Albion 1 Blackburn 3 - match analysis

Albion said farewell to 2010 by giving The Hawthorns a worrying reminder of the team of 2008.

Roberto Di Matteo's outfit, having done so much this season to rid the club of its "fluent but fallible" tag, came over all Mowbray-esque yesterday to carelessly toss away three points and ensure a miserable holiday return.

The quality of Albion's approach work against both Bolton and Blackburn should have left Di Matteo's men turning the year nudging the top six. Instead, they welcome Manchester

United for the first game of 2011 still with much work to do to preserve their top-flight status.

The Baggies should have done better than this.

Even at 3-1 down just after the hour, they would be given 24 minutes to go at a visiting team reduced to 10 men by the red card shown two-goal Nikola Kalinic for a studs-up and late challenge on Paul Scharner.

The advantage was eventually levelled out by the dismissal of Gabriel Tamas after he deliberately upended Mame Biram Diouf to prevent the forward breaking clear.

But that was with just six minutes playing time remaining and the real damage of that incident will spill over into the three games the defender will now miss because of suspension.

But more worrying were the weaknesses which presented Rovers with a flattering victory and which will have been all too familiar to supporters who watched Albion's previous Premier League challenge.

For the first half of this campaign, and throughout the Championship promotion which preceded it, Albion had eradicated their vulnerability at set-pieces.

But the old Achilles heel was exposed once more as the two second-half goals from which Blackburn won the game sprang directly from poorly-defended corners.

Meanwhile, at the other end, the Baggies fans watched a regular supply of opportunities want for a clinical finishing touch even allowing for the visitors being well served by not one but two notable goalkeeping performances.

An injured Paul Robinson made one fine stop to deny Graham Dorrans before half-time, whereupon his replacement Mark Bunn proved equally defiant through the second period.

Despite a smattering of the form which has raised the bar of expectation surrounding Di Matteo's team, this was a performance dogged by the same air of calamity which undermined Mowbray's Premier League campaign and which the current boss will be desperate to remove as quickly as it has arrived.

Scott Carson got away with an absolute howler midway through the second half, presenting the ball to Kalinic who, fortunately, was too startled to take advantage.

And the goals Albion did concede were directly sourced to some woefully naive defending.

Yes, this felt like a match Blackburn had to do very little to win while Albion were working so hard to lose it, a conclusion which will sound alarm bells amid the faithful who were beginning to believe the bad old days had been banished by the current management team.

Di Matteo has a sharp eye to match his style and his focus between now and the weekend will be on his defence which, taking its cue from a generally sluggish start all round, was caught napping in the third minute.

From the centre circle, Morten Gamst Pedersen whipped a diagonal ball behind Gonzalo Jara, who had allowed Kalinic to drift from his attention.

That lapse was compounded by the hesitancy the through-ball induced from Scott Carson, the keeper eventually opting to stand his ground when he might have been better served by sprinting to intercept the pass. Kalinic's precise execution made the Baggies pay.

Nevertheless, mid-way through the first half, the home side looked nicely back on course and with more than enough to eventually pick off opponents still wearing their "under new management" label following Sam Allardyce's abrupt departure.

James Morrison seemed determined at this point to take the game by the scruff of its neck, firing one screaming 25-yard drive, which only faded a fraction off target at the last, when he first burst into clear space before releasing Somen Tchoyi with a determined, forceful run in the 17th minute.

This would be an ultimately frustrating performance from Tchoyi but the cross he fizzed across goal was an absolute peach that Jerome Thomas could not fail to convert at the far post.

Maybe the game's turning point came three minutes into a second half the home fans, based on earlier evidence, must have expected their team to dominate.

Dorrans, who is happily now looking much more like his old self, played Peter Odemwingie clear for a fiercely-driven left-foot drive which threatened the narrow gap at Bunn's near post.

The substitute keeper managed a terrific block, however, and Rovers were two goals to the good before Albion could create chances of similar quality.

Rovers' famed efficiency at set-pieces, orchestrated by Pedersen's menacing deliveries, were at the heart of both.

A 53rd-minute corner to the back post was headed back across goal by Ryan Nelson for Kalinic to head his second before Albion — focused solely on preparing themselves for another Pedersen corner — were caught out by a short pass to El Hadji Diouf instead.

The change of angle in delivery left Carson's cover flat-footed for Mame Biram Diouf to head Rovers' third and put the game beyond Albion's reach.

Although the game collapsed towards untidiness amid the red cards and Rovers' inevitable delaying tactics, Albion produced sufficient skirmishes to keep them interested.

But when Scharner headed an 81st-minute Dorrans free-kick against the bar and Tchoyi failed with the rebound from close range, a sense of the inevitable swamped The Hawthorns.

By Martin Swain.