Since Roy Hodgson has been in charge, we have achieved some unbelievable results and put several hoodoos to rest. Yesterday, we put the longest, most painful winless run for Albion fans to rest as we beat Aston Villa for the first time in 26 years!
Team
With Steven Reid, Chris Brunt and Jerome Thomas all missing the game through injury, Roy Hodgson included Gonzalo Jara, James Morrison and Simon Cox in the starting line-up.
For the first time since the Liverpool game, we played what appeared to be more of a conventional 4-4-2 formation, with Cox partnering the in-form Peter Odemwingie up front and Morrison and Carlos Vela playing out wide.
After their impressive performances in recent weeks, Hodgson unsurprisingly kept the rest of the side the same as last week at Spurs.
First half
Without wanting to seem too critical, the first half saw a below-par performance from both sides and a relatively disappointing game of football as a result.
However, this view may have been clouded by Abdoulaye Meite’s own-goal after four minutes! At the time, I thought he had just made a mistake when trying to clear the ball, but having seen the goal on Football First again, for the ball to hit the outside his foot which is furthest away from goal and still end up in the back of the net is just incredibly unlucky.
This early goal helped Villa settle down and quieten the Albion supporters who had been in full voice at kick-off, with the noise now being made by the travelling supporters from just down the road, most of whom were probably expecting yet another win over us.
We only had two real efforts on goal in the entire first half, with the first of these seeing a curling shot from Youssouf Mulumbu well saved by Brad Friedel, before Carlos Vela sent a chipped effort comfortably over the bar from a tight angle after being played in behind the Villa defence by Simon Cox.
Second half
We have made a habit over the last couple of seasons of achieving impressive results when coming from behind, but Villa just seemed to be getting the rub of the green in terms of refereeing decisions and how the ball was bouncing throughout the opening hour or so.
This was shown when we had three penalty appeals in the space of about five minutes at the start of the second half waved away by referee Phil Dowd. It was impossible to tell from the Smethwick End whether we should have been awarded at least one of them, but it appears Peter Odemwingie did exaggerate any contact and do his best to convince Dowd that it was a penalty in at least one of the calls.
However, we found an equaliser on the hour mark. Odemwingie was the scorer for the fourth Premier League game in a row, as he poked the ball home from six yards after a goal-mouth scramble, following a James Morrison free-kick. This led to incredible scenes around the ground, except for one half of the Smethwick End, which suddenly became very quiet!
The game was turned on its head just two minutes later, as Paul Scharner received a second yellow card for a foul on Stiliyan Petrov. Although the challenge from Scharner was not completely necessary, it was the kind of challenge you would be happy with your players making if they weren’t already on a booking as Scharner was.
Just when it appeared we were starting to get a foot-hold in the game, most Albion supporters now seemed willing to accept that a point would be a decent result in the circumstances.
Villa began to enjoy a lot more possession again, without really causing us too many problems. We were helped in no small part by Gary McAllister’s decision to replace Nigel Reo-Coker with Robert Pires who despite still being a good footballer, is not quite quick enough across the ground to replicate his performances in an Arsenal shirt the best part of a decade ago.
The two best chances Villa created saw a Kyle Walker cross hit James Collins in the face when he should have done a lot better, before Stewart Downing saw a low shot well saved by Scott Carson at his near post.
I’m sure I wasn’t the only Albion fan who could see Villa snatching a late winner, even after what was a superb defensive display for much of the game. What followed in the final six minutes of the game will forever be written in Albion folklore and for those of us who were there, a real “I was there” moment.
After 84 minutes, we took the lead. The impressive Youssouf Mulumbu scored the goal, after making a lung-busting run from a defensive midfield position to latch onto a perfectly-weighted Cox through-ball and send an emphatic finish into the roof of the Brummie Road End goal and send Baggies fans around The Hawthorns and across the world into raptures!
The ensuing celebrations were incredible and were the loudest I have ever heard at The Hawthorns, with some people seeming to be in shock at how we were on the verge of beating the Villa in such incredible circumstances.
The six remaining minutes of normal time and the four minutes of injury time were probably the longest ten minutes I have ever experienced, but it was all worth it upon hearing the final whistle and the celebrations finally being able to start properly!
On reflection
On reflection, this was not a vintage Albion performance until the closing stages, which is to be expected when you are down to ten men for the final 28 minutes and injury time.
The fighting spirit shone through yesterday and I believe that we out-fought the Villa players on the pitch, and Roy Hodgson completely out-thought Gary McAllister on the touchline when you compare the substitutions made by both managers.
It is often said that playing with ten men galvanises a team, but the first five or ten minutes after Paul Scharner’s dismissal was probably the most one-sided period of the game in Villa’s favour. They controlled possession, but were unable to find a way past an organised defensive unit, marshalled superbly by Jonas Olsson.
The fact that we were able to stay in the game despite our numerical disadvantage was outstanding and in the final ten minutes or so, our players seemed to find an extra reserve of energy from somewhere to start pushing forward again. Youssouf Mulumbu epitomised this, making a superb run from defensive midfield, despite having to cover twice as much ground after the dismissal of Scharner, and finishing with aplomb.
It was not a day when many Albion players put in an eight or nine out of ten performance, but there were some individual performances which certainly deserve a mention. Scott Carson did nothing wrong and made a very good save late on from Stewart Downing, with Youssouf Mulumbu, Simon Cox and Peter Odemwingie all deserving a lot of credit for hard-working displays in difficult circumstances.
However, the stand-out performer for me yesterday was Jonas Olsson. He was captain in the absence of Chris Brunt and held the back four together, winning almost every header he challenged for and also making a number of superb blocks to deny Villa players shooting or passing opportunities. He will not get the plaudits in the same way as the likes of Mulumbu and Odemwingie will after yesterday, but he deserves them for another immense performance at the back.
The journey back to Sussex can be incredibly long if we have lost, but after results like yesterday, it seems to take no time at all! To be able to say that we are virtually safe with three games remaining is a brilliant feeling and I really hope the players continue to show the same desire and commitment in our remaining three games, especially next week!
Boing Boing!
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