Barclays Premier League
The Hawthorns - Monday 5th November 2012
West Brom 2
- Odemwingie 36′, 60′
Southampton 0
Att: 25,635
Match Report
Gastón RamÃrez was a welcome return to the Saints starting lineup, but unfortunately the result was another loss.
It is very tough being a Saints fan this season, but the away support at The Hawthorns could not be accused of not supporting the team, including chants in support of the beleaguered Nigel Adkins.
Ever since his injury fans have been looking forward to the return of RamÃrez, clinging to the hope that things would change for the better. The tantalising glimpse during the Villa match of how things might be, where Saints comprehensively outplayed a poor Premier League side. The other controversial issue was the goalkeeper. Paulo Gazzaniga shows every sign of becoming a huge crowd favourite and his theatrics while wasting time at the end of Saints one and only win so far this season, endeared him to the hearts of every Saints fan present.
Unfortunately for Gazzaniga, Saints then went and signed the high profile, very experienced, Artur Boruc and promptly placed him as the seemingly first choice keeper. Unfortunately for Saints, Boruc is clearly unfit, looking for all the world as though he had been on a three month tour of MacDonalds outlets across Europe. He compounded this by getting into a spat with the fans behind the Chapel end goal during the Surs game.
There have been allegations that he had thrown/kicked a water bottle at the fans and while these claims are being investigated he has been suspended by the club. So, while all this was going on, Gazzaniga was recalled to first team duty, with Kelvin Davis on the bench.
When you look at the Saints starting lineup, most fans would probably agree that this was probably the best possible eleven players that Saints could put on the pitch. Which makes what happened over the next 90 minutes so depressing, as they were comprehensively outplayed by West Brom.
For the first thirty minutes of the game Saints made a pretty good fist of putting West Brom under pressure, but without ever really testing Ben Foster in the West Brom goal. Indeed it turns out that Foster was playing with an injury to his kicking leg and was struggling with his clearances.
At the other end there were plenty of warnings for Saints, as they continued to make defensive mistakes and West Brom were clearly targeting the Saints left side, which Match of the Day had spent some time identifying as Saints main weakness the previous weekend.
Sure enough the impressive Mulumbu went on a foraging raid down Saints left and threaded a pass to Odemwingie, who then shot at goal. Unfortunately it took a deflection off Yoshida and went beyond the dive of Gazzaniga. There were strong reasons to suspect that Odemwingie had controlled the ball with his arm, but both referee and linesman were unsighted.
So 1-0 at halftime and still everything to play for, indeed almost immediately from the kick off for the second half, Lambert hit the woodwork and you wondered if a fightback could be on the cards.
It was not to be and on the hour Ridgewell played a great pass from defence to Shane Long on the left flank and he curled a perfect cross into the area as Odemwingie raced to power a header beyond Gazzaniga. 2-0 and game over. Saints looked very much a beaten team.
So, the best players Saints could muster and yet the same end result. How depressing was that? They just have to dust themselves down and get in the right frame of mind for the visit of Swansea on Saturday. All the talk about a change of manager is surely just that - talk. What Saints really need is the stability that was so sadly lacking the last time they were in the Premier League and had a lot to do with their ultimate demise.
Onwards and upwards please.
Channonite 06.11.2012
Teams
West Bromwich Albion
- 01 Foster
- 03 Olsson
- 06 Ridgewell
- 23 McAuley
- 28 Jones Booked
- 05 Yacob
- 17 Dorrans (Brunt - 65' )
- 21 Mulumbu
- 22 Gera
- 09 Long (Lukaku - 71' )
- 24 Odemwingie (Fortune - 83' )
Substitutes
- 13 Myhill
- 04 Popov
- 30 Tamas
- 11 Brunt
- 08 Rosenberg
- 20 Lukaku
- 32 Fortune
Southampton
- 12 Gazzaniga
- 02 Clyne
- 03 Yoshida
- 06 Fonte
- 13 Fox (Shaw - 81' )
- 04 Schneiderlin
- 08 S Davis
- 10 Ramirez (Guly - 76' )
- 20 Lallana
- 07 Lambert
- 09 Rodriguez (Mayuka - 76' )
Substitutes
- 01 K Davis
- 05 Hooiveld
- 23 Shaw
- 16 Ward-Prowse
- 21 Guly
- 42 Puncheon
- 24 Mayuka
Match Stats
Possession
- West Bromwich Albion 47%
- Southampton 53%
Shots
- West Bromwich Albion 16
- Southampton 9
On target
- West Bromwich Albion 6
- Southampton 5
Corners
- West Bromwich Albion 8
- Southampton 6
Fouls
- West Bromwich Albion 6
- Southampton 12
