As I was walking to the ground last night I felt hope and optimism. You look at the table and it's a happy sight. As long as we stay in the top 4 until Christmas, I feel we stand a strong chance of one of the two automatic spots.
I found the first 5 minutes of the match reflected my views. The Baggies looked fresh and really up for it. The midfield was running around chasing everything and winning the ball in the middle of the park. We had a couple of shots, then they ran up the pitch and scored a goal!! I can't deny it was an impressive goal, but I found myself not bothered by it as I just knew we were better than them, and it was a matter of time before we took the upper hand.
Saturday’s star striker Cech had to come off which was a shame, as he had shown good form in the first ten minutes, but at least we could have a better look at Jerome Thomas. On that point, he looked good on the ball showing good skill and he has the speed to go past players.
When Morrison is fit, and Teix is match fit, I think RDM is going to have a few headaches over the starting 11!
Albion equalise
Olsson's goal about 10 minutes later is a sight I love to see! About time we have a central defender who can score a goal. Personally however, I felt the performance dropped off from that point onwards. The midfield looked a little bit shaky which allowed Doncaster to get the ball down and play some better football than us at times. Apart from Makalele...I mean Mulumbu, I felt Koren, Dorrans and Brunt had a quiet game. I will never fault Koren for effort levels, but his input wasn't to his usual high standards and Dorrans looked the same. Although Dorrans certainly knows how to make the most of set pieces providing both the corner and the free kick for Olsson's two goals. I felt Brunt never really got in to the game. All this made our formation in the middle of the park look a little bit stretched with a big hole in the middle which two of their players filled....or am I looking in to this wrongly??
I felt sorry for Bednar. A lot of 'off the ball' bumps and shoves off defenders makes me think he went home with a few bruises, but he's certainly big enough to take care of himself. The service to him however didn't really allow him to get in to the game, he definitely worked very hard for everything though, still one of my favourite Baggie boys. Our 17-year-old Kiwi's goal was a tremendous way for him to score his first career goal. Showing great strength to win the ball back, then the way the ball sat up allowed him to thunder home his strike. Cracking goal!
On reflection
I was overall happy with the defence. Mattock had a good game and looked great when he went forward and a couple of his crosses caused problems for the Rovers’ defenders. Martis had a pretty good game, although I still trust Olsson's judgements over his. I can't decide whether it is the occasional lack of concentration that leads to the mistakes, who knows but there is definitely a good defender there, not too much gets past him.
So, 3 more points to the Baggie boys. Not the best of performances but at this stage of the season the points are more important. The players are of the quality to get us out of the division, and from what I have seen, RDM should be the man to do it!
Boing Boing
East Stand Dave