[Archived] West Brom Preview

[den]

I thought he was average, no better or worse significantly than anyone else. Gave the ball away once or twice in very dangerous areas but we worked hard.

You saw the game Bobby G? I believe it was live in Singapore, - is that where you are?

[imy9]

Did you go imy?

I only ask because Don Mackay was saying he had a bad game. Said Andrews wasn't doing the job he was put on the park for. The same Mackay that said Carlos was poor against Villa - and was dropped for today's game.

I don't know how Andrews played myself, I wasn't there.

Yes took the Metro tram down there and back, Smethwick end with the Baggies fans.

If you are a goal scoring midfield player and you score, then IMO you cannot have had a bad game. He looked decent but had a much better game against Villa away.

[Bobby G]

You saw the game Bobby G? I believe it was live in Singapore, - is that where you are?

Dubai...Showtime here shows every game live on 10 different channels.

[American]

The team appears to capitulate all too easily for my liking.

5 late points shows that to be a pretty daft statement.

January is very important for this club. Ince needs to get in at least 4-5 new players who will play his style and move us forward. Not worried about this season, but if he doesn't get the players to build on what has been started, we are in trouble next season.

[thenodrog]

I don't know how Andrews played myself, I wasn't there.

Me neither so I cannot comment either. I guess we'll just have to take imy's word for it.

BUT

From what I have seen he is not a player that I expect to be tempted away by other clubs but he'd not buy a pint in my local tonight.

[Amo]

5 late points shows that to be a pretty daft statement.

And why were we in that position in the first place?

[Walls]

The team appears to capitulate all too easily for my liking.

What? We were 2-1 down with 10 men, yet equalised and hung on for a draw. I suggest you need a dictionary.

As T4E said, I do think at the moment there are a lot of parallels to the season we were relegated. We are playing well but not picking up results and have a long injury list. However the main difference is that we had a terrible start that season. We certainly haven't pulled up any trees this season but it has been far from disastrous. Its not make or break time just yet but we need to pick up a few wins very soon - if for nothing else other than to give Ince a bit of time and maybe get the idiots who seem unwilling to support him off his back.

[Amo]

What? We were 2-1 down with 10 men, yet equalised and hung on for a draw. I suggest you need a dictionary.

As T4E said, I do think at the moment there are a lot of parallels to the season we were relegated. We are playing well but not picking up results and have a long injury list. However the main difference is that we had a terrible start that season. We certainly haven't pulled up any trees this season but it has been far from disastrous. Its not make or break time just yet but we need to pick up a few wins very soon - if for nothing else other than to give Ince a bit of time and maybe get the idiots who seem unwilling to support him off his back.

I'm talking in the sense that we're surrendering goals far too easily.

[RibbleValleyRover]

I'm talking in the sense that we're surrendering goals far too easily.

Have to agree, its like we switch off once we get ahead. Take the Villa game, as soon as we scored we switched off and Villa got back into the game. Today was another example, we scored the pen and after that we were battered by West Brom (this was before the sending off).

Once we get a lead we just seem to sit back, stop the closing down/pressure and lose possession.

Its getting increasingly frustrating that we are dropping points because we are making schoolboy mistakes.

[philipl]

Well done Keith Andrews for slamming the 25 yarder into the gaping hole when all of WBA backed off you. Shame Jason Roberts couldn't do the same from 1 yard or we might have won.

Questions to those who went:

1) It looks from the statistics that the ref went completely overboard with the whistle- was he that bad and was it a nailed on penalty for us?

2) Did Simpson have such a bad first half to warrant pulling him off at half time?

3) Does Mr Jones resemble Mr Clattenburg?- thenodrog is anxious to find out.

[Ricky]

Philip, I didn't really see the pen as it was at the other end but it did seem soft.

Simpson wasn't great

Ref had a howler

Great strike from Andrews who impressed me. though he did a decent job and certainly didn't look out of place in the team.

[dannydisco]

Nice finish for Andrews. I had a feeling we'd sneak one in at the end. Shows character for the team to keep plugging away and rescue a point.

[den]

Did you go imy?

I only ask because Don Mackay was saying he had a bad game. Said Andrews wasn't doing the job he was put on the park for. The same Mackay that said Carlos was poor against Villa - and was dropped for today's game.

I don't know how Andrews played myself, I wasn't there.

Oh, and no-one else has mentioned this yet, but he also thought the best player for Rovers was Jason Roberts. Mackay thought he was superb.

It couldn't be the Pro Ince people pushing Andrews, when the real MOTM was Roberts, - could it?

[Exiled in Toronto]

Nice finish for Andrews. I had a feeling we'd sneak one in at the end. Shows character for the team to keep plugging away and rescue a point.

Thanks for posting the link.

Looked like Nelsen at fault for both goals to me. I really think he is our main problem at the back. Plenty of gutsy blocks but he just doesn't seem to read the game. Maybe because all those years in MLS and playing numpty teams in internationals during his formative years meant he never got that side of the game at a high enough level.

Cracking Benni pen - and what's with that haircut??

[philipl]

Yes, Nelsen adjacent to both goals conceded sadly.

[brfcs5359]

Just got back....

As a big Ince fan that was abysmal. 4-1 would have been a fair result. For 60 minutes we chased shadows. WBA knocked it around with ease and pumped quality ball after quality ball into our box.

The ref was abysmal. I never mention refs but this bloke had both sets of fans singing "You're not fit to referee" in tandem. The McCarthy decisions seemed awful. Slightly caught the defender both stood up running for the ball. First yellow. Then Benni was pushed so he deliberately left his arm out to knock the ball down as a gesture of the foul. Like most players do when fouled. A second yellow.

The ref lost it completely and must have awarded abut 10 consecutive free kicks to WBA because he felt guilty over the penalty and the WBA fans were on his back. Roberts, who was rank, was pushed over with an arm when running into the box. Clear cut penalty dismissed away. Awful. I think the ref knew he was making the wrong decisions but was trying to level up the previous bad decisions he knew he had made.

Andrews was abysmal. The game to fast and too competitive he might as well have been sat next to me in the stand. He hadn't a clue what to do and the game passed him by. Grella looked a championship player. Savage ran around more and gave it away less. Roberts should NEVER wear the shirt again. He obviously believes his biggest asset is to fall over for free kicks. All our good attacks floundered at his feet ever time. I believe he would be better moving to Fulham.

We missed Warnock in Central Midfield badly.

The pluses. Olson had a great game. Time after time he tackled the wide players and with Warnock (LM) covered the overlapping full back. Emerton was class. Ran and ran and unlike previous years, see's the goal.. shoots (on target as well!). Nelsen marshalled the defence up the pitch whenever possible. Benni scored. Set pieces; The shambles that was Hughes has gone and we look organised. Delivery is 400% better, defensively we are 200% more organised. That's about it.

1. Robinson - 6 - not sure he couldn't have got closer to their second. Other wise good.

2. Simpson - 5 - solidish - made some mistakes.

3. Olson - 7 - Kept tight, won his tackles

4. Grella - 3 - Gave the ball away time and again. Bring back Savage.

5. Samba - 7 - battled hard, gave 110%. Lack of communication at times

6. Nelsen - 7 - won most of the headers - marshalled the defence

7. Emerton - 8 - Top class for effort and delivery

8. Andrews - 3 - Game passed him by without a kick. Only in the last 10 minutes when the team put in the effort did he find time and space to shoot

9. Roberts - 1 - Negative contribution due to endless free kicks WBA won from his clumsy physical clueless approach.

10. Benni - 6 - looked sharper fitter. Bagged the pen. Won some nice balls and put Roberts in with a great pass (Roberts fell over!)

11. Warnock - 6 - Helped 'seal' up the left side. Looked lost and wasted there and contribution much reduced.

12 MGP - 4 - Rubbish. Tackeld easily, looked weak, failed to deliver a single cross. Nearly scored a fee kick.

13 Tugay - 5 - Ineffective. Grella and Andrews had already long lost the midfield battle.

14 Zurab - 3 - Brought on as right back. Probably said "Boss I have never played there before".

[philipl]

Very worrying assessment on Grella and Andrews. Obviously Nelsen was better than the goal highlights suggest.

Sadly, we knew Jason Roberts was a problem.

Your report makes the substitution of Simpson at half time still a mystery.

[LeChuck]

How long is Ince going to persevere with a defence that can't stop conceding?

We now have the worst defensive record in the entire league - 20 goals conceded in total. Considering our defence has been one of our strong points over the last few years, I find it staggering that Ince has managed to turn it in to the worst in the Premiership.

[RoverRich]

Nice finish for Andrews. I had a feeling we'd sneak one in at the end. Shows character for the team to keep plugging away and rescue a point.

Great pen from Benni and nice hair Looked like they had a bit of luck for their first goal as it came off Grella when he tried to get a tackle in and the ball fell for Bednar which could possibly explain why there was no offside. Still think Nelsen should have been closer and been able to prevent those goals from going in. Nice finish from Andrews, just need a few more of them now.

[brfcs5359]

WBA-------------ROVERS

64.6 Possession 35.4

61 Territorial Advantage 39

Says it all - abysmal

This lad was class - Borja Valero - Mowbray though got it all wrong. He allowed such a tight skilful player to get lazy and play 40-50 yards out. If he had ordered him to play 20-26 yards out he would have destroyed us. I note Baggies fans give him 9.5 on Sky.

[LDRover]

Thanks for that graham, good to read an objective report of how we played, surprised at the content though I must say.

[1864roverite]

Simpson substitution has to be TACTICAL

[brfcs5359]

5 late points shows that to be a pretty daft statement.

January is very important for this club. Ince needs to get in at least 4-5 new players who will play his style and move us forward. Not worried about this season, but if he doesn't get the players to build on what has been started, we are in trouble next season.

I agree. And 4 or 5 out. Nelsen, Moekoena, Vogel, Reid, MGP, Roberts, Treacy, Fowler. Hughes was lucky last season. Our home form pointed to relegation this season and we only finished where we did due to some late 1 goal wins on the road. I went to most of them and we were lucky at times to get 3 points. I said all last season Dunn and Bentley propped up a poor team. Even when they were poor in the final third, their ball retention got Hughes out of jail. Ince has now inherited that team minus Bentley and Dunn. He's done well to keep us in touch of Europe so far and January is critical.

[roversmum]

Thanks for that graham, good to read an objective report of how we played, surprised at the content though I must say.

Ref was abysmal - that's putting it lightly. Roberts pulled and pushed around by WBA defence totally unhindered. They fell around quite a bit (thought they must be graduates of Birmingham School of Drama along with Birmingham City and Aston Villa). WB were well organized, they had a plan and kept at it. They skipped around unhindered for part of the match. We felt they had a goal coming and they gave Rovers a hard time at that point. The maligned Nelsen at one point crossed the pitch to kick the ball out and prevent a goalscoring opportunity that no-one else had been able to pick up.

However - Rovers resurgence towards the end of the match gave me hope for the future. I thought Pederson did well, got on the end of headers and linked with Warnock at left back, they made a big difference to play on the left side - though granted from our viewpoint we couldn't see much of what went on on that side for the first half. I was underwhelmed when Tugay came on but the difference began to tell in the last part of the match. We created chances which unfortunately were lost - one amusing moment when Carson was left floundering with the ball bouncing towards the net unfortunately going just wide. There was passion and chasing the ball and there was no doubt an equalising goal was going to come. Well done, lads, if you start off playing that way we'll be okay. To be honest we should have won it, ten men notwithstanding.

Edit - I don't think anyone would disagree with American and Graham's last point. Certainly the last half of the season was pretty poor despite results and it was obvious that fresh faces were needed even then. The thing is, they need to be players who are up to the task and capable of it

[RevidgeBlue]

Just got back....

As a big Ince fan that was abysmal. 4-1 would have been a fair result. For 60 minutes we chased shadows. WBA knocked it around with ease and pumped quality ball after quality ball into our box.

The ref was abysmal. I never mention refs but this bloke had both sets of fans singing "You're not fit to referee" in tandem. The McCarthy decisions seemed awful. Slightly caught the defender both stood up running for the ball. First yellow. Then Benni was pushed so he deliberately left his arm out to knock the ball down as a gesture of the foul. Like most players do when fouled. A second yellow.

The ref lost it completely and must have awarded abut 10 consecutive free kicks to WBA because he felt guilty over the penalty and the WBA fans were on his back. Roberts, who was rank, was pushed over with an arm when running into the box. Clear cut penalty dismissed away. Awful. I think the ref knew he was making the wrong decisions but was trying to level up the previous bad decisions he knew he had made.

Andrews was abysmal. The game to fast and too competitive he might as well have been sat next to me in the stand. He hadn't a clue what to do and the game passed him by. Grella looked a championship player. Savage ran around more and gave it away less. Roberts should NEVER wear the shirt again. He obviously believes his biggest asset is to fall over for free kicks. All our good attacks floundered at his feet ever time. I believe he would be better moving to Fulham.

We missed Warnock in Central Midfield badly.

The pluses. Olson had a great game. Time after time he tackled the wide players and with Warnock (LM) covered the overlapping full back. Emerton was class. Ran and ran and unlike previous years, see's the goal.. shoots (on target as well!). Nelsen marshalled the defence up the pitch whenever possible. Benni scored. Set pieces; The shambles that was Hughes has gone and we look organised. Delivery is 400% better, defensively we are 200% more organised. That's about it.

1. Robinson - 6 - not sure he couldn't have got closer to their second. Other wise good.

2. Simpson - 5 - solidish - made some mistakes.

3. Olson - 7 - Kept tight, won his tackles

4. Grella - 3 - Gave the ball away time and again. Bring back Savage.

5. Samba - 7 - battled hard, gave 110%. Lack of communication at times

6. Nelsen - 7 - won most of the headers - marshalled the defence

7. Emerton - 8 - Top class for effort and delivery

8. Andrews - 3 - Game passed him by without a kick. Only in the last 10 minutes when the team put in the effort did he find time and space to shoot

9. Roberts - 1 - Negative contribution due to endless free kicks WBA won from his clumsy physical clueless approach.

10. Benni - 6 - looked sharper fitter. Bagged the pen. Won some nice balls and put Roberts in with a great pass (Roberts fell over!)

11. Warnock - 6 - Helped 'seal' up the left side. Looked lost and wasted there and contribution much reduced.

12 MGP - 4 - Rubbish. Tackeld easily, looked weak, failed to deliver a single cross. Nearly scored a fee kick.

13 Tugay - 5 - Ineffective. Grella and Andrews had already long lost the midfield battle.

14 Zurab - 3 - Brought on as right back. Probably said "Boss I have never played there before".

Surprised by that assessment, the guys on Radio Lancs seemed to think it was an exciting incident packed game and that we deserved something out of the game given we were down to ten for most of it.

They also thought Roberts was the MoM and should have had another much clearer penalty than the one actually given in the second half as he was pulled back as he shot!