Monday 26th September 2005, BPRL North, The Hawthorns, Kick-Off 7:00pm Albion 1 - 0 Birmingham City R Davies 60     Albion: Kuszczak, Hodgkiss, Forsyth, Gaardsoe, Baker, Smikle, R Davies, Inamoto, Humphrey (Kelleher 81), S Nicholson (Sissoko 71), Elvins. Subs not used: Daniels (gk), Downing, Manchester S Nicholson 61 (foul) Birmingham City: Vaesen, Cotterill, Oji, Painter, Lazaridis, Wright, Hall, Kilkenny (Howland 68), Birley (Sadler 63), Till, Sone. Subs not used: Doyle (gk), Howell, Alsop Oji 39 (foul) Referee: R Shoebridge Assistant Referees: D Gratton, C Banks Half-Time: Albion 0-0 Birmingham City Attendance: 737 Conditions: Pleasant dry evening Good performance by Albion, probably their best of the season. Tomasz Kuszczak, Thomas Gaardsoe and Junichi Inamoto all played well, Inamoto especially so. As for the younger players Jeff Forsyth and Brian Smikle stood out, Jared Hodgkiss and Lee Baker continued their recent good form too. MAN OF THE MATCH: Junichi Inamoto PLAYER RATINGS OUT OF TEN Kuszczak 7  - Made a number of good saves and kicked well throughout. Hodgkiss 6  - Another solid performance. Forsyth  7 - Got stuck in, defended well. Gaardsoe 6 - At times showed his class, still prone to odd error though. Baker  6 - Another good performance, kept it simple. Smikle 7  - Lively, our most dangerous player. R Davies 5  - Excellent goal but otherwise didn't contribute a great deal. Inamoto 8 - Fairly quiet first half but excellent second, worked hard and passed the ball well. Humphrey 5 - A couple of good runs but never really threatened the City defence. S Nicholson 5 - Struggled. Elvins 4 - A very poor and clumsy performance. Subs: Sissoko 5 - A couple of nice touches but otherwise quiet. Kelleher 5 - Didn't get into game. REF WATCH R Shoebridge 7 - Didn't really notice him, the sign of a good ref. wba.co.uk bcfc.com Keith Bertschin: "I would like us to get back to the tempo that we like to play at and that doesn't mean you have to play 100 miles an hour all the time but we have to get near people to challenge them and when we get the ball let's try and stretch the opposition and cause them problems. That takes courage, vision and good control - making the ball do what you want it to do, coupled with ability and all the desire. I just felt there was a little bit of that lacking for the first time on Monday and we didn't play to our abilities.” "The game was played at a fairly slow pace and we were average at best. There were some bits of decent play but I was generally disappointed." "From the opposition's point of view it was a tremendous goal but why wasn't anyone going in to close him and get a block in? We have got too many defenders that want to do a trick but don't want to defend their goal.” Source: bcfc.com
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