Hi folks, I have calmed down enough to do the match report……..just!
Roy Hodgson had spoken out in the press last week about his frustration at Odemwingie’s injuries, most unlike Roy to vent his anger thought the press………. Was this a master stroke or will it back fire? Personally I think it will give Odemwingie a kick up the backside and focus his mind on playing football and not keeping the club’s medical team busy.
News was coming through that Van der Vaart and Modric were out for Spurs and Odemwingie, Long were fit.
The teams
Albion: 4-4-1-1; Foster, Reid, McAuley, Olsson, Shorey, Brunt, Mulumbu, Morrison, Thomas, Gera and Long.
Subs: Odemwingie, Tchoyi, Fulop, Dorrans, Jones, Schaner, Cox.
Tottenham 4-4-1-1; Friedel, Walker, Kaboul, King, Assou-Ekotto, Lennon, Sandro, Parker, Bale, Defoe and Adebayor.
Subs: Livermore, Cudicini, Gallas, Bassong, Kane, Pienaar, Fredricks.
The game
From the start we harried them in to a few bad passes, we closed them down whenever they got the ball, and Albion looked in good shape. Mulumbu looked back to his best chasing every ball and within a few minutes placed a great ball to Shane Long that was just inches wide in the box.
Tottenham came back at us when Sandro let a low 25-yard shot off that Foster saved but could have gone anywhere as he parried it wide for a corner.
Back we came working our magic with some sublime passing, quick thinking, clever foot work and shear desire. Gera chased down a ball that looked lost only to pass back to Reid who let fly a wonderful pass in to the Tottenham box to find the head of Mulumbu …………….Goal !
Tottenham were being cancelled out by a much better team. Our passing game was as good as I have seen all season but on 22 minutes Gera went down with what looked like a bad injury …….. I hope it is not as bad as it looked, and wish him a speedy recovery.
On came Simon Cox. Tottenham played the ball from their own half with Bale doing the running then Adebayor played a flick pass to Lennon who ran in to our box with Shorey chasing him. Lennon dives to the ground...penalty. You could not make this crap up, three penalties in as many home games.
Referee Probert said Shorey pulled Lennon back……………Yeh, and i’m bloody Santa Claus.
Foster saved the penalty from Adebayor but it rebounded back to him and was able to finish the job with the second attempt.
Boos rang around the ground at Lennon and the ref but we needed to stay focused as Tottenham smelled blood and were on the attack again with Leadley King out jumping McAuley form a Bale free kick to send the header just wide of the left hand post.
Back we came with a pass from Cox to the athletic Thomas sprinting in to the box to be brought down by Kyle Walker ………… it has to be a penalty it looked worse than ours but no, Probert the brainless wonder in the middle said no.
Defoe came back with the ball the speed merchant was stopped by McAuley and Adebayor fired the loose ball at Foster.
Again Albion showed great team spirit when Reid’s cross came off Ekotto and Friedel seem to take the ball in to his own net under pressure from McAuley and was adjudged to have fouled the ‘keeper.
Yet again we were denied a clear cut penalty when Shane Long was fouled by King in the box, you just could not make this up Lee Probert should be banished to Siberia.
We finished the first half strongly considering the awful refereeing decisions we kept our composure.
Second half
From the restart Morrison, who was having a great game, gave a poor pass to Scott Parker who passed to Adebayor who fired a shot but was denied by a great save from Foster.
Back come Albion with Cox gifted a great chance to pull ahead only to head straight at Friedel after Morrison’s excellent work down the wing.
The pace of the game was stepping up with Defoe and Bale upping their game. Defoe came close but found the calmness of Reid who cleared the ball close to the goal line and McAuley made a brilliant challenge on Lennon in the box to stop the speedy winger closing in on a sure goal.
It was all end to end and again we had a shout for a penalty when Kaboul tugged back Morrison.
Adebayor looked like he was going to score but Foster did brilliant to stand his ground and clear the ball.
Odemwingie came on for Long and was soon in the action and came close with a header but put it over.
Morrison made a great run to set up Brunt who blazed over the bar when he should have done a lot better to give us the lead. With 80 mins on the clock we were pushing for the win but we left ourselves open at the back and got caught on the break. Defoe was pushing Olsson back and scored which knocked the stuffing out of us. The third goal for Tottenham is irrelevant.
The reaction from Mulumbu when the goal went in said it all. He lay on the ground with his hands over his face. We gave our all, we played some brilliant football and did not disgrace ourselves. We out played Tottenham for periods of the game but the referee has to look at his own performance……………. It was very very poor and cost us three points again.
On reflection
I have never been so angered other than the Stoke game. But, looking forward, if we play like that we will have no problem this season. Roy Hodgson has got us playing some great football, Mulumbu looked back to his best and Morrison was on fire. Shane Long was brilliant and it was a good all-round performance.
I hope that Gera is ok and Shane Long recovers from his groin strain, which he has been carrying for a while. And Odemwingie can be the player we know he is and put this injury spell behind him.
And last of all on behalf of WBA- MAD I would like to offer our sincere condolences to the families of Vic Stirrup a gent and an Albion Legend.
Also the very sad news that Gary Speed had died R I P.
ARDBAGGIE
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