| Friday 8th January |
Albion |
(0) 1 |
Nottingham Forest |
(1) 3 |
|
| Attendance: |
22,873 |
||||
| Albion: Carson; Zuiverloon, Tamas,
Olsson, Mattock (Koren 65); Brunt, Jara, Dorrans, Thomas; Cox (Miller 77), Moore
(Bednar 46) Subs (not used): Kiely, Martis, Cech, Mulumbu |
||
| Booked: Mattock, Tamas | Referee: Lee Probert |
Reporter: Haydn Thompson |
One swallow doesn't make a summer, and one defeat doesn't put an end to a promotion campaign. But this one put a serious dent in Albion's latest one. It meant that Forest moved above us into the automatic promotion places, and perhaps most crucially, it meant that we now have to rely on someone else to put an end to Forest's unbeaten run - which now stretches to 18 matches.
The match took place on the Friday because it was televised live by Sky TV. This of course meant it was an evening kick-off, and that was bad news for Albion for a start - even before this one we'd taken only one point from our last four, three of which were at home. The last time we won a match that kicked off in the evening was in September, when we beat Doncaster.
The swallow/summer analogy is quite ironic, because this match took place in what is officially the most severe cold snap that Britain has experienced in the last 30 years. The temperature was minus four degrees; with Saturday and Sunday's games falling like ninepins, the relevant people are to be congratulated on getting the match played at all - even if we wished afterwards that they hadn't bothered - and no doubt so did they.
It has to be said that Forest thoroughly deserved their victory. They played better football than us and they competed better than we did. It also has to be said however, that the referee gave them every decision he possibly could, and completely failed to control their petty gamesmanship (e.g. time wasting).
New signing Gabriel Tamas came into the back four in place of Shelton Martis, who had played in the Cup game at Huddersfield in place of Abdoulaye Meite who was on international duty in the African Cup of Nations. But the best news for Albion was that Ishmael Miller was on the bench after 13 months out injured.
Albion had early chances, Dorrans firing wide from 25 yards and Thomas from a narrow angle. But it was Forest that took the lead in the 18th minute, when they were awarded a corner on their left (the Brummie road was sure it should have been a goal kick) and Dexter Blackstock got in front of Tamas to force the ball in off the post from eight yards. Carson didn't move. In the words of the BBC commentator: "such a soft goal - who was picking him up?"
Thomas then went close for Albion with a hopeful lob from the corner of the box, but it was wide of the far post.
Second halfAt half time Neil Clement, who two days earlier had announced his retirement due to injury, came out to give a brief farewell speech. The Albion players went into a huddle at the start of the second half, and we hoped that they would come out fighting. But instead it was Forest who stepped up a gear, and within eleven minutes of the restart they had the game sewn up.
The second goal came from another Tamas error. His weak clearance of a high ball into the Albion half was easy for Moussi, who held off Mattock and fed Cohen; Cohen skipped past Mattock, and Chris Gunter delivered the cross for Radoslav Majewski to volley in off the bar from just outside the corner of the six-yard box.
The third goal came from a slick passing move down the right flank. It eventually found Chris Cohen on the edge of the D, who fired low and just inside the far post. It was apparently his first goal for almost a year - unless you count the one he put into his own net for Albion in August.
Roman Bednar, who had replaced Luke Moore at half time, pulled one back for Albion after some good, determined work down the left from Graham Dorrans. Dorrans' diagonal cross got in behind the Forest defence, and Bednar had time to run round it before putting it through Lee Camp's legs from twelve yards.
Dorrans then delivered a chance for Jonas Olsson, which brought a good save out of Camp. But possibly the most cheering effort of the night for Albion fans was a dipping 20-yarder from Ishmael Miller, who had replaced Simon Cox with thirteen minutes left, which brought an even better save out of Camp.
Forest play very different football than Derby did under the same manager: higher quality - fast, accurate passing and always looking to go forward. But they have the same annoying, niggling in-your-face attitude.
Roberto Di Matteo described this afterwards as was our worst performance of the season. That might be falling into the trap of giving too little credit to the opposition; but given the relative positions of the two clubs, before and after, it was almost certainly the worst result. RDM also said that Tamas needs time to bed in. He probably would have preferred not to have had to play him, less than a week after his arrival; but he really had little option. Let's hope the Romanian is a quick learner.
It's too early, of course, to say what bearing this game will have on the season as a whole. But this was our only chance to put an end to Forest's enviable run, and we blew it.
Next up: only Newcastle away ...