|
|
|
|
 Saturday 7th January 2006, FA Cup Round 3, The Hawthorns, Kick-Off 3:00pm
Albion: Kirkland,
Albrechtsen, C Davies, Moore, Robinson, Greening (Gera 72), Wallwork, Inamoto (Horsfield 53), Carter,
Ellington (Campbell 53), Kanu. Subs not used: Kuszczak (gk), Chaplow
Reading: Stack,
Makin, Gunnarsson, Ingimarsson, Shorey, Oster, Harper, Sidwell, Hunt (Little
86), Long (Lita 59), Kitson (Doyle 69). Subs not used: Hahnemann (gk),
Sonko
Referee: Matt Messias (West Yorkshire)
Assistant Referees: Robert Lewis (Shropshire),
Steve Bratt (West Midlands)
Half-Time:
Attendance: 19,197 Conditions: Bitterly cold with snow and sleet showers
MATCH REPORT
BY: ALBION TEAM NEWS: Baggies' boss Bryan Robson made four changes to the team that lost at home to Aston Villa on Bank Holiday Monday. Chris Kirkland replaced Tomasz Kuszczak in goal; Darren Moore came in for Neil Clement in defence whilst Ronnie Wallwork and Junichi Inamoto replaced Steve Watson and Diomansy Kamara in midfield. Zoltan Gera, returning from his groin injury was named amongst the substitutes.READING TEAM NEWS: Royals' manager Steve Coppell made six changes to the side that beat Cardiff City 5-1 in their last game. Stack, Oster, Gunnarsson, Makin, Hunt and Long came in for Hahnemann, Sonko, Murty, Convey, Little and Doyle. DREADFUL ALBION MUST FACE READING REPLAY With Reading riding high at the top of the Championship, most Baggies’ fans realised it wasn’t going to be an easy game. What we didn’t expect though was for Albion to make it even harder for themselves by putting on probably the worst performance of Bryan Robson’s reign. With Neil Clement and Thomas Gaardsoe both out injured the vacant central defensive position went to Darren Moore. In goal, the on-loan Chris Kirkland was recalled in place of Tomasz Kuszczak - a slightly strange decision given that the Polish keeper has been arguably our best player in recent games. The only reasoning behind it perhaps being the chance to give Kirkland some much-needed action. In midfield the partnership of Junichi Inamoto and Ronnie Wallwork was reformed whilst up front Kanu played possibly his last game before jetting off to the African Nations Cup. On the bench Zoltan Gera made a welcome return following his groin injury but once again there was no Rob Earnshaw. Despite Bryan Robson claiming the Welsh striker still has a role to play at the club it’s blatantly obvious his career at The Hawthorns is virtually at an end. Albion actually started the game reasonably well and with Reading looking nothing particularly special it was the hosts that pushed for the opening goal. With just three minutes on the clock Ronnie Wallwork tested Graham Stack in the Reading goal with a 25 yarder that the on-loan Arsenal keeper did well to hold. The Baggies continued to push forward and should really have taken the lead on twelve minutes. Under pressure in the penalty area from Nathan Ellington, Royals’ defender Brynjar Gunnarsson’s attempted clearance struck the Albion striker and cannoned against the post - the rebound falling straight into the path of Ellington, who six yards out and with an open goal at his mercy only managed to slip and fall on top of the ball. It was an absolutely terrible miss and one that is sure to be replayed over and over in years to come. With that miss, confidence seemed to drain totally from Albion and Reading quickly took the ascendancy. Only a fine save from the recalled Kirkland prevented Reading hot-shot Dave Kitson from opening the scoring after he had been played through the sleeping Albion defence by James Harper. On 27 minutes it was Harper himself that next tested Kirkland - letting fly a shot from 20 yards that the on-loan Liverpool keeper easily gathered. Reading continued to pressure the Baggies’ defence and had a decent looking claim for a penalty turned down in the 29th minute when the once again clumsy and ineffective Darren Carter appeared to trip Chris Makin on the edge of the box. Thankfully for the hosts, referee Matt Messias decided that the former Tranmere full-back had dived and gave him the game’s first yellow card. In the 35th minute Albion did finally manage to create an attack of their own - Kanu neatly setting up Curtis Davies in the penalty area - the young defender managing only to fire in a weak shot that Stack in the Reading goal easily gathered. Five minutes later Stack was in action again - easily saving a Darren Moore header from six yards out following a Jonathan Greening cross. The final action of a poor first half saw Nicky Shorey test Kirkland with a 25 yard free-kick. The feeling amongst Baggies’ fans at half-time was that we couldn’t get any worse, but how wrong we were. We did actually get off to a bright start with Nigerian star Kanu going desperately close with a 20 yard shot that fizzed just wide of the Reading goal but that was about as close as we would come to scoring from open play during the rest of the match. E ight minutes into the second period Baggies’ boss Robson made a double substitution and it was a shocker - Horsfield and Campbell coming on for Inamoto and Ellington. Whilst both the Japanese midfielder and Ellington had been totally ineffective the decision to switch to a strike partnership of Horsfield and Campbell virtually ended all hope of us scoring. Whilst one of them partnered with say Kanu, Ellington or Earnshaw is just about acceptable, the two of them together is downright ridiculous. Without question, they are two of the poorest and slowest strikers to have ever played in the Premiership and opposition defences must rub their hands with glee when they see the two of them paired together.With Albion’s threat up front now totally gone, they were forced to resort to long range shots, Wallwork and Carter both trying their luck from distance but failing to trouble Stack. Reading were more than matching their opponents though and continued to play the better football, on 63 minutes Steve Sidwell lobbed a shot wide of Kirkland’s goal after being played through by John Oster. With Albion’s play now so dire and crying out for something different, a chant went out around the Hawthorns calling for the introduction of Hungarian star Zoltan Gera and on 72 minutes the fans got their wish. To be honest Gera made little difference although it wasn’t for his lack of trying. With the game approaching its finale Reading continued to look the team most likely to score, however it was Albion that were gifted a golden opportunity to win the tie when they were awarded a very fortunate penalty after Makin had ‘apparently’ nudged Horsfield in the box. With usual penalty takers Earnshaw and Ellington missing it was left for Gera to step-up and coolly dispatch the kick past Stack in the Reading goal. Somehow and despite the totally terrible performance Albion had the lead, all they had to do was run the clock down - a task they proved incapable of doing. Just two minutes after the Gera penalty, Martin Albrechtsen stupidly handled in the box giving referee Messias no option but to award another penalty. Royals’ substitute Kevin Doyle was the man that stepped up to give the visitors a much deserved equaliser and a replay on Tuesday week. Whilst Reading were far from impressive, they were still by far the better team on the day. Hopefully though, Robson will take the replay seriously and once again field his full strength team because surely they can’t play this badly again.. can they ? MAN OF THE MATCH: Curtis Davies PLAYER RATINGS OUT OF TEN
Kirkland 7 -
Made a number of important saves, kicking was slightly
below par though.
Albrechtsen
4 - Another disappointing
game from the Dane which ended with him conceding penalty.
SUBS:
Horsfield 3
- Won lucky penalty, did he do anything else? REF WATCH
Matt Messias 4 - Far too whistle happy. Made an
already poor game even worse. Got Albion penalty wrong - thankfully.
FAN
WATCH
wba.co.uk
Nigel Pearson:
"We're disappointed with the performance and result. Once you
get your noses in front, even though you're not playing very well, you
should see it off and we didn't.”
“Both penalties were given so it's as simple as that. But the
one against us shouldn't even have got that far because it was a needless
challenge to concede the free-kick and then we made no challenge and gave
away a handball. It was a catalogue of errors, really."
"Sometimes in games, you know you're not playing well but get
through it. It was a disjointed performance with not much quality but we had
our noses in front and I think that is the most disappointing aspect of it.
There are times when the players need to know what the score is and
Bryan has told them in no
uncertain terms that level of performance is not acceptable. They'll take it
on the chin because they'll have to and, because they're a decent bunch of
players, they'll move on. We're not very happy but we didn't get beaten and
we'll move on."
"Today's game was viewed as a potential banana skin and
people were expecting us to be beaten. When we're playing games like that,
it's up to us to stamp our authority on it - and we didn't. We did okay in
the first five or ten minutes but after that we didn't and it's a missed
opportunity. I'm sure Reading
will be saying they didn't play particularly well either. It wasn't a
particularly good game and there wasn't much quality from either side. But
there will be no hangover from this. We've got important games coming up and
when we come back in on Monday it will be back to business and being as
positive as possible."
Source: wba.co.uk
Steve Coppell:
"When they scored I thought it would be hard to get back into
the game, but you're often at your most vulnerable just after scoring, and
so it proved. I can't say that a draw away from home is a bad result, and
we'll be able to cope physically with the replay."
"I'm bound to say theirs was not a penalty whereas ours was
nailed on! Horsfield is a good old pro and made the most of it, but I'm not
complaining about that or the ref's performance over 90 minutes."
"Chris Makin has done nothing wrong all year but found
himself not playing, we wanted to find out if Brynjar could play centre half
and he proved that he can, and John Oster is a terrific player who I wanted
to play. We'll have a similar team in the replay."
"I thought he (Shane Long) was excellent, he showed great
commitment, playing against a brick wall (Darren Moore) and an emerging
talent (Curtis Davies). He did very well."
“This game is in isolation, it means nothing with regards to
whether we can perform at this level. First we've got to get out of our
division. I always say that the football you play in the Championship isn't
good enough to keep you in the Premiership, and the football you play in the
Premiership won't get you out of the Championship. I've spent too long
working with Irish people haven't I?!"
Source: readingfc.co.uk |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
