Pre- Match
The day started like many other away games, travel up to Liverpool via a pub in Cheshire courtesy of Black Country Albion travel. An uneventful journey was broken up by this stop for a beer and some discussion of the game ahead. The general consensus of the Albion support seemed to be ‘we might just nick a point’ and ‘Liverpool hasn’t had the best of starts’, while I was feeling a little less optimistic as I attended the horror show in London a fortnight prior. However, as the sun began to come out in the beer garden we were excited to see how the recharged Albion would match up against the might of Liverpool at Anfield. We arrived at the ground with an hour before kick-off, so with a whirlwind tour of the somewhat disappointing exterior of the famous ground and a brief trip to The Arkles pub we headed inside.
First Half
It’s difficult to explain my amazement at how well Albion played in the first half! We were strong, organised and showed some great touches. We looked a completely different side to that of the one who got stuffed at Chelsea. Liverpool’s stars were a bit shocked in my opinion that a West Brom side had turned up with a real will to get something from the game, and how close we came to achieving that!
Jonas Olsson was superb, as was the man who is “better than Kaka” Mulumbu. As we headed for half time with a very decent chance just gone begging brought about by a great Albion move down the right, culminating in a decent Fortune strike (something MOTD did manage to show)! I was filled with much optimism. This was also the case for many Albion fans in the obligatory half time discussions in the line for a pie.
Second Half
As the teams re-emerged for the second period I, and I’m sure many others, became increasingly nervous as to when a Liverpool onslaught would begin. Not many Scousers would have been happy with the Reds’ first half display. That onslaught didn’t really arrive. We were again solid in midfield, often breaking down Liverpool before they could get a move started, this was encouraging!
In the 65th minute of the game we produced a really decent bit of play which was almost finished off by Gonzo Jara. We thought his shot hit the hand of their defender! They then managed to force a quick break and a superb finish from Torres effectively won them the game. This was harsh to say the least on Albion as we really held our own at Anfield.
One thing that I have failed to mention thus far is Lee Probert! What a poor refereeing performance from a so called top flight official.
We were denied two clear cut penalties and were unfairly treated from the word go in this game. It wasn’t even just the penalties. The diving escapades from Liverpool’s stars was quite shocking at times. There was a moment when Jovanovic fell to the floor like he had been stabbed by a rather large knife and he promptly appealed for a foul that never was! Probert, however failed to book the player or even award Albion a free kick as a measly amount of justice for this obvious act of cheating. I guess you’re all thinking ‘yeah it was at Anfield and smaller clubs don’t get those decisions’, but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating.
Near on full time, Jimmy Morrison quite unluckily got a straight red card much to our dismay. Having now watched the replay I can see why the ref acted in the way he did. However, in Mozza’s defence there was no intention to do anything other than get the ball in that challenge and it was a harsh decision. Clearly a yellow card would have been appropriate.
The Atmosphere
A special mention to our fantastic support yesterday. The Albion fans really got behind their team and I think the players fed off our appreciation for their terrific performance the whole way through the game. Liverpool fans seemed unenthused by their side’s game against us and didn’t even respond when “where’s your famous atmosphere?” boomed out from the away end.
A brilliant performance from the fans I thought!
On Reflection
Personally, a great day out with friends (one of those is BrumUniBaggie who I promised would get a mention) and my brother. Having recently come back from Australia, it was great to watch the Albion play so well at such an esteemed ground against a big club.
There were so many star performers for the game; it’s hard to pick an individual for a man of the match. I have to say, Mulumbu and Olsson were probably just ahead of the rest but everyone played their part in the narrowest of defeats. I find it a little frustrating that Match of the Day failed to show the blatant penalties that were not given which we thought were plainly obvious but I guess that’s just the way it goes.
Disappointed with defeat but a great performance-were getting better.
Matt Holding (wbamatt)