Albion 3 West Ham 2 - analysis
Thrills, spills, goals, misses, saves and, most important of all, Albion's first victory made this game worth £106 of anyone's money.
Thrills, spills, goals, misses, saves and, most important of all, Albion's first victory made this game worth £106 of anyone's money.
According to the latest survey, that's the new average outlay per match for Premier League supporters but you won't find any Baggies fans complaining about value for money these days.
Tony Mowbray is sticking to his pledge to tackle the top flight with an unflinching commitment to the passing game.
After one point and no goals from some otherwise encouraging open play in the first three games, Saturday's clash with West Ham carried the first tweak of pressure for a result.
There was no compromise from Mowbray or his players. Despite turning in the most flawed performance of their four matches so far, they claimed a victory they deserved for the courage of their conviction.
They gave the ball away more – and much too easily – than we have seen under this manager for a long time.
Scott Carson's penalty area was too often a tackle-free zone as Albion's defending carried the certainty of Geoff Boycott calling for a quick single.
Carson produced one of his most influential and impressive performances since Nico Kranjcar shredded his confidence at Wembley, making three key saves the best of which denied Scott Parker an equaliser in the game's dying seconds.
As a result, the Baggies are up and running in the Premier League, a timely gathering of momentum with next weekend's Aston Villa derby ahead.
Before the game, Mowbray had declared results would come providing the performance levels his team had reached in their opening games were maintained.
That wasn't conjecture, he claimed with his usual zeal, but "fact." He was right.
Although there was more to concern him against West Ham than anything from the previous games, there was still enough about Albion – especially in the manner of their wonderful winning goal – to beat a brittle visiting team under the "For One Match Only" control of backroom coach Kevin Keen.
The last time new Hammers new boss Gianfranco Zola came to The Hawthorns five years ago, he scored Chelsea's second goal in an effortless 2-0 defeat of Gary Megson's Premier League virgins.
Albion strung five across midfield that day but for very different reasons. Igor Balis, Derek McInnes, Sean Gregan, Jason Koumas and our old friend Iffy Udeze were there to suffocate Zola & Co; Mowbray sends out his 2008 version in an effort to allow Albion's football to breathe.
The contrast must have been noted by Zola. As much as Albion's electric start to this game damaged the gentleman Italian's new club, you could wager with reasonable certainty that the footballer in him would have offered a nod of approval for the changing face of The Hawthorns challenge.
Some Baggies fans would still relish the manager choosing two strikers and Roman Bednar, who came in for the injured Ishmael Miller, certainly produced a performance which would make it hard to leave him out against Villa.
The way in which Albion created their early chances gave weight to Mowbray's preference to date to a lone forward backed up by a fluid midfield.
They only took one of them, James Morrison guiding a delightful header past Robert Green after less than three minutes, from a cross supplied by Borja Valero at the start of an uneven home debut – delightful on the ball if a little less efficient winning it back.
With Albion rampant early on, the game may have taken a more comfortable course had Robert Koren been able to finish off the move of the game – Green denied him with a splendid save – or Bednar had made a more decisive contact from a header at point-blank range.
It would not have been so much fun. Spared falling two behind, a full house lapped up a game of terrific enjoyment.
West Ham exposed Albion's inability to deal with crosses to the back post. Headers from David Di Michele and Matthew Upson set up goals for Mark Noble and Lucas Neill in quick succession.
This period, midway through the first half, was undoubtedly Albion's wobbliest of the season so far – not withstanding Arsenal's opening salvo – so full marks to the long legged defending of Jonas Olsson on his first taste of Premier League cut and thrust.
Yes, he got caught out in his decision-making and suckered into occasional gaffes by Carlton Cole but the Swede also showed enough to suggest another purchase of real potential by the club.
The damage of this dodgy spell was repaired when, just two minutes later, Albion were awarded a penalty.
It was, it must be said, a marginal call by referee Lee Probert, who decided Green had taken Leon Barnett's legs before the ball after spilling a cross.
The Gloucestershire official may have been nudged in ruling in Albion's favour by a Hawthorns atmosphere, already crackling with a perceived injustice about the build-up to Neill's goal – a reminder that the supporters have a key role to play in this season's campaign for Premier League consolidation.
Albion earned their victory through a largely dominant second-half performance which produced the three-quarter chances, if you will, for Bednar (twice) and Olsson but the game was into the last 10 minutes by the time the stadium erupted in celebration of a memorable winning goal.
The new defender, whose left-footed distribution had been an eye-catching feature of his game, triggered the move with a precision pass from defence which enabled Robert Koren to release Paul Robinson on a counter attack.
His curled pass around Calum Davenport was gathered by the excellent Chris Brunt, whose angle of delivery from wide on the left had been a constant test for the Hammers.
This time Brunt was sprinting through on goal and he recovered from a slip of foot to floor Green, with what was really a reverse pass into the net.
It was wonderful, exhilarating football of which the Albion of 2003 would not have been capable.
Zola may have only been away a short time but that winner, with Albion's expansive, ambitious football, reminded him Premier League football is in a state of constant advance – and the Baggies are in its slipstream.
