Saturday
6th January 2007,
FA Cup 3rd Round, The Hawthorns, Kick-Off 3:00pm
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Albion |
3 - 1 |
Leeds United |
|
McShane 6 |
16,957 |
Robinson (og) 93 |
|
Hartson 15 |
|
|
|
Phillips 82 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2 |
Half-Time Score |
0 |
|
58% |
Possession |
42% |
|
12 |
Shots On Target |
6 |
|
9 |
Shots Off Target |
5 |
|
5 |
Corners |
8 |
|
7 |
Fouls Against |
9 |
|
3 |
Offsides |
5 |
|
1 |
Yellow Cards |
2 |
|
0 |
Red Cards |
0 |
 Albion:
Russell Hoult, Paul McShane, Curtis Davies, Neil Clement,
Paul Robinson, Diomansy Kamara (Robert Koren 82), Richard Chaplow (Darren
Carter 81), Jonathan Greening, Jason Koumas, John Hartson, Kevin Phillips.
Subs not used: Pascal Zuberbuhler (gk), Jared Hodgkiss, Zoltan Gera
Hartson 27 (foul)
Leeds United: Neil Sullivan, Rui Marques, Matt Heath (Armando Sa HT),
Hayden Foxe, Robbie Elliott, Robbie Blake, Kevin Nicholls, Jonathan Howson
(Shaun Derry HT), Eddie Lewis, David Healy, Ian Moore (Tore Andre Flo HT).
Subs not used:
Jonny Lund (gk), Ian
Westlake
Foxe 39 (foul), Elliott 66 (foul)
Referee:
Nigel Miller (County Durham)
Assistant Referees:
Chris Francis (Cambridgeshire), Steve Rubery (Essex)
Fourth Official:
Andy Woolmer (Northamptonshire)
Conditions:
Cloudy with rain
Dennis Wise would not realistically have expected Leeds United to take him
to his sixth FA Cup final. But the winning captain from the competition's
last Wembley showpiece barely even saw any backbone, with West Bromwich
Albion's complacency the only threat to their sixth successive home
victory.
Leeds created decent chances, but for all the "names'' on their
team-sheet, they look a relegation-haunted side. "The first half let us
down," said Wise. "We didn't start right and I gave them some right stick
at half-time."
Every Albion attack carried a threat and the respite from Robbie
Elliott's goal-line clearance from Jason Koumas on six minutes was brief.
Leeds dealt poorly with Neil Clement's corner and Paul McShane side-footed
his first Albion goal.
After Diomansy Kamara had dispossessed Elliott and blazed wide, clear
daylight emerged on the quarter-hour thanks to defending that prematurely
ages managers even as baby-faced as Wise. Matt Heath horribly misjudged
Russell Hoult's drop-kick, leaving John Hartson to out-muscle him and
drive through the legs of Neil Sullivan. Wise made a triple half-time
substitution, including new signings Tore Andre Flo and Miguel Armando Sa,
but is tiring of what he calls "entertaining defeats".
Richard Chaplow was denied by Sullivan before Kamara hit the bar from
McShane's excellent marauding and Flo and Shaun Derry further tested Hoult.
Kevin Phillips then ran in number three and a gung-ho contest was deep in
stoppage-time when Leeds got lucky with Paul Robinson's in-off as Flo
challenged.
"We have no problems at home, although we can be too open at times,"
said the Albion manager, Tony Mowbray.
The Independent
Tony Mowbray:
"We've got no problems at home - we can create, we can score.
But, as you saw in the second half, we can also be pretty open to teams
and we conceded too many opportunities in the second half. Our biggest
strengths can be our biggest weaknesses at times.
"Hopefully, we can keep winning at home and the reward today
is going through to the next round of the cup. I'm happy enough.
"For a manager, 2-0 is a horrible scoreline because you know
the next goal is very crucial. We took our foot off the gas a little bit.
They had some chances, as we did, and Russell pulled off some good saves. If
Leeds had got the
next goal kicking towards their own fans in the second half, it would have
given them a bit of momentum. Thankfully, we got the third goal and put the
game to bed."
Dennis Wise:
"We had opportunities to score but we didn't defend as well
as they did; they finished off chances, and unfortunately we didn't. I
think we're gradually improving and I can't argue with the way they
performed in the second half, but the first-half display let us down.
"Looking at the way they performed, we're starting to get a
good team - and adding one or two more will make it a very good team. When I
say a good team I mean a good team going forward; there's a couple of things
we need to address to make us more solid.
"Overall, I'm disappointed with the way we defended. We had
chances to make it 3-3 or 4-3 but we never got close enough to them with our
defending. You can't defend the way we did - and they know it."
Jonathan Greening makes his 100th first team start for the club whilst
Darren Carter makes his 50th first team appearance.
Robert
Koren makes his Albion debut.
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