The Trotters v The Baggies aka Kay v Chiles

[hisroyalgingerness]

Wasn't great was it? The official stat will say "clean sheet" but we probably defended as poor, if not poorer than we have all season. Struggled to pick up runs, take responsibility, lots of individual mistakes and poor judgement at the back. We couldn't have had any complaints it we'd conceded four.

As it happens the Premier League you have to score when you have your periods of pressure. We broke very well in the first half and Elmander could have had us ahead. Thought Lee showed good composure when he realised he couldn't score and pleased Matty got onto the scoresheet.

Who was that 21 for them? Olombo? Add to the list of Premier League midfielders to come to the Reebok and control the game. He was excellent and between him and James "I don't want to join you, you don't play football" Morrison ran the show. We got back into when JM was taken off for another striker. I think that has to count as a tactical backfire by Di Matteo, they were outplaying us there was no need to change the formation.

Cahill can sit on the naughty step for a pretty woeful back four performance, Elmander had a Megson-era performance with little interest of getting involved and we struggled to impose ourselves in the middle.

We will concede 8 over the next two if we play like that, so hopefully socks will get pulled up and we can try to get a couple of good away points.

[jimbo]

Never seen a luckier 2-0 in my life. The first goal came against the run of play, and then after half time until Steinsson went off we were properly under siege in our own box, camped there due to our inability to keep hold of the ball. Shocking again from the 2 centre halves but we got away with it. Just. Probably deserved a point last week, and none today. As it stands we have 3. Can't grumble about that.

On a side note, who the hell is Mulumbu!? Never heard of him but noticed him in the first 5 today and kept a close eye on him all game. Impeccable. Didn't waste a pass, broke up play, and got himself up and down. His build and low centre of gravity means he's hard to knock off the ball, shown by the fact he rolled round Holden 3 or 4 times. He reminds me of a Lassana Diarra type who could probably step up to a better side.

[hi there, i'm chris]

Like people have already said, wasn't a great performance by any means, as was the case against Blackburn. But we are still winning, and this is really impressive. It's what very good teams do. Merse said on Sky Sports News that teams like us have to play well to win. Well he is wrong. Quite a few times this season we haven't played to the best of our abilities and have come away with points. Only top teams do this, and if we're doing it then it really bodes well for when we play really well.

Chelsea will batter us 6-0 to bring me down a peg or two now!

[seanworth]

Well Spurs won so back to 6th. Chelsea are up next, and hopefully the 1 day less rest might help us. Doesn't help that Liverpool will only have to play 2 games though. We will be pretty beat by that game.

[TKIZ!]

Only just got back from the game and I frozen. Not a great game and not having the trains working didn't help.

Thought Albion played better and shocked we managed to keep a clean sheet. Could this truly be some kind of voodoo that Coyle has performed? Gutted for Gretar, but we looked better once Ricketts came on.

Bring on the Chelsea

[Bruce Rioja]

Worst performance under Coyle by a country mile. The Baggies were first to everything and kept possession superbly, whereas we had to go and win the ball only to hoof it straight back to them. They could've had ten and should certainly have had four. Elmander was back to his worst - his every first touch was shocking thus meaning his every second touch was a lunge (or a skyward shot in the first half).

Other than for City away a few years ago I've never seen us record a luckier win - even a point would have been embarrassing.

Still, three points is three points.

[seanworth]

Worst performance under Coyle by a country mile. The Baggies were first to everything and kept possession superbly, whereas we had to go and win the ball only to hoof it straight back to them. They could've had ten and should certainly had four. Elmander was back to his worst - his every first touch was shocking thus meaning his every second touch was a lunge (or a skyward shot in the first half).

Other than for City away a few years ago I've never seen us record a luckier win - even a point would have been embarrassing.

Still, three points is three points.

Great result that though wasn't it?

[thebish]

Oh and a very nice gesture with the Avi Cohen tribute. Very classy.

indeed..

but here's a thing... it clearly wasn't a team-thing - otherwise Taylor would have done it... has elmo got a special relationship with Cohen - or... did the team decide to send a greeting if Elmo scored - but not Taylor - thus leaving it slightly more to chance? or... does taylor not like Cohen?

[thebish]

watched most of the game on Iraqgoals stream... i think it was in spanish - the commentary..

I was stumped for a long time as to why they kept referring to Wes Brown.... only towards the end did I realise they were saying West Brom! doh!

[H. Pedersen]

Oh and a very nice gesture with the Avi Cohen tribute. Very classy.

indeed..

but here's a thing... it clearly wasn't a team-thing - otherwise Taylor would have done it... has elmo got a special relationship with Cohen - or... did the team decide to send a greeting if Elmo scored - but not Taylor - thus leaving it slightly more to chance? or... does taylor not like Cohen?

Geez, no good deed goes unpunished.

My guess is they didn't want to jinx it or lose focus until the game was wrapped up.

[thebish]

no criticism - just intrigued about how it works..

the team goes to the trouble of having a shirt printed - but then decides not to use it when we score the first goal - surely running the risk then of not being able to use it at all... (unless they were gonna then use it at FT - except that there would then be less chance of the TV showing it...)

(on page 5 - at the time it happened - I said it was a nice touch)

[Bruce Rioja]

but here's a thing... it clearly wasn't a team-thing - otherwise Taylor would have done it...

It looked very much to me as though the only thing on Taylor's mind was to get over to charlie corner, drop to his knees and milk the adulation.

[thebish]

but here's a thing... it clearly wasn't a team-thing - otherwise Taylor would have done it...

It looked very much to me as though the only thing on Taylor's mind was to get over to charlie corner, drop to his knees and milk the adulation.

indeed..



elmo, meanwhile..... (very nice clean finish I thought)



however... gloves???

[Bruce Rioja]

elmo, meanwhile..... (very nice clean finish I thought)
however... gloves???

Oh, it gets worse. Jaaskelainen was wearing tights. I wouldn't mind as much if the pair of them weren't Scandinavian!

[jaffka]

there is no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing - a Norweigan saying

still I agree that gloves, tights and these scarf thingies on footie players look bad

[jaffka]

Poor performance but great result and a fantastic 3 points.

Great thing to say you play poorly, win and keep and clean sheet.

[TKIZ!]

http://www.soccerway.com/news/2010/Dece ... ays-coyle/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;?

At least Coyle knows when to admit we could have played better. You never got that from HWSNBN

[Worthy4England]

Poor performance but great result and a fantastic 3 points.

Great thing to say you play poorly, win and keep and clean sheet.

Aye, it was really sneaky of us to give Odemwingie a pair of Muamba's shooting boots for Christmas.

[irie Cee Bee]

Outplayed but never doubted that we would have won. Fortune favours the brave, and despite the tippy tappy stuff from WBA, they never looked like having a player who could put the ball in the net...and we have plenty of those.

Taylor was so delighted about scoring his first for the season that he forgot the Avi Cohen shirt. He can be forgiven for that.

Happy that Elmo scored as since the contract talks stalled, he seems like a player with lots on his mind.

Anyway, I expect us to cause some surprises in the next 2 games.

[CAPSLOCK]

Nothng came off for Elmander but then he wasn't alone

For example, he was way better than Davies