West Bromwich Albion 3 - Tottenham Hotspur 3

oshawabaggie:

Another 2 points thrown away. It should have been clear from previous games (Villa twice and Cardiff for example) that we can't defend two goal leads by sitting deep and soaking up pressure. Defensively we just aren't good enough. Foster, Ollie and Mac can only do so much. You got the feeling that if we'd had a 5 goal lead they would have still come back to nick a point. There was nothing wrong with our spirit or effort, but tactically we played the wrong game in the second half.

I thought taking off Sessegnon for Yacob was therefore a mistake. By having only one up front and dropping deep we handed the game to Spurs.

With Cardiff and Fulham winning it looks like it might come down to the last game - again.

Didcot Baggie:

Talk about a game of two halves. Albion full of life first half, pressing, using the pace of Vydra and Sess, with Morgan taking players on, Brunt looking on form. Went 3-0 up. I don't know what the half time team talk was (perhaps simply "don't stuff this up"), but we hardly mounted an attack second half and eventually let Spurs in for the draw after nervy sometimes panic-ridden play.

I'm afraid the coach has got to take some of the rap here - he has to see what is going on and order instructions from the touchline - and if players are not performing take them off and bring on those who will.

• Foster - Good penalty save and kept us in it throughout the game. Not much he could do about the goals.
• Reid - Sorry Reidy, but you were not up to it today. Too easily found out by Spurs pace and always looked a liability. Hopefully Billy Jones back soon.
• Ridgewell - You'll know what sort of game it was when I tell you he was my Man of the Match. Good in the air, put in some good tackles and played the ball forward well.
• Olsson - Usual gutsy performance resulting in an injury to be replaced by Dawson who did OK
• Big Mac - Did his best to soak up the 2nd half pressure.
• Brunt - Fantastic first half, almost disappeared second half.
• Dorrans - See above
• Mulumbu - Not his day today, gave the ball away too easily.
• Morgan - Tormented Spurs defence 1st half, dropped back second half and was less influential.
• Sess - Used his pace first half to score a good goal and was unlucky to go off early to be replaced by Yacob to shore up midfield. Who did OK.
• Vydra - Looked a threat first half and took his goal well. Was used as a target to run off the shoulder of the defender which he did well. But looked knackered by half time and should have gone off earlier. Eventually replaced by Saido, who perhaps fearing another punch from Jimmy, ran to the corner flag at every opportunity.

Ref was poor and certainly gave Spurs more of the 50:50 decisions.

So the relegation battle goes on and I saw nothing to suggest we won't still be fighting for our lives come the last game against Stoke.

Paul Gainham:

It?s becoming clearer to me that Mel?s time with us is akin to a shotgun wedding and after yesterday, I wish I was holding the shotgun.

How, please god above explain how, we can be brilliant for the opening ~25 mins and then truly abject, awful for the last 45? The reality is Spurs could and should have won this 5-3, we caught them cold with some great pressing movement right at the start but then they woke up and dominated the game. Foster was the only reason we managed to get a point yesterday.

Strange isn?t it that I am sure we would all have settled for a point yesterday and yet it feels like a defeat given the position we found ourselves in after ~20 mins and yet once they scored you could see how brittle, how fragile we are at the moment. We lack true leadership on the pitch and it really was just a matter of time until Spurs pulled us back.

One thing that really concerns me is our fitness levels. I have witnessed on a few occasions now how we look completely knackered towards the end of the game where the opposition still look full of running ? whatever we are doing on the fitness side needs changing, quickly.

After last week where the pendulum swung back in our favour, with our result and those around us it has swung back to the middle, we still have points and GD in our favour but winnable games are running out. WHU, Sunderland and Stoke are our only hope of getting the 4/5 points we need to be safe. IF we can start like we did yesterday, none of these 3 are anywhere remotely near as good as Spurs were at times yesterday so I still have hope but it?s a fine balance. If we retreat into our shell like we did 2nd half again, we are gone, relegated.

Mel simply got it wrong yesterday. Yacob added nothing and sent completely the wrong signal to the rest of the team when he came on and it was crying out for Anichebe to come on to hold the ball up. He did neither and the end result was all too depressingly predictable.

I think we have all had enough time now to begin assessing Mel and personally it just does not look like it will work. The players we have wont fit the style he really wants to play, Peace wont sanction a wholesale investment to suit that style and we therefore end up in a compromise position. Wrong, wrong, wrong. You employ a manager BECAUSE of his philosophy and style, based on that I think Mel is now a dead man walking and wherever we end up next year, he will be gone.

Another sorry epitaph in this most woeful of seasons

Player Marks

• Foster 9 MOTM Some brilliant saves, kept us in it
• Reid 5 Showed what he is, slow and too old for this level
• Olsson 6 Not his best game, went off injured
• McCauley 5 Struggled against Adebayor
• Ridgewell 8 Definitely his best game for us to date
• Mulumbu 3 VERY poor, no idea what planet he was on but it was not planet Hawthorns
• Dorrans 6 OK first half, disappeared second
• Brunt 6 Great goal, OK first half, disappeared second
• Sessegnon 6 Great goal, mostly OK first half, pretty much disappeared second half
• Amalfitano 6 Looked threatening in the first 25 mins then slowly disappeared from the game
• Vydra 6 Took his goal well but we stopped playing to his one strength, pace.

Subs

• Yacob 3 Did nothing, looked completely unfit
• Berahino 6 Tried and chased things down but he was left up on his own
• Dawson 4 Out of his depth at this level

Coach 4 We came out of the block well but his substitutions put the seal on Spurs? comeback ? needs to do something on squad fitness urgently

Takapuna Baggie:

So.
4.01 this morning....Jeff Stelling on NZ tv....second time in a fortnight. Shame....
Have to beat West Ham.
Have to hope Sunderland are relegated by the midweek game.
Nothing against the Mancs and Arsenal.
Pathetic that it has come to this

Then, give Mel a proper chance, or employ McInnes and Paul Clement and get some heart back into it.

COYB

Talyllyn Baggie:

I think most of us would have taken a point before the start of the game and that's what we ended up with. However, the disappointment of not taking all three after going 3-0 up was there to be seen.

One of my favourite films is Zulu, where the valiant defenders are submitted to wave after wave of attacks, gradually buckling under the strain. From my position around level with the 18 yard line at the Smethwick End, the second half was just a relentless tide of blue shirts bearing down on our goal(did we have a shot on target in the second half?). At one point I turned to the wife and took a line from the film: 'Here they come again!', which seemed quite apposite.

It was only a matter of time.

In answer to Paul's question of why our players look so exhausted, it's because they have to spend a considerable amount of energy trying to close down a squad assembled at a cost of ?80+m and in response have nothing to offer but blood, sweat & tears. They did give everything but again, it wasn't enough on the day.

I do however feel that we need a sense of perspective. When things like this occur, I look back to a game I saw in November 1991. We drew 1-1 with Bury in front of around 8,500 poor souls in the old 3rd Division & to be honest from what I remember, Bury were the better side on the day.

What happens in the close season will probably determine our long term future, more than what happens up to the 11th of May.

Baggyjon:

First the positive. Last season in games No. 20 to 33 under Steve Clarke we picked up 12 points This season in games No.20 to 33 we have picked up 15 points.

My statitiscal prediction is that even if we only pick up 2 more points we should stay up with Sunder on 30, Cardiff on 31, Norwich on 33 and Fulham on 35. Worst case scenario would be to lose all 5 games and Fulham to get 35.

The fact that we seem to be able only to play 45 minutes in any game comes back to the average age of the squad, especially the current back 4 who are willing but are not physically able to play or counter pace for 90 minutes. This glaring oversight should have been addressed 2 years ago. It is now probably to late for even if we stay up this year we will surely be relegated next season.

Not enough quality in a team that still has the look of the team that was promoted 5 years ago. That is down to the policy of solvency on a shoestring, which is laudable in many respects but does tend to give supporters false hopes and dreams.

We have come far in the last 10 years and I do remember being on the terraces watching Willie Johnston run rings around Blackburn in front of 8500. However unless we find a manager with Premiership credentials and another Dan Ashworth I fear a spell in the second tier which may not be as easy to extract from as in previous times.