A Fan's View: Albion 3 Plymouth 1

Last updated : 13 September 2009 By Wba-mad Editor

After a fine couple of hours enjoying the sunshine, friendship and cricket before the match, I was really looking forward to the Plymouth game after two weeks off as I walked towards The Hawthorns.  I’m not sure whether it was a lack of rustiness after not playing for a couple of weeks or certain players recovering from travelling during the international break, but for the first 30 minutes Albion were just awful! 

Plymouth and the followers of the ‘Green Arrrrrrrmmmmmmyyyyyy’ rightfully had something to celebrate after another lapse in concentration from Shelton Martis resulted in us falling behind little after ten minutes.  Martis is more than capable of becoming a good player at this level but must cut out stupid errors if he is ever to become a success.  To be fair to Shelton he made amends ten minutes before the break by equalising – but even he wasn’t going to miss from a yard out! 

Just before the break, the impressive Marek Cech scored his first goal in Albion colours with an unstoppable effort from 20-yards out.  Cech had by far his best game for the Baggies and should really excel at this standard.  The decision by RDM to play him further up the field looks to be an excellent one with Cech’s defensive and offensive strengths maximised.

It was Cech who put the icing on the cake – and met my pre-kick off prediction – with minutes to spare and send Albion back to the top of the league.  Prior to that Albion had a number of other opportunities to kill off the game.  Chris Wood needs a bit more confidence in front of goal but still continues to impress.  The defence, although a little shaky at times in the first half-an-hour, were again pretty solid which sends an air of confidence through the team, and more importantly, throughout the crowd.  Mulumbu and Dorrans both were excellent in midfield and we didn’t seem to miss Robert Koren at all.  It’ll be interesting to see what pairing Di Matteo chooses from Tuesday’s game.  Mulumbu and Dorrans may lack experience but they are bloody good players.  However, I guess it’s a decision RDM is happy to have.

Six league games in, still unbeaten and looking pretty good!  Well done RDM and the lads.  Bring on Rovers on Tuesday!