Back from the game - West Brom FA Cup

[brendywendy]

Come on here after a great game,great result,great performance,great goal. And every thread is picking on miniscule negatives, slagging players off. Typical.
Very impressed with what bmcd is doing here. Improving players all the time, and the team as a whole. Cummings,federici. Long,karacan,kebe,pearce all added extra dimensions to their games since last year,and become good players. The sensible addition of steel and experience with griffin,harte, kish, legs, all effective. Addition of bwp and one other on the horizon.
Things are looking very good indeed imo.

Sort of agree but I found that most points made are not that miniscule. Yes the win was well deserved but surely it shouldn't hide what are some real concerns

Mills Harte and Hunt were all poor and against other better (more motivated) teams we would not have got away with this performance

so the -ves from the game were?

hartes a bit slow, and gets rinsed every now an again? more than outweighed by his attacking work imo, and you cant argue with the results when he plays.
mills has looked a bit shakey all season,? yes, but his partnership with pearce is improving all the time.
nhuntdoesnt look so hot currently? yes, but still getting goals every now and then, and his partnership with long is starting to bare real fruit

other than that long scored again
we beat a prem team comfortably
hasd a decent team performance
are in the 4th round of the cup
karacan and legs looking very strong
etc etc

so yes- i feel that after such a decent game/result/performance, that to find the threads about the game so full of the negatives is a little daft imo

[bcubed]

hartes a bit slow, and gets rinsed every now an again? more than outweighed by his attacking work imo, and you cant argue with the results when he plays.
mills has looked a bit shakey all season,? yes, but his partnership with pearce is improving all the time.
nhuntdoesnt look so hot currently? yes, but still getting goals every now and then, and his partnership with long is starting to bare real fruit

But you can't expect these problems to be ignored

Harte is very (embarrassingly) slow and this has led to goals in the past and will do again. Personally I am not convinced about his attacking attributes either
As others have said Pearce is playing as well as he ever has and is covering for Mills again and again
And Hunt well a really good header and a flick on, but his overall play is a concern and he gives the ball away far too much


So for me I enjoyed the game and am delighted to be in the next round but still came away with concerns about where the team is weak and how it could be improved

[brendywendy]

not ignoring them in any way- in fact i just gave you a brief summary of what i think they are.
but i also gave reasons for why i think the negatives are negated.

the defence is all about performing as a unit. where one player has weaknesses the others cover.
and due to this working very well indeed, the results when harte plays have been good. actually very good considering we are playing a geriatric LB with the pace of a snail.

same goes for the rest. if every area of the team was perfect wed be running away with the champions league already.

my main point is that the teams shortfalls are being constantly addressed, and planned for. and it all seems good.

im not against mentioning it(i just have-again0 but i do still very much think that the fact that the threads is mostly negativity is a bit weird after the result/performance

[Fox Talbot]

5th time in a row we've beaten WBA in the Cups! Can't think of another club we've beaten more often in a row in the Cups. STRAP?

We've lost 5 in a row to the Arse and (prob) Man U.

[Samrfc01]

5th time in a row we've beaten WBA in the Cups! Can't think of another club we've beaten more often in a row in the Cups. STRAP?

We've lost 5 in a row to the Arse and (prob) Man U.

we took man utd to a replay a couple of years ago so not them

[JC]

5th time in a row we've beaten WBA in the Cups! Can't think of another club we've beaten more often in a row in the Cups. STRAP?

We've lost 5 in a row to the Arse and (prob) Man U.

We have lost every competitive game we have ever played against Arsenal (9).
Against United in the cups (all FA Cup) we have won 1, drawn 5 and lost 6.

[Dave the rave]

That game was a bit 'meh'.

Good result, good and bad performances from us, very poor opposition.
Harte very lucky to stay on the pitch let alone not concede the penalty. I was waiting the rest of the game for the ref to even it up with a controversial decision. West Brom didn't give him the opportunity.

So, mostly positive. However, as much as Harte has a place in the team at present he was not only rinsed but his positioning when the ball came over that time was poor. Not sure where the CDs were though.

Also, there has been a bit of Mills bashing recently. Apart from a couple of moments I thought he played Miller and Morrison well today with a good physical presence.

[Fox Talbot]

5th time in a row we've beaten WBA in the Cups! Can't think of another club we've beaten more often in a row in the Cups. STRAP?

We've lost 5 in a row to the Arse and (prob) Man U.

we took man utd to a replay a couple of years ago so not them

No, it's whether we won or lost the tie. Vs Man U we lost in 2006, 1996, 195x etc - also Watney Cup in 1970.

[Barry the bird boggler]

5th time in a row we've beaten WBA in the Cups! Can't think of another club we've beaten more often in a row in the Cups. STRAP?

We've lost 5 in a row to the Arse and (prob) Man U.

We have lost every competitive game we have ever played against Arsenal (9).
Against United in the cups (all FA Cup) we have won 1, drawn 5 and lost 6.

That depends if you call the war years competitive or not..... we've done Arsenal a number of times if you include that period.

[westongeezer]

I could not get to this game but i am still unsure abut WBA penalty claim and theres little or no Tv coverage of the game, was it a penalty?...on a good note i got Hartes shirt from that game......and dont ask me how!

[brendywendy]

BMcD seemed to think it may have been

[Alan Partridge]

I could not get to this game but i am still unsure abut WBA penalty claim and theres little or no Tv coverage of the game, was it a penalty?...on a good note i got Hartes shirt from that game......and dont ask me how!

Wouldn't have been hard to chase after him to get it.

[Ferris]

I could not get to this game but i am still unsure abut WBA penalty claim and theres little or no Tv coverage of the game, was it a penalty?...on a good note i got Hartes shirt from that game......and dont ask me how!

Did you threaten to punch him?

[papereyes]

I could not get to this game but i am still unsure abut WBA penalty claim and theres little or no Tv coverage of the game, was it a penalty?...on a good note i got Hartes shirt from that game......and dont ask me how!

Well done on getting the brown wings.

[Tilehurst End]

I could not get to this game but i am still unsure abut WBA penalty claim and theres little or no Tv coverage of the game, was it a penalty?...on a good note i got Hartes shirt from that game......and dont ask me how!

Wouldn't have been surprised to see it given but the ref, who was one of the better ones we've had this season, and lino were well placed.

If I were a Baggie I'd have been more annoyed with the disallowed goal as I don't think Miller did a lot wrong and Feds came out to him.

[KC Royal]

Good game up until the sending off. After that it became a bit scrappy and a bit nervy, especially after Long was taken off. Pretty good result, after the sending off i thought we might get a 2nd goal, def expected a win after the red anyway. Wasn't as satisfying as i thought a win would be, probably took greater satisfaction from beating Burnley on the last week. West Brom were one of the poorest sides i've seen us play this season. Apart from an effort from Morrison from just outside the box that clipped the top of the bar they offered very little, and looked an ill-disciplined side (just like they were in the Blackpool-West Brom game i watched earlier in the season). As soon as Olsson got his 1st yellow i knew he'd get another. The strange thing is they actually played better with 10 (same as at Blackpool when they played better with 9 men).

The only downside was the pretty shocking attendance of 13k.

Ratings

Fed 6 - Came out of his box to make a clearance into touch in the 1st half but other than that can't think of a notable save he had to make.
Cummings 8 - Very solid and got better as the game went on.
Mills 6.5 - The odd shaky moment but generally solid.
Pearce 7 - Solid game
Harte 5 - I thought he would be a good signing but he's disappointed me the last 3 games i've seen (Leeds, Burnley, West Brom) particularly the last two. Could have given away a penalty in the 1st half, was told that Chris Kamara on Soccer Sat called it a "stonewall pen". Hit a good free-kick that went just past the post but some sloppy passing at times. I will say though that McAnuff gives him no help defensively.
Kebe 6 Quiet game, helped out Cummings defensively in the 2nd half
Karacan 5.5 Closed West Brom down well in the 1st half but was largely anonymous
Leigertwood 7 - Not as effective as against Burnley but a solid performance nevertheless.
McAnuff 5.5 One cross that led to a header tipped over the bar by Myhill apart he had a poor game. His loss of form this season is rather baffling. I do wonder if he misses the attacking support that Bertrand used to offer. I actually think in the one game i saw Williams play he offered more as an attacking option from open play than Harte does.
Hunt 7 - Had a good header tipped over the bar by Myhill and also set up the goal.
Long 9 - Took his goal well, won headers (including one or two good clearing headers from corners), won fouls (including the two that saw Olsson sent off) and good link up play.

Subs
Church 5 Did nothing
HRK 5.5 Offered us a bit more spark and energy than Church gave us but didn't have much impact on the game.

[RoyalBlue]

I could not get to this game but i am still unsure abut WBA penalty claim and theres little or no Tv coverage of the game, was it a penalty?...on a good note i got Hartes shirt from that game......and dont ask me how!

Wouldn't have been surprised to see it given but the ref, who was one of the better ones we've had this season, and lino were well placed.

If I were a Baggie I'd have been more annoyed with the disallowed goal as I don't think Miller did a lot wrong and Feds came out to him.

I'd forgotten about that incident and you make a very good point. The officials really seemed to have something against Miller! We thought we were very lucky to have the goal disallowed. Feds hesitated then came out and made a bit of a mess of it. His momentum took him late into Miller rather than the other way around. The ref was very late blowing for the 'foul' and only seemed to react after Feds stayed down 'injured'.

The 'Assistant' on the East stand side was very, very poor (fortunately mostly in our favour!). From where we were sat in Y21 the Harte incident appeared one of the clearest penalties you are likely to see and the Asst should have given it. If the ref was one of the better ones, it just shows how crap the rest are. He got quite a few decisions very wrong, fortunately mostly in our favour.

[Winnershroyal]

The only downside was the pretty shocking attendance of 13k

Yeah, I thought the same, actually feared much lower at 255pm, it was that desperate.

West Brom had about 2500, so just over 10,000 home fans, at 18 quid, it can't be the money, maybe people just don't care about the cup anymore or just the average opposition on offer.

It has to be a dispiriting sight to the players never mind Madjeskis wallet.

Wonder what the crowd would have been if we'd drawn Man U in the 4th round at home?

[Ian Royal]

The only downside was the pretty shocking attendance of 13k

Yeah, I thought the same, actually feared much lower at 255pm, it was that desperate.

West Brom had about 2500, so just over 10,000 home fans, at 18 quid, it can't be the money, maybe people just don't care about the cup anymore or just the average opposition on offer.

It has to be a dispiriting sight to the players never mind Madjeskis wallet.

Wonder what the crowd would have been if we'd drawn Man U in the 4th round at home?

We've played West Brom quite alot recently what with league and cup draws, so it wasn't a particularly good draw as games go.

[Svlad Cjelli]

If I were a Baggie I'd have been more annoyed with the disallowed goal as I don't think Miller did a lot wrong and Feds came out to him.

But Feds had the ball in his hands when it was kicked out of them - including a kick to his hands. Pretty much everything wrong, IMHO.