| Monday 14th December |
Albion |
(0) 2 |
Queens Park Rangers |
(0) 2 |
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| Attendance: |
21,565 |
Thomas 67 |
Olsson (o.g.) 56 |
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| Albion: Kiely; Zuiverloon (Bednar 85),
Meite,
Olsson, Mattock; Brunt, Jara, Dorrans, Thomas; Cox, Moore (Wood 65) Subs (not used): Allsop, Martis, Teixeira, Cech, Mulumbu |
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| Booked: Brunt | Referee: A. Taylor |
Reporter: Haydn Thompson |
This was my first midweek game for some time, and arriving at Junction 1 less than an hour before kick-off I was pleasantly surprised to find the traffic flowing freely. My tikka in the Vine took longer than it should have (note to self: it's not so fast when you're at the end of the queue and they're virtually cooking to order) but I was pleased to see that the kick-off was delayed until I arrived in my seat at about 19:50!
RDM made four changes from the side that had lost to Cardiff. One of them was enforced, with Dean Kiely coming in for the suspended Scott Carson, to make his first League appearance of the season. Elsewhere Joe Mattock, Jerome Thomas and Luke Moore were all back from injury; Marek Cech, Youssuf Mulumbu and Roman Bednar were all demoted to the bench.
The first real chance of the game fell to Simon Cox, who headed weakly straight at the QPR keeper Radek Cerny. Adel Taarabt, on loan from Tottenham, then forced Kiely into a good save with a solo 25-yard effort. Two minutes later Jerome Thomas was one-on-one with Cerny after Simon Cox was brought down on the edge of the box. The keeper parried Thomas's shot, then had to claw it out for a corner. The last chance of the first half came to Gianni Zuiverloon, who shot narrowly high and wide when put through behind the QPR defence by Brunt.
At half time, even with the score still at 0-0, it was Albion that had more reason to rue the missed chances.
Second halfTen minutes into the second half there was even more reason, as QPR took the lead. From a corner on their right, Czech centre back Kaspars Gorkss (how many Ss do you need, for goodness' sake?) leant heavily on Jonas Olsson, who was then sandwiched between Gorkss and Patrick Agyemang (combined body mass 25 stone); Olsson knew little about the header that looped into the far top corner of the Albion net.
One minute later Kiely was forced into a spectacular save to push Taarabt's 25-yard drive onto the bar.
2-0 would have been a disaster for the Baggies, and very flattering to QPR - but five minutes later it happened. Kiely could only parry Watson's free kick from wide on the left, and the ball bounced off Mattock to sit up nicely for Gorkss to head home from close range.
If the first goal had been unjust, the second was slightly farcical. The lead was totally undeserved, but it has to be said that Albion had had plenty of chances to put this game to bed before the visitors had opened the scoring.
With less than half an hour left the pressure was on for the Albion, and both players and fans began to question the bizarre decisions of the referee. Balls that had patently been put out by QPR defenders were given as goal kicks; Bednar had a good penalty shout turned down; and most bizarrely of all, QPR were given a free kick after a blatant handball in the centre circle by one of their players. To add insult to injury, Chris Brunt finally received the only booking of the game for questioning one of these decisions.
But that was later. In fact the 2-0 lead lasted only five minutes. In the 65th minute of the game Luke Moore was replaced by Chris Wood, and he'd only been on the field for two minutes when he headed Graham Dorrans' ball down to Simon Cox. Cox's effort was blocked, but it ran to Jerome Thomas, who fired home from seven or eight yards. It was his third goal in as many games, and his sixth of the season.
No surprise after that that the visitors started to slow things down at every opportunity. But the Baggies kept at it. Zuiverloon put a looping header just wide; and Cox forced a brilliant save out of Cerny after Meite's shot was blocked on the edge of the penalty area. With just five minutes left, Zuiverloon made way for Bednar as Albion went for three up front. As the 90 minutes drew to a close there were only three minutes of added time announced - not much for a half that had seen three goals, four substitutions, and an awful lot of time-wasting.
Those three minutes were already up however when Wood fielded a long ball from out of the Albion half. Surrounded by four defenders, he did well to get a shot in; this was parried by Cerny, but it came out to Simon Cox, following up, whose deft touch (it was an awkward chance) beat the QPR stopper from nine yards. That's six goals in the last seven games now for Cox - who is starting to look comfortable at this level, and worth every penny of the one and a half million pounds we paid for him.
QPR barely had time to kick off before the final whistle went. The feeling for the Albion fans was one of relief, but it had nearly been much worse. Despite their recent off-field problems (this was their first game since manager Jim Magilton was suspended for allegedly head-butting Akos Buzsaky) QPR looked a decent side - some of their results this season have shown that on their day they're a match for anyone in this division. But Albion looked a mere shadow of the side that so recently swept aside the likes of Watford, Leicester, Bristol City and Sheffield Wednesday.
What's gone wrong? There were no excuses by way of injuries tonight, with the side back to the same strength as for any of those recent victories. We even conceded two goals from set pieces - and that's a problem we thought we'd finally put behind us.
On the positive side, we did create plenty of chances in this game, and we showed good application to come back from two goals down. Gonzalo Jara is a class act in midfield; Simon Cox is now proving a real handful to Championship defences, and Jerome Thomas is a constant threat. Both of our goals involved Chris Wood working as a target man - it can't be long now before he's preferred to Roman Bednar. But if we're to hold on to a promotion place, we can't keep giving two-goal leads - particularly at home - to sides like QPR.