West Bromwich Albion v. Leeds United (30 Sep) [R]

Discussion in 'West Bromwich Albion' started by DevilDave, Sep 29, 2006.

  1. DevilDave

    DevilDave Member

    West Bromwich Albion/RBNY/PSG/Gamba Osaka/Sac Republic
    United States
    Sep 29, 2001
    Sacramento, CA
    Club:
    West Bromwich Albion FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Our last match before another break for Euro 2008 qualifiers - and hopefully, our last match that Nigel Pearson is Albion's caretaker manager.

    Leeds are looking for their own new manager and sit below us in the table. Still, we are definitely in for a scrap against a team that cannot be counted out from the promotion contenders - particularly as they were in the play-off final last season.

    Past Albion players we could see in Leeds shirts include The Horse and Sean Gregan.
     
  2. DevilDave

    DevilDave Member

    West Bromwich Albion/RBNY/PSG/Gamba Osaka/Sac Republic
    United States
    Sep 29, 2001
    Sacramento, CA
    Club:
    West Bromwich Albion FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    West Bromwich Albion 4 Leeds United 2

    For the middle 40 minutes of the match (10 minutes before and 30 after half time), it was the best performance you could ever expect from a team playing with only ten men. Three goals, all after Paul McShane was controversially sent off in the 33nd minute for his challenge on Horsfield - . After David Healy missed the penalty, however, the Albion turned up the pace. Albrechtsen from a Koumas corner just before the half. Then Diomansy Kamara - playing in his first game back from injury - scored and set up another for Kevin Phillips.

    The Horse made things very interesting on his return to the Hawthorns by pulling one back for the visitors. Then we quickly conceded another to Steve Stone because we were at sixes and sevens in defence during the final minutes. Fortunately supersub Kamara scored another in injury time.

    We won despite the antics of referee Rob Styles - who always seems to lose his head when he steps onto the pitch at the Hawthorns. Horrible performance all round by the ref. I'm eager to see a clip of the incident which led to McShane's sending off, because it might not have been a penalty at all... and I'm wondering if it was even worth a straight red.
     
  3. Re: West Bromwich Albion 4 Leeds United 2


    Great performance - it came as a total surprise. When i got into the gornud and heard the team i was delighted to hear that there was no Wallwork and we had an attacking line-up.
    We dominated it until the sending off. In fairness it was a red card but i thought it may have been just outside the box but a man like Rob Styles needs no invitation to get one over on the Albion and he gave a pen. I say that because Styles over the last few seasons is a pathetic excuse for a ref who ALWAYS seems to give notoriously bad decisions against the Albion. When i saw that he was in charge yesterday, i knew that he'd do something to live up to his reputation. He didn't let himself down either, he had a nightmare but the man is a cheating tw@t so nobody should expect any less.

    The irony was that even the Leeds fans were getting on his back, and he was like their 12th man yesterday.

    Anyway back to the game. The penalty miss seemed to pump up both the crowd and the players and from then on the 10 men couldn't be faulted. They were excellent, stand outs including, Perry, Albrechtsen who did a fantastic job moving to centre half, Koumas, Carter and of course Kamara.

    People have been saying it was an inspired substitution at half time to bring him for Hartson but it wan't. Everyone in the ground could see that it needed to happen. Hartson simply isn't fit enough and Kamara has plenty of pace to chase down players and make runs to stretch defences.

    Carter did really well to set him for the 2nd goal and when Kamara went on that Ricky Villa-esque run to set up the 3rd i don't think anyone could believe it. 3-0 up with 10 men, after a very rocky start to the season.

    Leeds were very poor, they had nothing by way of creativity and were laboured in their approach play. Horsefield though scored a goal out of nothing doing well to turn Perry - his only error. That gave them a boost and the 2nd goal was quite lucky as the ball could have gone anywhere but it went straight to Stone who put it in. Trust Albion to make life difficult.

    It looked as though we were gonna collapse for a moment after working so hard with a man down it's excuable that the players were gonna be tired but when Kamara raced away for the 4th it was almost heaven. I can't say that i've been that satisfied or proud by an Albion performance in a very long time.
     
  4. DevilDave

    DevilDave Member

    West Bromwich Albion/RBNY/PSG/Gamba Osaka/Sac Republic
    United States
    Sep 29, 2001
    Sacramento, CA
    Club:
    West Bromwich Albion FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Thanks for the eye-witness report, A+E.

    Having Kamara back is - to use a cliche - almost like a new signing. He definitely adds a different dimension to our attack. Furthermore, if Koumas and Carter continue to improve, they might displace Wallwork and Quashie in central midfield.

    If I might add, I hope that this result - as complete as it was - does not necessarily lead to Pearson being named the manager. The board must look at all qualified candidates.

    If anything, this win should give us the edge over Leeds and other Championship clubs which may yet be sacking their managers (Norwich?). It showed the Albion's potential when we play attacking football.

    As I said above, I hope we can get a new man in before the end of the international break, because the next five matches on our fixture list will provide a true test of what we're made of.
     

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