West Bromwich Albion 2-1 Burnley
By Jemma Tappenden
February 2 2008
After a shock defeat away to bottom half strugglers Preston North End midweek, Tony Mowbray rallied his troops for this home fixture versus Burnley. Focus for this weeks training had been to eliminate early goals and goals from set pieces, so the gaffer was a less than happy man when his side conceded a goal from a free kick after just 3 minutes.
Albion were boosted by the return of leading scorer Kevin Phillips, who was rested midweek with a calf strain. Phillips started upfront with on-loan Roman Bednar, new signing Ishmael Miller sitting out with injury. Teixeira dropped to the bench, where he was joined by new arrival keeper Michal Danek. Burnley’s new signings Andy Cole and Mark Randall took places on the bench.
All looked set for an entertaining fixture. Albion with the division’s second best home record facing Burnley who boast the division’s second best away record. Burnley had the better run of results coming into the game, 3 successive victories had seen them move within three points of the play off places. The Clarets also boasted a perfect record in the Midlands, having already notched up wins at Wolves, Leicester and Coventry.
It was a nightmare start for the Baggies. A 3rd minute Free kick was swung into the box by Robbie Blake. As Albion awaited a whistle believing David Unsworth to be impeding Zoltan Gera, their set piece hoodoo struck again. Unsworth headed the ball down to O’Connor, who provided a sweet volley from within the box to give the Clarets an early lead.
Just moments later Albion breathed a heavy sigh of relief as Burnley wasted the opportunity to double their early lead. Chris McCann shrugging off his challengers with ease released a testing 25 yard strike which crept just wide of the post.
Albion started to settle as the game cleared the 5 minute mark, and had their first real chance in the 8th minute. Jonathan Greening’s corner found an unmarked James Morrison who looked on agonisingly as his header smashed off the bar.
The game was becoming an end to end flurry of attack, and the Clarets were soon back on the prowl when Wade Elliot got the better of Bostjan Cesar. But his 20 yard strike was just the wrong side of the left post. Back at the other end Phillips went painfully close after being set up by Gera and then again from a Robinson cross, but this time failing to test Burnley keeper Jensen as he struggled to connect to the ball under pressure from Varga.
West Brom were really getting into the swing of things by the 20 minute mark, and they bombarded the Burnley box with a string of attacks. Gera should have done better with a header after the Clarets failed to deal with another Greening corner, and Joey Gudjonsson had to be alert to stop 17 goal Kevin Phillips with a last ditch challenge to deny the striker a clear shot on goal.
In the 23rd minute Bednar wasted the chance to equalise by firing his shot straight into the arms of Jensen. Moments later Phillips saw a long range effort whistle just wide of the upright. After a period of sustained pressure the Baggies finally got their reward in the 26th minute. Another Greening corner caused Owen Coyle’s men more problems, and Cesar cleverly avoided his marker to volley home from close range.
The goal sparked a new lease of life into Tony Mowbray’s men, and Burnley were lucky to not concede a second just moments later, Hoefkens’ providing the cross to Phillips, who was denied from tapping into an empty net by Varga’s last ditch clearance. Minutes later Hungarian International Zoltan Gera came close to scoring goal of the season. He produced an acrobatic overhead kick from Greening’s cross.
As the game approached half time the frantic pace began to slow down, allowing both teams a chance to regroup and compose themselves. Gera produced a super curling 20 yard strike which went just wide and Morrison went even closer with a half volley from just outside the box which had Jensen beat but was not on target. It proved to be the last real chance of the half, and both sides were grateful of the whistle to catch their breath.
Half Time: West Bromwich Albion 1-1 Burnley
The second half got off to a painfully slow start, with no real action recorded from either side until the 59th minute. The hard working Greening produced a testing cross with Morrison just inches short of connecting to the ball.
But just a minute later the Baggies got themselves in front. Bednar challenged Unsworth in the air, the on-loan striker first to the ball to head home from the right hand post after Paul Robinson produced an inch perfect cross. Again revived by the goal, Albion sought that elusive third goal to seal the game, and Jensen would have been relieved to see a screaming volley from Cesar fly right into his outstretched arms.
In the 70th minute Albion were handed the chance of a third goal on a plate when Jon Harley was alleged to have brought down Robert Koren in the box. The Slovenian midfielder recovered and placed the ball on the spot himself, but his right footed penalty was well saved by Jensen.
This time it was Burnley who were kicked into action by the events, determined to make the last 20 minutes as uncomfortable for the Baggies as possible. O’Connor tested Dean Kiely with a 20 yard shot, which the Albion keeper proved to be more than equal to.
Albion proved they could still threaten when minutes later Gera tested Jensen again with a 20 yard stinger. But Burnley were desperate to find the equaliser and when Robbie Blake flicked onto O’Connor a nervous Hawthorns held its breathe, all relieved to see him stab a 15 yard effort straight at Kiely.
Jensen proved his worth again 5 minutes from time, Morrison going for goal this time with a low drive from the edge of the box. Despite the Burnley pressure they could not find a way through, and it was Albion who had the games last real chance in injury time when Koren released a 20 yard piledriver which had the right hand upright rattled but not beaten.
This game proved to be the exact reverse of the fixture at Turf Moor when Albion had gone a goal up only to lose 2-1. This time it was Burnley who had take the goal advantage only to be on the end of a 2-1 defeat.
Full Time: West Bromwich Albion 2-1 Burnley
Cesar (26)
Bednar (60)
O’Connor (4)
Attendance: 22,206
And as a burnley fan . I must say the better team won on this occasion.
We turned up and played football, The ref was GOOD ,but your class off the bench was the key ( in my mind) . Our fans were fantastic ,sung throughout and stayed to sing of our broken heroes!
www.wbabaggies.co.uk
Did you meet up with Hales ? Sounded good atmosphere from both sets of fans, And glad to see you got home safely.
As Jemms said, you wanna do a story from a Burnley point of veiw, would be glad to put it up for you.
The Lords My Shepherd.
The future is bright. The future is Stripes.
www.wbabaggies.co.uk
Not very good at that stuff ,Laura might have a go later .
We somehow in a turn out of over 2000 sit next to hales ?
No idea how that worked out, Strange or what. Laura and i took advantage of the free coaches ,We got to the ground at about 2pm so straight in to get a beer ( Shame about 500 other fans did the same) the que was huge. The burnley fans were in good voice ,The early goal stifled the Baggies fans early on . We went through our entire back catalogue ,Even " Jensen is a burnley fan" There was very little aggro between the fans ( which was strange considering the numbers) . Ive meet the only baggies fan with a high IQ though lad named Ian Quigley he was about 7 foot tall
.
Back to the game ,It was a great advertisement of how the game should be played , Very few balls reaching orbit ,Loads of wing play from both sides ,One-twos ,Cruyff turns ,even a couple of overhead kicks ( yours would have been goal of the season if it had been a foot to the left!
These are my take on how each of Burnley Players played!
Jensen 7 ... Had no chance with the goals ,His coming for crosses was good ,His distribution was also very good.
Alexander 5 .. Our week link in the first half , west brom played the ball over him ,dragged him inside , looked lost on occasions . Got better in the 2nd half.
Varga 5 ..V poor ,Looked sluggish he didn't command in the air like we would have hoped
Unsworth 6 ..Did ok ,covered alot for varga.
Harley 7...Lost a point for the penalty lunge, But worked his socks of down the left side .
Elliott 7.. Our normal outlet was stifled by a west brom side who knew his danger ,But got on with it with some good runs and even better balls in. Also that cruyff turn is looking good
JOC 8*MOM*... 'One yard' tackled harried chased got into the box ,threw his head in were it hurts . He was like a man possessed didn't give there midfield a minute!
Joey 7...Did well for 80 Min's ,Picked up the dangerous Phillips when he dropped deep, Looked to have a new lease of life under coyle .
McCann 6.. I think a few are being overly hard on McCann ,He is in another new position ,Left side center covering the wing .His late challenge spoiled his game .that yellow took the bite out of him.
Blake 6 .. Tuned into a bad frank lampard at times ( ie Turned around in a full circle then lost possession) , But he was the one who looked like he could do something special.
Ade 7.. Ade had one of his hardest days ,against two big strong uncompromising center halfs , His first touch was 100% better things stuck . his lay offs were also very good .
Spicer 6.. Beefed up the midfield , Didnt have a chance to influence tha game though.
Cole 7.. First touch class ! Movement Class ! His indifferent stance when the ball is nowhere near ,Then the burst into life intelligent runs Class " owen has unearthed a 35year old diamond"
Randall 6...He looked very good into he let t he ball slip under his foot then out , His crossing was superb. Looks like he will give service from our left .
Suprised to hear that there may have been some trouble ? as it normaly goes off alright at the Albion, Seeing as we are a friendly bunch. And not noted for trouble makers. Feel for you having found Dazzer so close lol.
The Lords My Shepherd.
The future is bright. The future is Stripes.
www.wbabaggies.co.uk
No just some of the faces which came down from burnley ,Trouble normally follows them , But It was really good tempered .Great game, Great atmosphere ,Great day out.
It is probably just me ,I have a habit of watching crowd movement ,( from the days when i was a steward )
The Lords My Shepherd.
The future is bright. The future is Stripes.
www.wbabaggies.co.uk
Great idea .. For the first season i just stood in the away end watching the footie .The the ba***ds gave me a promotion , I had to work .I was chief fire steward setting alarms ans checking extinguishers. Missed most of the footie, But i did meet laura there so it wasnt all bad .
Worked at west brom about three times too ,When rock steady got hired to make up the numbers there !
Being a Wolves fan thats the only kind of joy we get lol.
www.wbabaggies.co.uk