Manchester City 4 Albion 2 - analysis

Despite garnering just one point from a possible six in the last 10 days, Mowbray's Albion have managed to reconnect with supporters who seemed ready to turn on them just a fortnight ago.

Barely a soul left early from the travelling army that followed the Baggies to Manchester. Almost to a man they stayed behind at the end to acclaim their players.

That after a 4-2 loss in a match they simply had to win.

Supporters are a strange breed and Albion's fans are more patient than most.

A wonderful effort from their doomed team enabled them to find pride in terminal defeat at a time, with their closest and fiercest rivals milking their promotion triumph, when the mood could have turned decidedly ugly.

As for the game itself - well, you know the script by now.

Play nicely. Miss chances. Gift goals. Lose.

There is little else to say, other than this was a brilliant piece of football drama in which Mowbray's lesser-paid extras often upstaged Mark Hughes's big-money A-listers.

When the key moments arrived, it was the employees of the world's wealthiest owners who delivered the killer lines. Albion fluffed theirs, most notably when Abdoulaye Meite produced the miss of the season.

Strikes from the enigmatic Robinho, the brilliant Elano, the promising Nedum Onuoha and the precocious Daniel Sturridge overshadowed a fine double-strike by Albion's in-form Chris Brunt, who must wish the season had five months left to run, such is the upward trend in his personal performance graph.

In reality, just five matches remain between the Baggies and their inevitable return to the muck and nettles of the Championship.

All that is left is for Mowbray's men to replicate their Eastlands attitude in those remaining fixtures to ensure their superb supporters head into the summer with a semblance of hope.

They certainly left the north west strangely uplifted in the face of another loss from a game their team bossed for lengthy spells.

The source of their encouragement was the fight, workrate and bottle on show in their team – qualities not always displayed in a campaign of shattered hopes.

But there was some early promise for Albion, when James Morrison could not manage a shot on target after Robinson rose well to meet Brunt's cross, then Marc-Antoine Fortune fired wide after a neat touch by Robert Koren sent him away.

The encouragement continued when Graham Dorrans played a neat one-two with Jonathan Greening and ran clear, but did not manage to shoot on target.

Morrison was then invited to run at goal as Pablo Zabaleta was dragged out of position, but he curled a shot narrowly wide.

At the other end Robinho's first attacking act was to trick his way past Gianni Zuiverloon and shoot just wide.

But predictably it took just eight minutes for the Baggies to gift their hosts the lead. The move from City was crisp and Stephen Ireland's cross was sublime but Meite looked favourite to head it clear.

Instead he watched the ball drop over his shoulder and, with no covering run from Zuiverloon, Robinho darted in for a clinical side-footed finish oozing with class.

Three minutes later Meite's afternoon got worse, as he squandered a glorious chance to draw his side level.

Brunt's patience allowed him to release Greening on the right and the captain's near-post cross found Meite unmarked in the six-yard box.

But the defender side-footed wide to gasps around the stadium, surely the worst miss since Kanu cleared the bar from a yard or two in the opening chapter of the Bryan Robson era.

The miss appeared even more costly when City went 2-0 up amid controversy from a corner.

Scott Carson was blocked by the raised arm of Felipe Caicedo and Onuoha had the simple task of heading into the empty net. The goalkeeper's screams for a free-kick fell on deaf ears and the Baggies looked beaten inside 21 minutes.

The second goal seemed to kill any Baggies resolve. Things got no better when Fortune headed wide from a Brunt cross and Greening fired off target.

When Koren connected perfectly with a looping header from Greening's corner, only for Caicedo to head off the line, fate appeared to be conspiring against the visitors.

But, with eight minutes to go to half-time, Albion threw themselves a lifeline when one of the bright attacking forays finally paid dividends.

Koren's neat ball off the left was held up smartly by Fortune and Brunt swept home a clinical left-footed finish.

Albion deserved to be level and they were nine minutes into the second half. They won a free-kick 25 yards out and Brunt whipped it through a crowd of bodies and straight into the bottom corner.

Parity lasted just two minute before the Albion defence imploded again. This time it was the normally reliable Olsson who was culpable for a needless lunge on Elano, as the Brazilian ran away from goal.

Elano picked himself up and slotted the resultant penalty low past Carson.

Albion kept pushing and Brunt curled a shot just wide, before being denied by Shay Given.

But City finally made sure of their win in the closing seconds of a breathless period of stoppage time, as Stephen Ireland broke through the centre and - as Carson narrowed the angle - the midfielder squared for substitute Daniel Sturridge to finish.

Sturridge's simple conversion ended Albion's brave resistance and removed any last, lingering doubts about the fate of their Premier League campaign.

If the fat lady was warming up a Fratton Park, she was in full voice at the City of Manchester Stadium.

By Saturday evening the old girl could be showered, changed and in the bar, leaving Mowbray and his players to begin clearing up the mess.

But then, Albion's season has long since ceased to be about whether they will be relegated. For a while it has been about when - and most crucially how - Mowbray and Co go down.

The dying embers of a flawed campaign will barely register on the national radar. Yet for Albion these finals throes are potentially huge.

How they respond will set the tone for the vital weeks and months that lie ahead for 'Project Mowbray.'

The reaction they engendered at 4.55 suggests it is so far, so good.

By Steve Madeley