A Fan's View: Wigan 1 Albion 1

Last updated : 19 March 2012 By Wba-mad Editor

WARNING! Anyone of a nervous disposition should not, watch, follow, or support West Bromwich Albion Football Club.

So, my first league away game. I had been in high hopes and spirits for weeks regarding this game. I was hopeful, but not holding my breath on a Baggies win, although it was nice to see we had taken nearly 5,000 on the two hour trip to the DW stadium, thanks partly to the free travel put on by the club.

Line ups

The line ups came in as we were outside the ground, it seemed a rather odd line up by Roy. Andrews and Fortune started on the bench with Ridgewell at CB and Shorey LB. Andrews was replaced by Scharner, Odemwingie by Thomas and Fortune by Long. It was great to see Billy Jones back, who replaced Tamas, and that gave me some confidence. I was worried by the team he had picked though, Shorey Vs Moses wasn’t going to be hard to predict.

First half

The game started with Wigan brighter, better in attack and all over the field, playing the ball in midfield and using it effectively as we couldn’t get hold of it. An early shot by former Chelsea striker Franco Di Santo was high and wide from a difficult angle.

We still weren’t awake, they were pushing and pushing, Jones was stuck as the over-lapping run wasn’t covered at times by Thomas and Scharner was becoming a man who came over to help. But balls kept flying in and it looked more like a Mowbray defence as we were extremely indecisive in the air allowing balls to bounce, here, there and everywhere before anyone took command.

Wigan didn’t stop with Di Santo again having a shot. This time Foster made a save. Then Emerson Boyce came in the box unmarked and headed onto the bar from close range, as again crosses proved our downfall. Shorey was losing every running battle he had. He was 5 yards ahead of Di Santo who ran him down, got the ball and had a shot which Foster collected. The LB was having a torrid time.

Our only real chance of the half came when Brunt whipped in a decent free kick for McAuley to head wide. This was just a brief chance as Wigan again hit the bar, this time through James McCarthy. It looked at the time like Foster got something on it to save us yet again. Foster then got up, ran back across the goal and stopped Victor Moses from finishing with a tackle save.

Half time came and we’d survived, just about. The defence was not what it has been recently. But hope was here with Dawson warming up in shorts, whereas everyone else had tracksuit bottoms on.

Second half

So the second half began and Dawson wasn’t on, no changes, and no changes to the away end. Nerves running through us and the hope we could pick our game up. No real better start than before, they had the ball in midfield again, we were pressed and pulled out of position,  especially Scharner, Morrison and Mulumbu. This showed when Moses outpaced Shorey to the byline and drilled the ball across goal. It hit Jones and found McArthur who fired home.

 I’d say the DW erupted, but you couldn’t hear them bar a tiny pocket of fans to our left. As they played the annoying goal-scoring music, you could see the players’ heads were down. But as they kicked off we seemed to have more of a purpose. Roy had made the call to Fortune to get ready, and he did. This for me was our missing link. We’d missed his hold up play. Long was isolated all game and couldn’t hold the ball up and drop deep. When the ball went over the top, he was too far behind play. Yes he lacked service, but he lacked his usual football know-how and anticipation.

Anyway, we conceded a series of corners and MAF couldn’t get on the pitch. Then it was our turn to attack a little and get a corner ourselves after a blocked shot.  Brunt steps up and his corners so far had been of good quality. High swinging and difficult for Al Habsi, he again produced a decent ball in for Scharner to stoop down and head home against his old club.

The away end went mental as Scharner came over to us, eyes wide and smacked the badge with pride, nothing OTT but showed passion and pride for us.

At this moment MAF sat down and wasn’t coming on – I still believe he should have started.

We gained heart from this, little things became possible, as the Baggies sang and sang. Our passing game and swagger came back, movement was good, but we seemed to try that extra touch or that extra pass that we shouldn’t have tried and we never really troubled AL Habsi.

The ball came in from the left and was nodded back to Long, but he seemed to look and do nothing to get the ball and just allowed the defender to clear. It was there to be won, it had bounced in the six yard box yet he didn’t react!

The fists and legs were used as Thomas got involved by wanting a piggy back off the Wigan player after Mulumbu has reacted to a tackle. Foster ran 60 yards to try and break them up, good job he did as everyone escaped with yellows. Without intervention it would no doubt have been the red fans were calling for.

Mulumbu was not happy with a challenge on him so took it into his own hands and started on the Wigan player. I wasn’t surprised to see Keith Andrews come on and with his first effort struck one just wide of the post.

Then Wigan showed their desire, fight and want to stay up, with this being their time of the season they usually pick the points up. They attacked and again we set up camp in our half but they certainly wanted that ball at Moses feet attacking Nicky Shorey every time. It’s a good job they haven’t got a clinical finisher else we would have been embarrassed, they attacked and pushed but something was always in the way, Scharner’s boot, McAuley’s head, but mainly Ben Foster’s hands.

The former England ‘keeper showed his class at the end with Moses shooting from a tight angle and him parrying out for a corner.

As the full time whistle went, sighs of relief filled through the away end and shouts of frustration in the home.              

On reflection

I think we are to release a DVD named ‘How to mug Wigan’ after that! No wonder they are 19th, they haven’t got a clinical finish in them. If they had, we would have been looking at a mauling. Our defence needs a better back up for LB then we can play Ridgewell there and i’ll be happy.

Good job we are safe else that’d be key, mind you if we weren’t safe I’d like to think a different team would have been fielded and a bit more desire would have been showed by the players who looked lacklustre.

Fortune now looks key, Long was on his own. We needed Fortune to hold up the ball, we lacked his presence. I hope he can play with Long because we can’t only use him with Odemwingie. Can we?

Last question that we need to ask now is: How good is our ‘second team’? We saw a couple yesterday and it wasn’t the best we’ve seen them, they were good once but we’ve progressed so fast, Wigan have had 7 years in the prem and we have had 2 we’ve overtaken them already.

A final word to CBB, thanks for everything, without you the day wouldn’t be possible. It was appreciated.

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