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