion (and getting sent off if you are the only one in the side to show passion is aparently all right, according to some callers to WM), we looked likely to have gone on to win despite being two down inside the first fiften minutes.

The positives for me were that we played at a high tempo throughout the game despite Coventry sitting back and relying on their speed to break; Chris Brunt had one of his better ones, in fact had a stormer; Shergar MacDonald terrorised the Coventry left-back after coming on; MacDonald was brought on as part of another tactical master class by Mowbray that amazingly dispensed with both Bostin and Gera, two of the stars of the recent run of form, and finally we looked like coming back from two down to win the game.

So much for the unbridled joy for the purist though, the downside was that the defence went AWOL in more ways than one, though sadly the most telling way being the all too familiar display of "passion" from Robinson who thus turned the game for a second time that evening: the first had been when his lovely cross gave Bednar the opportunity to get the quick goal we needed after the break: the second when seeing the opportunity that being way out of position presented to him in getting up some steam, he ran a good long way across the pitch at full pelt and took out Mifsud with a challenge that you would have thought anyone already on a yellow would have thought at least twice about.

Sadly in those situations, we all know Robinson is merely capable of the one, albeit a passionate one, thought. Mifsud of course, simply got up, watched his assailant depart down the tunnel and went on to score later, as Coventry went from being well on the back foot to now being able to take the attack to a ten-man side forced into another tactical reshuffle. Oh yeah, and why was Mr Passion on a yellow card in the first place? Why, for giving away a needless foul in the opponent's box and then kicking the ball away.

Cov's first goal, after about five minutes, came when Bostin left the ball for Barnett to head clear and the latter missed it, then, as it bounced over his head, the player Ceasar had been shadowing nipped in to chip over Keily from just inside the box. Odd that, given that Keily normally gets stick for being rooted to his line. Why Coventry's Doyle should then feel the need to gesture and shout "F**k Off" at the BRE when joining in the celebrations should be something the League should look into, because if ever a player needed someone to run out of the stands and have a go, it was that prat.

Cov's second goal, not long after, saw Hoefkens off up the pitch, leaving Barnett to try and prevent the Cov wide player from delivering a ball into the box: Barnett didn't and the Cov player did, finding a colleague who was somehow able to work enough space in between all three of Keily, Robinson and Ceasar to stoop low and convert the cross from inside the six-yard box.

Albion kept trying to go forwards though but when their probing of Coventry's back six or seven (eight or nine ?) didn't come off, Coventry's breaks on more than one occasion had our backline at sixes and sevens. Albion had a lot of posession having gone two-nil down (though the way Coventry were set up they'd have probably had a lot of posession anyway) but seemed to struggle to really get Bednar a chance or get off a clear shot, though the cause wasn't helped by Keily's pumping of it long far too often.

Suffice to to say that at half-time things were not looking good.

Straight after half-time things started looking up, as Mowbray removed Cesar from centre back and brought on Hodgkiss to play on the right Not content with that, he took off Gera, and swapped Brunt over from the left and had MacDonald come on and play opposite him, at Bednar's left.

Almost immediately, MacDonald's pace and desire to go at the Coventry left back looked promising and all of a sudden the ball came out to Robinson in the acres of space created by the movement ahead of him. Robbo then put in what may well be his best cross of the season, (maybe even of his career ? It shouldn't be too hard to check) and Bednar accepted the invitation and powered the header home.

Dowie had been caught cold by the tactical switch and seemed to have no answer to it. Indeed, the man who's loyalty to his club runs to annoucing that if they get docked ten points then he's off, was probably still trying to work out what to do about MacDonald on the left when, out on the right, Brunt cut back onto his favoured foot and drove the ball across goal, Coventry's defenders were caught in the same headlights that had seemingly blinded Albion's rabbits in the first half and though Bednar seemed to have nipped in between two of them to finish, Brunt seemed happy to claim the goal.

Only one side in it at that point although Coventry's pace still offered some threat on the, now much scarcer, breaks. Sadly for the Albion, the sight of Mifsud running down the wing into a vacant left-back area was all too much for the out of position Robinson and he came across, no doubt seeing an opportunity to "make amends" for the Maltese's "challenge" on Hoefkens in the previous game (who comes up with two sides playing each other just three weeks apart anyway), and in many ways he did even things up, as, just as in the previous fixture, a stupid challenge saw its purportrator sent off and the ten team-mates the idiot then left on the pitch went on to lose the match.

However, not only were Albion down to ten men but Mowbray was now forced to bring on Pele at the back, Texiera being the sacrifice laid at the God of Passion's altar, Hodgkiss now moving over to the left, leaving Bednar all alone up front again.

However, having laid the blame squarely at Robinson's door, it has to be said that the goal that effectively settled it was yet another defensive calamity in itself, with Keily and Barnett being content to pass it between themsleves along the dead-ball line rather than clear until the pressure the failure to release was building up told, neither had the ball anymore, and into the back of the net it went.

A lot of home fans had left by the time the Sky Blues got the fourth: Robinson was probably just getting out of his early bath having ripped the head off a rubber duck - feel that passion!

Come to think of it, it's been long overdue that we tried to groom someone else at left back, and it now seems to be the one position in the side untouched by the move towards playing football with the brain approach, so maybe Mr Passion's ban might yet turn out be a blessing in disguise: shame he couldn't have waited for a game we were winning in which to revert to type.

On a poor night for the defence then, Robinson found a way to top all the errors. But just imagine if, as some callers to WM no doubt believe we should, we had all eleven players playing with such "passion" - would we ever finish a game?

JohnatFleet:

A poor team performance and some defenders need to occasionally put the ball into row z, as they should NEVER pass between themselves in the 6 yard box. Kiely has never really impressed as although a great shot stopper, he has never commanded the box and cannot kick. This is not the first time Robbo has let us down this season by his hot headedness and I think he is now too old to learn, undoing all the good work of some matches. Barnett's inexperience showed as Cesar was not at his best, and Pele, who gave them their 4th goal with '3 left feet', wasn't good enough to support Barnett, who will I believe become a very good Baggy in time.

On a positive note, Brunt was MoM and had his best game for us - fast, good, ball control and did his utmost to get the line moving. Bednar also had a useful game, but without much support, and MacDonald I think shows a lot of ability but lacks confidence which a run in the team might solve. Hodkiss tried to bring stability to the defence and shows much promise for me. Midfielders didn't have a particularly good game, but this good possibly be put down to Coventry who were better on the night. Perhaps this was our "nightus horriblus" - we hope.

John Wood:

I thought I'd send in a match report for last nights game.

I'm writing this report the day after the match, so I can be fairer in my own assessment of the game, but am I the only one who thought that was a great match to watch last night? Ok we lost, but the match had everything, goals, poor defending, poor officiating, a good atmosphere (at 2-2) & a poor atmosphere, (the rest of the game) Like every Albion fan who's been watching this season, it doesn't take a genius to see that we have a poor defence & we've got away with it at home for most of the season, due to the fact that most teams won't attack us. Coventry did just that & surprised the hell out of us. After the 2nd goal went in, I, along with plenty of supporters around me, were petrified everytime Coventry attacked. In all honesty they should have been 4 up at half-time. The 2nd half was a much better turnout from The Baggies, stronger, hungrier & looking like Mowbray had told them they won't get paid if they don't buck up their ideas & somehow get back into the game. At 2-2, there was only one winner, until we seemed to implode, big time. Yes I'm disappointed with Robinson & he is partly to blame for the loss (although he did setup the 1st goal with a great cross) but there were no excuses for the defending in the whole match & especially on the 3rd & 4th goals, the comic cuts from Kiely, Barnett & Pele are inexcusable. That said, I've been a season ticket holder for 10 years & I've never booed an Albion player & I'm not going to start now. I totally disagree with targeting certain players, as it can only make things worse in the long run. Barnett started the season well & has gradually gotten worse, so booing him isn't going to make him suddenly become good again??

On the plus side, Brunt seems to be finding his feet & Bednar looks to be a good signing, that said they were the only players to come out of last nights game with any credit.

Ratings:

  • Kiely - 3. Kicking poor, doesn't come off his line, needs competition.
  • Hoefkens - 5. 1st half, poor. 2nd half much better. Centre half Saturday?
  • Barnett - 4. Some last ditch challenges, but his passing is woeful. Should be dropped & replaced by Mowbray.
  • Cesar - 3. Very sloppy & taken off with a bad back, yeah right!
  • Robinson - 6. Committed, great cross for the goal, but let down the side with 2 silly yellow cards.
  • Greening - 4. His worst game for us this season. His standards have been so high this year, I suppose he was due a bad game?
  • Koren - 5. Tidy but ineffective.
  • Texeria - 6. Lovely footballer, but goes down to easily & goes missing sometimes.
  • Brunt - 7. His best game for us. I like the way he moves wings. If he keeps up that form from now on, he could be a major asset.
  • Bednar - 8. MOTM another 2 goals & held the ball up well, looked shattered after the 90 minutes, which shows 100% effort.
  • Gera - 4. Another poor home showing from Gera. Great one week, awful the next.

Subs.

  • Macdonald - 6. Looked good, but needs to be more direct.
  • Hodgkiss - 5. Nervous.
  • Pele - 4. Far too casual & seems to be a complete waste of money.

On Saturday its the meanest defence, against the strongest attack. Should be a nice 4-4 then?

smethwick batman:

Too brassed off last night to post. And too busy at work today ? sod all this midweek football cos of international rubbish. What is it about our lot and being top dogs? It's not a recent phenomenon - ever since I've watched the Albion we seem to bottle it just when it looks like we're going to be the boss side in a given League. We even won the Cup thanks to Jimmy Husband.

Last night we went back ten games in ten minutes with our defending. Coventry, to be fair, came at us with an attacking zeal from the kick off and we just couldn't cope. Cesar, so steady since he came in, was like a park footballer - which at least was better than Hoefkens who would have been jeered in a kickabout in the school playground. He was skinned over and over again by their left winger - a task made more comfortable for the lad as he had ten yards of space everytime he got the ball. Barnett looked terrified every time he had the ball. Only Robinson acquitted himself by holding up the right side attacking waves from Coventry as well.

When we settled into the game at last we passed with great panache and skill in the middle of the park but sadly little penetration up front despite a command performance from poor old Bednar who was a very willing but lonley workhorse. We had plenty of possession, moves that might have made it but we never got enough bodies up in support of Bednar no matter how well he did and our crossing was increasingly abandoned for wild long range shooting in frustration. Gera and Tex showed some lovely touches, Koren was tidy and Brunt looked dangerous on the left without ever actually threatening. Greening was so so. And none of them did enough to either get back and support the defence or get forward and support Bednar.

Worse was to follow second half. Cesar and Gera never came back on (the flu it's rumoured ?- Cesar certainly looked way out of sorts), Hodgkiss went to right back, Hoefkens in the middle, Brunt to the right wing, McDonald to the left. Coventry still looked menacing at times even though our possession and pressure was better and I really couldn't see us getting back in it. I hadn't counted on Roman Bednar whose second half performance eclipsed even his battling excellent first half showing. Robinson hit a blinding left wing cross into the box and Bednar outjumped two defenders to bullet a header past the stunned keeper. Bobby Hope to Astle! Big Jeff is back!

It was Bednar again who put the Cov keeper in a tizz trying to deal with a Brunt cross-come-shot. Whether he touched it or didn't, his presence caused the ball to spin off the keeper into the net. And we were suddenly level in a game that looked lost. Hindsight is a wonderful thing when you're not on the pitch in the thick of it but this was a time to slow things down, take stock, keep the ball and probably play for a point unless an opportunity came along to win it. Our lot kept bombing on, McDonald had plenty of ball but never beat his man and Bednar made some great runs that none of our midfielders could spot. And then calamity Robbo went back a whole season, let alone ten games, with a wild lunge and we were down to ten men.

Plenty of time left to fold now, especially with no natural left footer in defence and left footer Tex sacrificed in front of them to make way for Pele. Hoefkens went back to right back and Hodgkiss bizarrely to left. Although it looked like a disaster waiting to happen (and nearly did twice) we held on okay and even threatened at the other end largely again through the physical prescence of Bednar. But we looked like holding on until Kiely dummied an onrushing forward and passed the ball to Barnett on the left touchline barely three yards from the corner flag instead of hoofing up the park Mistake one. Barnett just about kept it in with his chest and instead of hoofing it up the park or row z passed it back to Kiely. Mistake two. Kiely instead of hoofing it up the park passed it out again to poor Hodgkiss who fumbled on the wrong foot and Coventry won possession and were in. Mistake three. Pele took the cross luckily but instead of hoofing it up the park or finding row z fumbled control in his own six yard box. (are you getting bored?) Mistake four. The ball luckily again fell to Koren level with the penalty spot who (instead of etc.) tried to control it and turn out of his own defence. Mistake five. Ball falls to Cov player at last who scores. I mean FIVE opportunities with ten men to just get bloody rid of the hot potato Kiely started tossing around? Scandalous.

The fourth goal was a simple triangle caused by having totally right sided defenders drawn in and a ball to, er, the left and across again. It had become a bit of a farce by then anyway whether he was offside or not ? I'm told not. Long before that we should have been down to nine men anyway with an outfield player in goal when Kiely blatantly handled the ball outside the box but the ref inexplicably only showed him a yellow. I think he'll be in trouble with the report from the watching ref official.

I haven't had a chance to check any news on this debacle so I may be supporting or contradicting what others have said. I don't know. But it's my fresh if late take on a match that is definitely best forgotten. Who and how we'll defend with at Leicester remains to be seen.

Player marks

  • Kiely 4 Some poor distribution again often rescued by Bednar's hard work only to get flick ons that nobody read or chased. Stunning (if lucky!) one handed save late on after he ballsed it up fannying around at the back again and the third goal, the killer, entirely down to him suddenly reverting to play it out sideways, badly, when we are down to ten men.
  • Robinson 4 Marked down despite being the only defender first half who held his ground because his daft dismissal cost us the points whatever part Kiely and the other four played. Indeed we might have won it with 11 on the park.
  • Cesar 4 I hope he was ill or injured or something because he had a shocker for the 45 minutes he played.
  • Barnett 5 - Looked particularly lost when Cesar went off and needed leading before that to be honest. Started with us getting his head and feet to balls and being a no frills row z defender. Now looks puzzled by having to play it out and made some bad choices again.
  • Hoefkens 3 And I've marked him up(!) for doing a reasonable job for a bit at centre half before swapping again with Hodgkiss. Unreal to be honest, marmalised.
  • Brunt 6 Looks menacing when he comes in from the wing but final ball/shot still not quite there. OK though if the rest had performed better.
  • Koren 6 Mixed it again but failed to support defence or attack enough for me.
  • Greening 5 There's a real problem with 4-5-1 especially when we're not on top in that it attracts Jonno for whatever reason to be the "available" player but he ends up watching rather than getting involved so his skills, especially in holding the ball and finding a teammate, are often lost. Hopeless support of the back four all night.
  • Tex 6 Lovely fluid stuff and touches again at times and supported Bednar as best he could but not a true inside forward.
  • Gera 6 As above
  • Bednar 9 Immense performance by an ever improving old fashioned centre forward. May seem odd giving anyone 9 in a game we've lost so abysmally but if the others had shown his application, supported him better or read his runs and flicks we'd have been laughing. Goals wise got us back in it on his own.

SkyBluePaul54:

Firstly may I take this opportunity to say thank you last night. The 3 points will be of help im sure.

Having read through this excellent fanzine with reviews of last nights match, you now know what its like to be humiliated, as like we were some 3 weeks ago. (i will not harp on about it, its history now) Having purchased and read the program I felt very humble that the thoughts of our club Coventry City should touch people in the Black County. We as the fans are the overall losers if administration does come, its beyond us what the board have done and people like me can only sit, hope and pray for a swift resolution.

May I thank you all once again, and who knows maybe we can be saved, and you the Boing Boing Baggies get too where you should be the Premiership (you are too good a side to be in this league).

Boing Boing.

Derby Bernie:

WHY?, WHY?, WHY?

Seven minutes to go and we're hanging on to a creditable 2-2 draw -considering we were 2 goals behind and Robinson has been sent off.

BUT the ball ends up at Barnett's feet on the left touchline deep into our half. Poor lad hasn't found an Albion player with a forward pass all evening. The best on offer being balls directly into touch - which, to be honest, were better than most of his efforts which went straight to the opposition.

SO when he plays the ball sensibly back to Kiely we all breath a sigh of relief. Obviously the goalie hasn't been watching Barnett losing possession consistently throughout the match. Instead of lumping the ball to safety up the field, Keilly decides to play it back to Barnett. Why? Why? Why? The inevitable happens. Barnett loses possession, they score - we lose the match. So avoidable.

Dave Watkin:

Sky Blues Shocker

Albion crashed to their first league defeat at The Hawthorns this season against Coventry City. We came back from two down to draw level with twenty-five minutes remaining, but the Sky Blues took advantage of a foolish sending-off and shambolic defending to score two late goals and end our eight match unbeaten run.

Tony Mowbray again picked an unchanged starting eleven, but switched Felipe Teixeira and Zoltan Gera, such that the latter began playing just behind Roman Bednar.

The tactical change looked like paying off when Roman Bednar put Gera through but the keeper saved the Hungarian?s shot at the near post. After three successive Albion corners it came as a shock when in the 6th minute Coventry took the lead. A long wind assisted punt eluded Cesar and Best, on the edge of the penalty box, nicked the ball over the advancing Kiely and it dropped just inside the far post. In the 11th minute, the lead was doubled in a very unsatisfactory manner. A Coventry player was offside in the build-up and then, when the ball was centred to Mifsud he seemed a yard ahead of the defence as he bent to nod home from inside the six yard box. After that, Albion struggled to keep possession, didn?t create any serious chances and could even have been further behind at the break.

The Manager was forced to withdraw Cesar through injury, bringing on Jared Hodgkiss at right back and moving Hoefkens to the centre. The switch of Gera and Teixeira, both so effective in recent games, hadn?t worked, so Gera was replaced by MacDonald.

The Baggies began the second period positively and were rewarded in the 51st minute with a goal. Paul Robinson controlled an accurate crossfield pass from Jonathan Greening and swung in a perfect centre to which Roman Bednar rose and headed powerfully home from close range. Albion kept the pressure on and earned a 64th minute equaliser. The big centre forward flicked a header on to Chris Brunt, now operating wide right, he cut back inside and hit a firm low left footed cross-come shot which may just have been touched by Roman Bednar past the keeper.

There looked to be only one winner, until five minutes later Albion were reduced to ten men. Paul Robinson had already picked up a pointless yellow card, for kicking the ball away in frustration after he had been penalised for a foul, when he recklessly scythed down Mifsud near the corner flag. He was the only person in the ground to be surprised when Mr Clattenburg produced another card. It could have been worse as later Kiely handled just outside his area, but saw yellow rather than red.

Albion brought on Pele for Teixeira but despite playing with ten men were still looking for a winner when disaster struck in the 83rd minute, due to suicidal over confidence in the makeshift defence, in which Pele was operating at centre half and Hodgkiss had been switched to left back. Kiely put Barnett under pressure wide left, who did the same to Hodgkiss by passing across goal, he lost possession, but Pele could still have put the cross into Row Z but let it run through his legs to Best who clipped a shot over Kiely. Despite a desperate attempt by young Hodgkiss to clear with an overhead kick, the goal was given, as the ball had already crossed the line. In the 85th minute Coventry completed the humiliation. One player waltzed through the non existent defence, slipped a pass to Best, who was probably offside as he squared to Mifsud for a tap-in.

Very few Albion players enhanced their reputations in this match, but I can pick out three. Chris Brunt had his best game of the season, a difficult achievement in this performance, but he was behind most of our best moves. However, despite the announcement at the time I?m pretty sure he didn?t score Albion?s second goal. It was Roman Bednar, who despite being isolated up front led the line well. Sherjill MacDonald injected pace down the left and helped bring us back into the match. Worryingly, due to our defensive problems and injuries, we have no obvious replacements for Bostjan Cesar, already suspended for the match at Leicester on Saturday and Paul Robinson, who will also miss that game.

The team and particularly Paul Robinson may live to regret throwing away three points for it?s likely that, with twenty minutes remaining and Albion in the ascendancy, we?d have been celebrating victory rather than cursing defeat had we not lost a man.

The Baggies retain 2nd spot, just. After 20 games we?re six points better off than last season. Compared with this stage in the two promotion seasons, we trail our 2003-04 total by five points and are exactly level with the points accumulated in 2001-02.

STATISTICS

Albion have ruined an impressive recent home league record against Coventry City. Before last night, we hadn?t conceded a single goal since Cyrille Regis scored for the Sky Blues in November 1984 and hadn?t lost for over a quarter-of-a-century! What?s more, this defeat was our biggest against City at The Hawthorns in any competition.

ALBION FORMRATE: POOR

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: CHRIS BRUNT