Bristol City 2 - West Bromwich Albion 1

Date:	Sunday 21st February 2010
Competition:	Coca-Cola Championship
Bristol C: 6.4
WBA: 4.3	(4-5-1) Carson 5.6, Zuiverloon 4.9 (Wood, 80 4.6), Tamas 5.7, Olsson 5.2, Mattock 2.8, Brunt 3.9, Dorrans 6.5, Mulumbu 6.1, Koren 4.3 (Cox, 61 4.7), Nouble 3.0 (Slory, 56 3.6), Bednar 6.1 Unused subs: Kiely, Moore, Meite, Thorne Manager: Roberto Di Matteo 4.4
Scorers:	Dorrans (24)
Referee:	Neil Swarbrick (Lancashire) 5.5
Attendance:	14,174 Home Fans 5.5 Away Fans 5.6

Dave Watkin:

Throstles tire and Robins rampage

At half time Albion seemed to be heading for a comfortable win against Bristol City at Ashton Gate, but a lack-lustre second half performance allowed the home side to take all three points.

There were two changes. Roman Bednar returned from injury to replace Luke Moore and Youssouf Mulumbu resumed after suspension at the expense of Andy Slory.

Albion had the better of the opening exchanges, but a move which culminated in a Dorrans shot was balanced by a speedy run from Haynes which left Mattock for dead. When Bednar was sent free through the centre he was tackled fairly by a defender, but then as both scrambled for the ball he appeared to be pulled down on the edge of the box, but no foul was given. The Baggies were driving forward inspired by Mulumbu and Dorrans and in the 25th minute the two began the move which led to the opening goal. Roman Bednar took over, finding Chris Brunt on the left and then racing in to meet the cross. The keeper saved at his feet, but the defence failed to clear any further than Gianni Zuiverloon, who picked out Graham Dorrans with a measured pass and the Scotsman calmly picked his spot before firing past Gerken into the bottom corner. When Jonas Olsson found Bednar inside the area, he did well to sidestep a defender but shot weakly at the keeper. Nevertheless, for all their endeavour, the home side didn?t look likely to achieve a breakthrough.

After the break the complexion of the game changed as the Robins hassled more and Albion?s passing game broke down. However, when City equalised from a 55th minute corner, TV replays cast doubt on the validity of the goal. The ball was swung into the six yard box and nudged on by the arm of Carey, before it dropped perfectly for Iwelumo to tap home. In the 59th minute the game was turned on its head when City scored a second. Haynes shrugged off a weak challenge by substitute Slory and ran at the Albion defence before pulling the ball back across goal to Johnson, one of two unmarked players on the back post, who simply side-footed home. We looked for the Baggies to raise their game, but apart from a break when Roman Bednar squared for Slory who blasted over, it was the Robins who looked more likely, with Haynes going past Mattock at will. Then, after the City winger was replaced by Sproule, the new man was able to do exactly the same. Despite bringing on Cox and then Wood, for a defender, the best Albion could manage was to create two chances for Bednar, both of which were comfortably saved by Gerken.

If ever there was a game of two halves, then this was it. In the first period it was business as usual, with the Baggies showing their extra class and Graham Dorrans producing an excellent finish from our only clear-cut chance. After the interval Bristol City harried our players, got a lucky break with the first goal and followed that with the simplest of seconds. Maybe we were suffering from tiredness, but from then on they were fitter, quicker in every department and we deteriorated into playing long balls. It was undoubtedly the poorest forty-five minutes of the season.

Where were the problems? At the back Mattock lacked the pace to deal with the City wide men and that meant we were very vulnerable down the left. It didn?t help that Nouble and Slory were both anonymous in front of him, on these performances neither look as though they will play a significant role this season. The crucial moment this season may prove to be the sending-off of Thomas at Plymouth; we are a much less threatening team without him. Graham Dorrans was the best player on the park in the first half, but faded after the break, so my man-of-the-match award goes to Youssouf Mulumbu who never stopped working. Koren and Brunt seemed unable to raise their games when required in the second half, hence we handed midfield dominance to City.

STATISTICS

Albion were unbeaten in the previous five games against Bristol City. Fixtures away to the Robins have always been close. In twenty-two league and cup matches, our most recent win, by 3-1 on Sunday 13th September 1998, with a goal by James Quinn and two from Lee Hughes, equalled the largest victory by either side.

ALBION FORMRATE: MIXED

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: YOUSSOUF MULUMBU

After both our main rivals won at home on Saturday, Albion are back in 3rd place, trailing Newcastle United by six points and Forest by one, but with a game in hand.

cliff61:

How crap was that?

I mean, seriously? strolling around at 1-0 up as if we thought we were something special. Koren was absolutely useless and Brunt was worse than useless, our defence is still lightweight, the full backs I mean, no improvement there since Mowbrays time. Greedy forwards who just want to shoot and the same can be said of the midfield players when they get into or around the box, we make the same mistakes we made under Mowbray.

If we want to be a passing team then sometimes we have to continue passing even inside the box, because time and time again we have players over but the player on the ball only has one thing on his mind "I want to score and be the hero". Noble and Brunt hardly broke into a sweat and I'm fed up seeing a team playing without passion (and a manager who dosent seem to have it). How can Carson be Captain? did anybody see him shouting at the player? Did any Albion player show any leadership qualities? NO!!!, so no change there since Mowbray either.

Mike Holder:

I have never seen such a poor performance from a baggies side, we kept giving the ball away, and whilst I have always been a fan of Koren I thought he was very poor today. I can quite understand why he was taken off.

Its difficult to blame team selection with so many players unavailable. Most of them looked off the pace, jaded and even uninterested. Chris Brunt looked shattered.

We desperately need someone who can just hold the ball, slow it down and retain possession.

Another wake up call.

Neil:

It was poor alright but how long have you been following the baggies Mike? I have seen many performaces far worse than that over the years!

Looked a tired team today but some individual performaces were shocking. In particular Mattock, Brunt and Koren also very little from Nouble.

Mattock will get murdered in the Prem (if we get there) all Haynes has got is pace, nothing else.

Brunt looked completely out of it, maybe he needs a game or two out.

KOren can't have the same excuse given the number of games he has played. Absolute rubbish, just gave the ball away and as we know incapable of making a tackle.

Dorrans along with Mulumbu by far our best players. Dorrans faded somewhat but we can't rely on him every game. There was not enough support from other players on the pitch.

Thought Bednar did ok, his usual 100% effort but again not enough support.

As for our tactics, we did seem to play the ball long far too often giving the ball away and putting ourselves under pressure. I don't think we gained much from Carson's quick long balls either.

A bit concerned that we have to play yet another game on Wednesday (please no extra time!) and then Derby 3 days later. Derby will have a full week off and they wil play very much like Bristol did today, pressure on the ball, long balls up to Hulse etc and they wil be a lot fresher than us.

At least we will have Thomas available again. In my opinion he is a huge miss and is so dangerous when running at defenders.

Paul Barnsley:

I would agree with Neil on the level of performance - we were worse than today 6 weeks ago against Forest!!!

What was really poor today was that the game was there for the taking. We were 1 up and controlling it against a team palpably lacking in confidence. If we could have seen out the predictable 15 minute onslaught at the start of the second half then we would have won comfortably imho.

That we didn't was down to (1)our inability to keep the ball and control the tempo of the game. I have written many times about why we don't have that ability any more and I won't labour the point.

(2)We also suffered from too many below par performances (Dorrens 2nd half after running the game first half, Koren, Tamas, Brunt again but he is clearly undroppable and Nouble) and (3) the usual cluelessly stupid changes by Matthews which wrecked the formation and meant we carried too many sub standard players e.g. Cox.

Buttock was/is/and always will be an accident waiting to happen. No pace, no technical ability, no passing ability and no clue generally. He was clearly idenftified by Brizzle as the weakest link and they exploited this from minute one.

Finally many congratulations to the BBC for their hilarious commentrary. These 3 gems from Keown stand out:

Albion play total football, even the defenders look to play (just as Olsson hoofs it aimlessley for the millionth time)
Chris Brunt has got a great left foot (just as Brunt uses it to give the ball away, this time from free kick, for the millionth time)
West Brom will now go through the gears (just after they went 2-1 up and Matthews tactical awareness was at it's peak with Cox introduced in the Dennis Bergkamp role)

Mulumbu played well I felt and Dorrens was outstanding in the first half - the rest is best forgotten quickly.

BomberNev:

What a noddy performance!

In total control in the first half with Dorrans and Malumbu dominating the midfield. Warning signs were there though - with Mattock absolutely useless and so slow, he couldn't tackle his granny nevermind the young bristol winger. Not many chances on goal in first half really. Brunt looks totally knackered and in the second half was hopeless too. Nouble didn't feature. The second half we were nobbled big time. Our tackling was crap, our passing game nowhere to be seen. Both their goals done to bad marking and defenders who do not deserve to be called defenders. How we miss jara. Can't wait for Morrison to get back and Ish too. On this form I can see us ending up third say 10 points clear of fourth and then losing the playoffs and being faced with players wanting to leave - ceck, koren, dorrans... ps. I would deduct half a weeks wages to all 11 players for not turning up in the second half!

over and out

Illawaysbeabaggie:

Haven't posted for a while, as I haven't had the opportunity of getting to many matches, so watching the live match today was welcome and I looked forward to it. Now, at the risk of seeming as if I only post comment when we are awful..... I'm sure we've played much better than that - otherwise how are we where we are - but that display confounds our position, and the opinion expressed by Martin Keown at the start, that 'we're the best footballing side in the division'. It was crap. There were times during the game when I was actually embarrassed that the whole country would be watching, and would see how bad we were. Our defence is shambolic. Mattock is a disgrace. I don't know what RDM sees in this bloke, but whatever he's paying him, stop. He looks no better than a pub side player. He's slow, he looks unfit, he has no reading of the game whatsoever, and he commits himself recklessly. The incident when he was left on his arse by the corner flag was so bad I just cringed. Zuiverloon wasn't a lot better. He seems totally short of confidence and terrified of the ball. Olsson huffed and puffed and did his best, and Tamas looks like he's got three feet. Dorrans had a pretty good first half but faded in the second, and will someone please show Koran how to pass a football?? This is the first time I'd seen Nouble for a decent spell.... why is he here? I've never seen such a nothing player. He contributed absolutely NOTHING - while the likes of Teixeira are sent out on loan! Madness! The rest of the side were just as ineffectual. Went 1-0 up, okay now build on it.... no, lets stroll around against a very average side and billybignob it.

Where is the leadership that this lot need?

If we do by some miracle go up, and play like this, we will get humiliated in the Premiership. I'm seething - and I didn't even pay hard-earned wages to travel to Bristol to be subjected to it!

Johno:

Another useless loan of a premiership club striker. Nouble is no better than Simpson was last season. He is clearly not prepared to work hard. However, how much is it Nouble's or that of RDM for playing out of position. From previous games we know that he cannot play in a 4 -5-1 format as he is not prepared to track back and left Mattock totally exposed all the time. It took 60mins for RDM to realise that Mattock needed help!

Yes sorry but I blame the manager for losing this game.

Funky Fudge:

First of all, I don't buy this "team is knackered" excuse. We played 2 League Cup games and have played, so far, 3 FA cup games. The minimum we could have played is 2 with many more Championship clubs having played more than 2. Bristol City have played 2 League cup and 2 FA Cup games and so have only played 1 game less than us.

Of the starters today - Tamas, Mattock, Olsson, Zuiverloon, Mulumbu, Nouble, Bednar and Koren have all had either a recent 1 game rest or haven't played for parts of the season.

Today:

Mattock - I've tried to stick up for him in the past - he is still young, learning his trade etc. I won't even point the finger at him being skinned every time by their man - Thomas does it many times a game for us. It does seem to me that he has put on a few pounds in recent weeks, but if that helps him stand his ground, so be it (however it just seems to slow him down a bit). However, the number of times he went foraging up the pitch, only to lose possession, job to a stop and wander back is inexcusable. Having watched a replay of their first goal a few times, including shots from the right behind the goal towards our left back position, he just isn't in sight at all! Olsson had to come across to the left to cover so many times. Boy, what with Jara out as well, do we need full back cover. Let's just hope Cech is fit for the weekend.
Brunt - what a poor excuse for a player this guy has become. In the second half when we are chasing it, he pretty much tackled himself two or three times in quick succession. The sooner "neat and tidy" gets fit, the better.
Nouble - rubbish today. Probably his last start for us since he can't play in the cup game and Thomas will be back for the weekend. I suggested substituting him in the first half since he was contributing so little.
Slory isn't the answer - pace but not much else.

We never got out of second gear in the first half but ended up 1-0 up, against the run of play in my opinion. Second half we strolled around the pitch even when losing.

The management team really need to get to grip with some basics at the club such as why are our players so lacking in fitness?

bucksjim:

Despite the TV lure travelled to Bristol to watch match with a long standing Bristol friend who is a City season ticket holder. Not least to check on how much I would agree with post match Boing commentary which I read for each match. At least that was reassuring , I could not agree more with the comments posted so far. The sun shone , the pitch looked excellent, the flags waved and I was optimistic for a good game of football. Stupid me, we did not turn up as detailed in the reports. To me, sitting in the other half, our supporters - in good number - were not surpisingly very muted throughout.

My friend could not believe that City had held onto their lead because that had been a major failimg this year. We agreed Mulumbu and Dorrans (first half) were our best players.

The period when the first 2 substitutions in the second half were being made was the most disorganised and lacklustre performance I cam remember. Nouble demonstrated only an ability to wind up the crowd (I was seated in the half away from the away support so others may not have noticed this.) I was ashamed of his '?professional/unsporting' behaviour partly for the club and the fine example for youngsters. It was very close to the management area and I would have taken him off there and then.

Thank you faithful boing reporters. They did not deserve you yesterday.

COUCHCRITIC:

What a load of rubbish yet again! Does RDM ever view this site or get similar feedback from other sources,if he does then I have to ask is he another Robson and incapable of managing and motivating players! I don't see any one player that he has signed since taking the job (Thomas perhaps the only exception) that looks any good whatsoever and cerainly nowhere near Premiership calibre. Mattock, Nouble?? (this guy makes Frank Bruno look quick!), Cox, Slory, Tamas etc. I mean, where does he find these duds? Brunt sulks most of the time & could do with some Fergie hairdryer treatment, apart from dead ball situations his usual contribution is hardly worth comment, Bednar needs support and all too often looks clumsy when he occasionally receives a decent ball, another Kev is desperately needed up front, we need defenders who can man mark & tackle and a manager who knows how to make effective tactical changes when things aren't working. As already suggested - Prediction, play-offs at best but once again likely to fail the test.

Glos.Baggie:

I won't reiterate most most of the afforementioned points made above. However, in the main, most are correct but not too sure if it was worse than the Forest performance. And, bear in mind, a very average Cardiff side beat this team 6-0 just over a week ago.

There are 3 main issues concerning me for a number of weeks now. Brunt has not been cutting the mustard for months now, ineffective whether playing left or right side. Mattock totally out of his depth, teams will now expoloit this obvious weakness after being exposed on live TV, be warned. He'll get skinned in this league, let alone the Prem. Koren moaned a few weeks ago about being subbed. It is little wonder, seeing how often he gave away possession yesterday and also in previous games. With a full squad, he'd be lucky to get on the bench for me. Tex would do a far better job, why oh why is he on loan. You never hear him or his agent moaning about not getting a game. Has anyone noticed how well Barnsley are doing since he went there, just take a look at their reports and results.

I really cannot buy into this theory of players being tired, it wasn't that long ago when squads were much smaller, only had 1 sub and were still playing the same amount of games. It's just a fallacy! Get a grip and get on with it. It seems that the sums of money spent on players, 3m for Zuiverloon and Brunt are just examples and we don't seem to be getting a decent return. I wonder how much we will get back from Valero? Maybe we should buy a few more Dorrans on modest wages who then have something to aim for, a purpose/objective i.e. improved contract and a bit more money. How can you motivate players who are already earning mega bucks. I don't mind losing but it is the manner in which you go down.