West Bromwich Albion 3 - Sheffield United 1

Dave Watkin:

Baggies sharpest in Blades clash

Albion eased past promotion hopefuls Sheffield United at The Hawthorns. Both sides benefited from fortunate penalties, but were separated by two classy goals from the home side.

Roberto Di Matteo kept an unchanged formation and team for the fourth game in a row.

Albion made a bright energetic start with Jerome Thomas particularly prominent. However the opening goal, in the 18th minute, arrived in bizarre circumstances. Dorrans took on the visiting defence and just inside the penalty area, when the ball bobbled, Montgomery nudged it away from the midfielder. The referee instantly awarded a penalty, to the surprise of most of the crowd and Graham Dorrans himself stepped up to convert easily. The Baggies continued to dominate and only a mix-up between Brunt and Bednar prevented a second. However, we needn’t have worried, because in the 31st minute we scored a glorious goal from a move which began in our own six yard box. Neat inter-passing between Tamas, Brunt and Mulumbu freed Gonzalo Jara who played a pinpoint crossfield ball to Bednar. The Czech striker released Jerome Thomas wide left and carried on running. The winger slid the ball behind the defence for Roman Bednar to clip his shot past the advancing keeper Bunn. He could and should have had another before the break, when he intercepted an inept back pass, took the ball around Bunn, but hit the side-netting.

The Blades must have had a roasting at half time, because they resumed in a much more determined mood. In the 48th minute that extra commitment paid off. A sharp pass into the Albion box was about to be cleared by Mulumbu, when Quinn nipped in front of him and instead of the ball he connected with the player. Another penalty and Henderson gave United a lifeline. Not for long though, for in the 50th minute Albion were again two goals ahead. Graham Dorrans picked out Jerome Thomas with a ball over the top, the nippy winger cut inside and his goalbound shot was helped into the net by a deflection off Morgan. United remained competitive, too much so in the case of substitute Camara, who pushed his fist into Olsson’s face, but received only a telling off, rather than a red card. Albion never reached the heights of the first half, but came close to increasing the margin of victory in the final minute, when Graham Dorrans curled a right footed shot towards the top corner, only for Bunn to push the ball clear.

Sheffield United arrived at The Hawthorns on the back of three Championship wins in a row, but Albion made them look ordinary, particularly in the first half. We were awarded a soft penalty to set us on our way, but the second goal was worthy of winning any game, a sweeping move from one penalty box to the other and a sweet finish. The Blades were given a lifeline with an equally fortuitous spot kick, but our clinching goal, from a quick breakaway, put us back in the box seat and we could have had more.

I thought Youssouf Mulumbu was superb in the first half, winning the ball and controlling the midfield. Jerome Thomas was a threat throughout, terrorising the United defence. Roman Bednar led the line intelligently and not only scored the best goal of the game, but was heavily involved in its build up. Any of those players were worthy of the man-of-the-match award, but overall my vote goes to Graham Dorrans, who just displayed more and more inventiveness and skill as the game went on.

STATISTICS

When we opened the scoring it was our first goal against Sheffield United at The Hawthorns for nine years (and ten days to be exact), in 294 minutes of play. However, over the years our home record against the Blades is reasonably good. For instance, in the last fourteen games, since we were relegated from the 1st Division in 1986, we’ve won eight and drawn two.

ALBION FORMRATE: GOOD

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: GRAHAM DORRANS

Albion remain third, but as Forest lost to a Rob Hulse goal at Derby County, a win at Blackpool on Wednesday would see us back in an automatic promotion slot.

WBAlex:

The football played in the first half by Albion was some of the best I've seen this season. They made Sheff. Utd. look quite ordinary with some fantastic attacking at speed, both down the right and left flanks. Thomas has got to be the find of the season. He's the type of winger who is a nightmare to contain, because he commits defenders, and usually needs a double bank of markers. Was fitting that he scored after his performance today. Jara was back to his best today and combined well with Brunt and Dorrans down the right. With decent finishing in and around the six yard box Albion could and should have had several more goals. Still, you can't criticise Bednar who is extremly powerful on the ball. He is able to hold onto the ball until he is joined from midfield, unlike other strikers Albion have used this season. His goal though was the classic end product of Albion breaking very quickly with excellent inter-passing. Dorrans is gaining in confidence all the time, which allows him to try tricks on the ball without losing any of his vigour breaking forward from midfield. The other player deserving a special mention is Olsson who made some very important interventions, where Albion sides in past seasons would have conceded goals.

All in all Roberto Di Matteo and his team have improved the squad from last season. The defence is alot more organised amd the team is more resilient. My fear that we would see less attractive football this season is not borne out. The football today was just as sharp and technically as good as anything under Mowbray. However, I still think another goalscoring forard is needed to help round off the excellent wing play and runs from midfield.

smethwick batman:

Well a comfortable win in the end in a potentially very dangerous fixture given our home form, their six match unbeaten run, Dorrans and Bednar vying for man of the match in the last four games but both apparently out of the frame.

Jitters, even if Forest had lost.

But the first half was a bit of golden Albion. Both "injured" players were in the starting line up and looked fine, indeed impressive, Sheff Untidy were frankly shocking for a side in the play off positions (our excellence or how bad this division is? Today certainly a bit of both first half) and some of our play was scintillating.

We'd taken the lead with a definite but realy daft penalty (what was the defender thinking of?) and 5-0 at half time wouldn't have flattered us such was the dominance, comfort and creation of chances up front.

Comfort certainly at times from Dozza which would have had us howling at him in a tight game but had us chuckling and cheering in this one. I forgot to mention the stunning nutmeg in the Newcastle cup game and he followed it up today with some stunning cheek as he grows in confidence in his ability. A sublime wrong foot back heel to Cech and a turn of a midfielder ("I'm over here mate - I don't know where you're going") stood out among many.

Thomas was on bloody fire. Ants in pants and where's me bath at half time? My ass is burning.

Bednar? Frightened them to death like JT (chant "Are you !@@@!ing Mattock's wife?" etc. You had to be there). Missed a sitter in a sublime five man move (can't tell you who - ball moved too fast!) which would cetainly have been our goal of the season if not the coco colas.

"Worse than Millers. At least he hit the post" as some wag put it next to us but truly in jest, not anger, we were so in control and so glorious a move it was.

Sure enough two minutes later Roman played his own part again in setting up a move which played him back in 30 yards from goal and he finished like Lionel Messi. Seen it since on the telly and it don't look that special from in front of goal but trust me from behind the goal in the Smethwick it was fantastic movement of feet for a big, bulldozing Astle of a thing. Eat your heart out George Best.

He contrived to miss another sitter when he rounded the keeper and put it in the side netting but we didn't care. We went in at half time so in command and with a two nil cushion everyone had lost the jitters and the players, to be fair, never seemed to have them in the first place.

Blackwell inevitably had a bark in the dressing room and Untidy at least started finding a red and white shirt but within five mins were given a well dodgy penalty when Mulumbu's innocuous "tackle" was judged a foul. Stll swings and roundabouts and all that given our recent history!

Big Henderson buried it and that was again the turning point of the game for us - because Thomas, who clearly hadn't been able to wash all the fire ants off his body at half time thank goodness, rampaged up the other end again and drove a beauty in frm outside the box off a defender's backside.

Unfortunately it was a pretty drab second half from then on largely with lots of thankfully well defended possession for the Blades due to a Bob Matthews decision which literally made no sense to me or anyone else in the ground.

He took off Koren and put Cox on! Barking. Koren playing very well and both freeing Dorrans to cause havoc and Mulumbu to chase the ball. 4-5-1 perfect and still 3-1 up. Injured? Dunno but switch Jara into the middle and put Zoovy on (which he did anyway later cos Gonzalo was out weakest link and had a poor game but he coud have shored up the middle). And if you want to go 4-4-2 Cox not Miller? Hello. Do the math. Go figure. Ish would have terrified this lot.

There were a couple of occasions of nasty handbags (their ginger nut on Tamas for feigning a header take out - it's allowed you twonk - and Camara on Ollsen when the lino, who was asked by the ref, should have said red card IMHO) and we still created some rare but excellent chances on the break but we are at home FFS Bob! You do worry me mate.

To say we "hung on" would be unjust given the scoreline but this lot were there for a hammering an nearly got back in it. Still a fine win and we're back in the chase given other results.

Player marks

• Carson 6 Not a lot to do and competent but he just don't charge at all. One first half free kick and the wall (too long a story to tell) sums this up and "captain" Ollsen was as useless.
• Cech 8 Excellent. Some misplaced passes second half but hey! Why not join in? Everybody else is doing it. Hope Monday 5pm passes quickly.
• Ollsen 7 Defended well mostly but easily sucked left and in trouble and still that nutty wild head at times.
• Tamas 8 Covered the captain well. Very cultured, very composed, stayed on his feet all game. Growing on me big time though still a couple of dodgy positions at time but over 90 minutes against a physical side impressive.
• Jara 5 Subbed eventually and looks a bit dodgy at right back for some reason.
• Thomas 9 Hopefully has no cold running water in his flat in Tipton so his ass will still be stinging in February. I'll go round and put a wasp's nest in his garding otherwise. This was always a risk signing given his record and injuries but he has done well overall so far and he looked today like a prem player big time.
• Mulumbu 7 Tackled well and contributed overall but he can destroy much better with a link man like Koren to pick up the pieces. Tired badly second half again and not so sure that's just the barking mad change of formation. Probably needs to learn pacing 90 minutes.
• Dorrans 8 Cheeky monkey also suffers without a third midfielder (Brunt and JT are wing huggers) but still showed some great energy and style.
• Koren 8 Am I missing something? Linked it all up brilliantly. Hope Monday 5pm passes quickly.
• Brunt 6 Mmmmmm. No, really, what is going on here? Just don't get involved in games anymore and the rest (though understandably) are always looking for the Thomas ball.
• Bednar 8 Looking real good at this level again now and getting match fit. Got himself off the Charlie but has now sold his stash to JT. Still, as long as the FL testers don't find out....

Davo from Dudley:

A game of 2 halves really. The showing during the first half would have made the premiership top 4 struuggle. Passes were sublime, tackles were excellently made, and we thoroughly deserved a half time lead, although I thought it should have been more than the 2-0.

Second half started poorly with their penalty bringing them back into it.(Yes Mr Mulumbu, you did kick him and yes it was a pen) After JT restored the 2 goal advantage, in my opinion the game fizzled out somewhat. The only real criticism was the referee. Some of the Sheff Utd tactics went totally unnoticed. A great example was the little tw*t dingle reject who appered to slap Big Ollie round the face. Had Ollie gone down in a heap instead of retaliating, I'm sure Mr Dingle Reject whould have got his come uppance.

Two down sides on the day:

1. Overall performance of Brunty AGAIN!!!! Did very little to warrant his selection and spent the whole afternoon moaning at the referee and his team mates. JT (unless injured) should have stayed when Mattock came on.
2. 5th booking for Jara which is an automatic 1 match ban.

Overall great afternoon at the Office, 3 points and Derby doing us a favour.

Brendan Clegg:

Well it finished 3-1 but we could have scored 5 or 6 today without being flattered.

I thought it was an excellent performance again, and since the debacle against Forest we have battered the opposition in each game we have played despite only having a couple of draws in the league to show for it.

The switch back to 5 in midfield and the return of Bednar, Koren, Cech and Mulumbu to the side are in my opinions the reason for our obvious improvement.

Bednar runs through brick walls every game and whether he is a better technical footballer than Luke Moore we'll probably never know but he runs himself into the ground and fights for every ball or lost cause - If he'd have been started for the the majority of games he's been available for this year I'm sure we'd be top of the pile now.

Koren and Mulumbu have enabled Dorrans to flourish, liberated from being a work horse he is showing terrific quality as an attacking midfielder and looks better than anything else I have seen in this league there.

Mulumbu does not look physically strong but he is so quick over 5 yards he gets a foot in and is not weak - his only let down is when he believes his own hype and starts trying to play the ball more than is required instead of giving it 5 yards sideways but when he keeps it simple he is also a very adept one-touch footballer and helps us retain the ball and break at speed.

Koren, beyond the above, has given us real ground coverage again and it is no coincidence that with him in the side we are now seeing some of the best passing football since Mowbray left.

Cech just gives us balance and apart from a couple of poor passes yesterday is so comfortable on the ball that we can safely switch the play his way and know that we are going to keep it - something you just didn't have confidence in with Mattock who would take an age to control it before firing a hopeless punt up the line or in to touch.

Without going on, we bossed it, won a dubious penalty and conceded one before going 3 -1 up (great ball from Dorrans, great pace from JT but really clever play from Bednar to block the covering centre halve from coming across to cover) and then RDM made some strange changes which meant although we never looked threatened we hardly looked threatening either apart from the odd great break where we should have done better.

Would like to have seen Miller get some minutes against this shower - quality of the league really is showing again.

I would counter that RDM has made us any better at this stage - the last few results have basically come from a revert back to the 4-5-1 we found our feet in the Prem with last year and all Mowbray buys apart from JT, Tamas and Jara (both of which you could argue are keeping out better players that Mowbray bought). But he did see where we going wrong after Forest and made the changes, something Mowbray did fail to do for too long last year.

• Carson 6 - Not a lot to do, some more moments where he doesn't shout.
• Cech - 7 Another high level of performance and partnership with JT continues to blossom.
• Ollie - 7 Did the job again.
• Tamas - 7 Better with every game - I still think playing him against Forest was an unfair thing to do to him but starting to look like a right footed Ollie - I'll take that.
• Jara - 6 Could have got sent off but did OK. Would still play Loon there.
• JT - 8 Works better in a 5 man midfield and was hungry for the ball all game. Excellent.
• Dozza - 8 Ran the show again.
• Mulumbu - 6 Guilty of overplaying and although the pen was harsh it was a silly risk. Still worth his place though.
• Koren - 7 Can't understand why he was taken off when you had...
• Brunt - 6 Works better on the right in a 5 man midfield but still not the article there. Imagine a player like Thomas on the right too - A fit Giles Barnes? Would make us even better I think.
• Bednar - 8 Should have had a hat trick and finished the hardest chance he had in between 2 sitters but another warrior like display.

Subs

• Cox - 6 a couple of great touches but not quite with it.
• Mattock - 6 Did OK.
• Loon - 6 Did OK.

Big game Wednesday - Same 11 (apart form Loon for Jara) if we can please RDM.

Boverton Baggie:

A creditable win. However, it was not a penalty for the Albion which gave us the lead. Overall a good performance by most of the players. Hopefully Koren was substituted only to allow him to rest for the next game. Brunt should have gone as he was mainly moaning at the referee and players. Jara after supporting his fellow defender Tamas who was scythed to the ground was tormented by the United players and wisely substituted. Olsen stood his ground against the hard tackling United players. Carson produced good saves, but he still does not control his area. Lets hope we continue to win and get back up to the automatic promotion places.