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Disaster at 551 Feet
To all intents and purposes West Bromwich Albion is still a Premiership club, albeit plying their trade one level lower. The stadium is compact but well worthy of a higher division, the squad still contains plenty of quality players, and even the match day programme is a veritable tome, with 100 feature-packed pages.
Burnley lined up exactly as they did for last week‘s defeat at Cardiff, including former ‘Baggies' Brian Jensen and James O'Connor, who both received decent receptions from the home fans, as well as Frank Sinclair, who scored once for today's opposition during six games on loan from Chelsea in 1991. Today was Frank's 100th game for Burnley, but it was to be memorable for all the wrong reasons. Meanwhile, West Brom made three changes, with full-back Paul Robinson, and midfielders Nigel Quashie and Diomansy Kamara returning to their starting eleven.
The home side showed their intentions immediately after referee Richard Beeby's first whistle and scored the opener after just five minutes when Welsh winger Jason Koumas beat the Burnley offside trap to slot past Jensen. Worse was to come just two minutes later when a Nathan Ellington shot from just outside the box evaded all the Burnley back line, as well as Jensen, to make it two-nil.
Most of the problems for Burnley appeared to be coming down West Brom's left flank, and the majority of it was courtesy of Koumas, who had returned to scoring ways for Wales in midweek. It was another attack down this side that brought the first booking of the game when Frank Sinclair fouled Koumas a couple of yards outside the box. It wasn't the best of challenges, but showing a yellow card so early on set the scene for the rest of the game, when other officials might have decided to give a warning for the first real foul of the game.
After getting over the shellshock of being two goals down inside seven minutes, Burnley began to find their feet. A quickly taken free kick from James O'Connor, that was heading towards the top corner of Russell Hoult's goal, was palmed away for a corner. The lack of pace was probably the saving grace for the West Brom ‘keeper. Of course the direction of this game may have changed if Burnley had been able to profit from this or what was arguably their best chance of the first half - a header from Michael Duff in the 24th minute, which went narrowly over the bar.
Steve Cotterill, in a section of his post-match interview that was probably edited out by radio stations and not reported by the written press, rightly made the point that there was no use dwelling on this, using an analogy that involved his Uncle and Auntie (I'll let you guess the rest!)
In addition to a couple of bookings for West Brom, there were several further chances in an eventful first half. A close range attempt from Kevin Philips was well blocked by Michael Duff in the 37th minute. Jason Koumas could only produce a weak shot when free against Jensen five minutes later, and with play switching to the other end almost immediately Steve Jones fired just over.
Just as Burnley thought that they had succeeded in limiting the damage to a two goal deficit at half time, Jensen saved well from Nathan Ellington only to see Darren Carter tap in from close range to extend the lead to three goals. There was still time for Steve Jones to fire into the side netting for Burnley in first half injury time, but the damage had already been done.
In comparison, the second half was a much quieter affair than the first. Alan Mahon came on to replace Wade Elliott, but Burnley continued to pick up bookings, with Jon Harley and then Andy Gray added to Mr. Beeby's collection.
More worryingly for Burnley, Jon Harley hobbled off to be replaced by Micah Hyde after almost an hour. First impressions were that he might have picked up a dreaded broken metatarsal, although we will have to wait for medical reports later in the week. The versatile Chris McCann slotted into the left back position and did not look out of place there for the remainder of the game.
Tony Mowbray introduced former claret Richard Chaplow with fifteen minutes remaining to a rather mixed reception from the away support. He managed some nice touches in his short time on the pitch but will have a long way to go to establish a place in a strong West Brom team.
With twelve minutes left on the clock Frank Sinclair was to see his miserable day continue with a second yellow card for a foul from tormentor-in-chief Koumas. In some way it was no surprise to see the yellow card brandished again, but in no way was this a dirty game - perhaps today's referee believed Dave Jones' unfair judgement of Burnley's style of play from last week. Just two minutes later, and Micah Hyde received the final booking of the day.
To their credit, Burnley continued to press for a goal right until the very end, even playing with ten men. In the final minute of normal time Russell Hoult saved a header from Andy Gray with his shin, and shortly after that, a right foot shot from Alan Mahon went narrowly wide of the post with the West Brom ‘keeper well beaten.
Other than his fussy approach to booking players from both teams for almost any foul, we can have no other complaints about today's officials. Even Steve Cotterill, who has sometimes been quick to lambast referees, appeared to have no real complaints other than the card-happy nature of the referee.
Defeats have been more of a rare commodity this season, and this was the first time that Burnley have really been played off the park. Steve Cotterill was scribbling notes right up until the final whistle, and it has to be hoped that lessons can be learned from this defeat. If West Brom are a yardstick of where need to be, then we will face a similar test next week when Birmingham City are the visitors to Turf Moor.