Sunday 22nd February 2009, Barclays Premiership, Craven Cottage, Kick-Off 1.30pm

 

Fulham	2 - 0	Albion
Zamora 61	22,394
Johnson 72
0	Half-Time Score	0
50%	Possession	50%
9	Shots On Target	5
10	Shots Off Target	3
12	Corners	4
11	Fouls Against	10
4	Offsides	1
1	Yellow Cards	0
0	Red Cards	0

Fulham: Schwarzer, Hughes, Hangeland, Pantsil, Konchesky, Murphy (Dacourt 85), Etuhu, Davies, Dempsey, Johnson (Kamara 80), Zamora (Nevland 80). Subs not used: Zuberbuhler (gk), Kallio, Baird, Gray.

Albion: Carson, Zuiverloon, Barnett, Meite, Robinson (C), Teixeira (Brunt 50), Koren, Valero, Morrison (Mensequez 77), Simpson, Fortune (Bednar 81). Subs not used: Kiely (gk), Martis, Cech, Moore.  

Robinson 85 (unsporting behaviour)

Referee: Martin Atkinson (West Yorkshire)
Assistant Referees: Mark Scholes (Buckinghamshire), Phil Sharp (Hertfordshire)
Fourth Official: A Wiley (Staffordshire)

Conditions: Cloudy but dry and mild

ALBION TEAM NEWS: Injured duo Jonas Olsson (knee) and Jonathan Greening (knee) both fail to recover in time but Paul Robinson is available. Recent signing Juan Carlos Menseguez makes the bench. Jay Simpson returns up front for the Baggies following his recent hamstring strain whilst Filipe Teixeira starts his first Premier League game of the season.

FULHAM TEAM NEWS: Fulham welcome back Andy Johnson and Paul Konchesky who both missed the defeat at Manchester United in midweek through injury. Dickson Etuhu starts but fellow injury victim Frederik Stoor fails to make it. Former Albion striker Diomansy Kamara, who has been out since June after suffering ruptured ligaments, is named on the bench along with recent loan signing Olivier Dacourt.

BAGGIES WILT AS FULHAM TAKE THREE EASY POINTS

The 1000-plus Albion fans, having made the Sunday morning journey south to Fulham, could not have been happy with their side’s lacklustre performance in losing 2-0 at Craven Cottage. Roy Hodgson’s men, who had played three games in nine days, looked by far the livelier outfit with Albion seemingly still on the plane following their four day break in Spain. The home side rattled the woodwork three times before scoring twice in the second half. Bobby Zamora scored his first goal in more than 29 hours of premiership football whilst the second was converted by ex Everton hit-man Andy Johnson. The only reward for a late fight back from the Albion was a penalty won and missed by Roman Bednar.

The signs were visible straight away as to why Fulham have managed to keep a number of clean sheets at home. Ball retention and tempo were dictated by the home side, whereas Albion were sloppy and looked half asleep. Simple balls and control were mistimed and it seemed that the lads were playing a game of hot potato with no one wanting to take control. At the same time it was also clear why Fulham hadn’t scored many goals. Although they dominated the game, they didn’t create many clear cut opportunities, relying on long range efforts from outside the box in order to try and gain an advantage in a game of which they deserved to be ahead. Their first effort came from the boot of Danny Murphy from a free kick given following a challenge on Johnson in the fourth minute. Luckily, the ball cannoned off the post after a fully stretched Scott Carson had diverted its direction away from the net. In the 19th minute Dickson Etuhu tested Carson from outside the area before the American Clint Dempsey joined  in the show, shooting wide from 25 yards out. The first half also saw Murphy strike the woodwork for the second time from an opportunity created by Zamora and Johnson. These strikes outside the box in resulted in Carson being tested in front of the watchful eye of England manager Fabio Capello but he would have hoped that Capello had turned his head the other way when a mix-up between him and Leon Barnett, resulting from Murphy’s chipped through ball, left the keeper palming the ball almost off the line after Barnett had headed the ball back past the stranded keeper. Just before the end of the first 45 minutes, Zamora had the clearest of opportunities to score but he blazed it over the bar.   

Half Time

It was clear to see which manager had the harder task at half time. Putting a line under Albion’s first half performance would have been ideal, however everything stayed the same. Surely Fulham would sooner or later start to carve Albion apart in the final third and surely Albion’s luck would not carry on till the 90th minute. However, after a somewhat strange substitution was made just five minutes into the second half - Felipe Teixeira was replaced by Chris Brunt - that the game started to give Albion a little hope; Teixeira looked bewildered and it was only after the game the truth concerning the bizarre substitution was told, Mowbray had mistakenly thought he was injured due to information said to come from his team mates. The impressive Brunt almost immediately provided two opportunities for on loan striker Marc-Antoine Fortune. The first was a free kick taken on the left flank that provided the striker with a header whilst the second resulted from good work again down the wing which was capped off with a sublime left footed cross. Unfortunately, Fortune, after controlling the ball in the box, couldn’t find the net with a snap shot that was easily blocked by Paul Konchesky.

The deadlock was finally broken on 61 minutes when a cross by John Pantsil was diverted by Johnson into the path of Zamora who was free in the box and finally ended his lengthy goal drought. The goal looked likely to open the floodlgates but it was only after both Robert Koren and Borja Valero had produced shots from distance and Brede Hangeland had become the fourth Fulham player to hit the woodwork, that the lead was doubled. A shot from Zamora straight at Carson rebounded into the path of Johnson who placed the ball into the empty net. Albion’s performance on the day was summed up when they were awarded and missed a penalty. Bednar, already the scorer of two penalties this season, failed to make it a hat-trick of spot-kick successes.

AFTERTHOUGHTS

With Albion still at the foot of the league after wasting so many chances to get out of the bottom three, the game against Fulham could have been a good place for them to start a much needed winning run away from home, especially with a number of big away games still to come including Portsmouth and Blackburn. After the game Tony Mowbray came out and made it clear that he still believes and so do his players. He also confirmed the commitment is still there. However, the fans will have to be reassured of that on the pitch because many believe the players’ belief is now badly damaged, perhaps even worse than it was after the Sunderland away game. None of the players looked like they were going to get anywhere near their potential against Fulham; even the ever reliable James Morrision was a shadow of himself and never contributed anything of importance. Confidence really needs to be injected now if the Great Escape 2 is to set sail again. With 12 games to go you couldn’t predict the ending.  

ALBION MAN OF THE MATCH:: Jay Simpson
FULHAM MAN OF THE MATCH: Danny Murphy

PLAYER RATINGS OUT OF TEN

ALBION: Carson (6), Zuiverloon (5), Barnett (5), Meite (5), Robinson (6), Teixeira (5), Koren (5), Valero (5), Morrison (5), Simpson (6), Fortune (6) Subs: Brunt (7), Mensequez (6) Bednar (6)

FULHAM:  Schwarzer (8), Hughes (6), Hangeland (6), Pantsil (8), Konchesky (7), Murphy (9), Etuhu (7), Davies (7), Dempsey (7), Johnson (8), Zamora (8) Subs: Kamara (6), Nevland (6), Dacourt (6)

REF WATCH

Martin Atkinson - Nothing to mention, can only be a good thing.

Sam Bradley

Birmingham Mail:  “Albion’s best performer? That’s the easy bit – Scott Carson’s goalposts. The Baggies lost 2-0 but it could have been far worse had the woodwork not come to their rescue.”

Express and Star: “Albion were comprehensively beaten by a rampant Fulham at Craven Cottage. The Premier League table shows Albion can still stay up - but the team sent out a different message at Craven Cottage.”

Fulham-mad.co.uk: “Bobby Zamora ended his league goal drought at 1,762 minutes to set Fulham on their way to a deserved victory over West Brom at Craven Cottage.”

Tony Mowbray: "Fulham thoroughly deserved to win. We rode our luck right from the start. We were better second half but lost goals through poor defending.

"On any given day you've got to keep going because you can catch teams on a day when you can beat them. We'll try to pick up points at home and try and catch a team on a bad day away from home."

Roy Hodgson: "Until we pass that magical 40 (point) mark we won't even contemplate that things are looking easier. If we get past that mark we can start raising our heads a little bit and hoping for the higher places in the league. But I'm really happy today. In a game we did need to win it was important to get that victory and the points in the bag.

"Zamora's kept at things well, formed a partnership with Johnson and that's been very important for us. It's great credit to his strength of character and his determination that he's been able to ride though the bad spell and today he's got his reward."