Five shittty goals....not a decent one amongst 'em. King Ken rightly give MOTM. Couple of big errors by Hoedt. Pedro ineffective. Sarr hopeless despite scoring. Very lucky really. Could easily have been 2-3 the other way.
A step in the right direction, at the very least we know there is a fighting spirit in them. Created plenty of chances and even though we scored three we should have had at least two more. Barkman is a plonker.
ALL HAIL KING KEN I'm really not sure that game tells us anything more about what the way we're supposed to be playing is, our ability to end the season where we want to; the goals were often comical, and there were times in the game we managed to completely fall apart. Thank fucck for a three points that we had to get either way tonight, to have any real claim to be in the playoff hunt. Porteous is an actual defender, who actually does what you want and defenders are supposed to do. He doesn't have an aneurysm every time the ball comes near him, and he fuccking clears it when he needs to. Was it just me, or did Morris have a very creditable game? I'll admit I mixed watching the second half with eating a Waitrose Andhra fiery chicken curry ready meal, so I may have missed some of the bad stuff. JP seemed to have one of his worst games for us, and manage to get stupidly ill-tempered at the end for no real reason at all, to boot. Bilic's subs seemed late and terrible again, but then we managed to hold on, so was it because of or in spite of them? Finally, the elephant in the room (and on the pitch): Davis. What is he playing at. It's far beyond the pale at this point. Too much to even be funny. Get'im walkin'.
We were pretty crap, and somehow West Brom were worse. I thought they were supposed to be miles better than us? Weird. I'm so bored of Davis. Moaning at anyone and anything, while consistently failing to do the thing he's here to do. And Britt coming on, what must Araujo be thinking? Kone is still very raw but there's a really exciting player in there. So dynamic, and won the ball (and gave it away) countless times. Morris brilliant. Sema brilliant. Sarr crap but secured his place in the starting line up for another month with another goal contribution. Big win to stop the rot. Get a point or more against SU and it sets us up nicely for a more favourable run of fixtures.
To be fair though he managed to waste about a minute of added time that inexplicably didn't get put on at the end.
Great result, Morris played well and we looked effective with having the wingers on the right side. God knows what our style of play is yet. Love Porto at the back.
Yep I agree WBA were worse than us. Just like we don’t look like best squad in championship history (minus Samir). We all learn each day I guess.
Bachmann and Hoedt with big mistakes. Davis missing chances. Others ranged from okay to good. Glad we got out of the Araujo gametime clause!
And Dennis, right? And all our good players being injured, right? Knew that was guaranteed a nibble, didn't think it would be that quick though!
Well, that has to be one of our best games this season for any neutral fan, it was packed with goals, some shocking defending a lot of gaffs. But, for once we came out on the right side of it. Did we deserve it, on balance I am going to say yes. Very dull and uninspiring game till it suddenly came to life when King Ken got in on the act by putting us ahead, as WBA continued to flail about and not do much of note. That about sums up the first half - with Sarr being just about as useless as always, and Davis offering nothing as our attack continued to look blunt. Things certainly improved in the second half. Not fifteen minutes in and WBA were level, poor defending and no marking allowing them the chance which they took, then man-of-the-moment (good or bad) Sarr does a trademark turn and shot with very little time to think to put us back in front, although a total gaff from Bachmann leveled the game again, not one of his proudest moments. But then, Sarr was at it again with a pin point pass to Sema who put us ahead for the third time. Davis, who had been rightly bashed all game on the SB, almost scored a fourth goal which needed a fantastic save from their keeper. Thankfully, for once we held out past six minutes of additional time to reclaim our playoff place for another week at least. Very entertaining game especially the second half, five goals and two sides who actually turned up for 45 mins. As good as he was second half, Sarr remains one of our most frustraiting players to watch. He can do what he did tonight in so many other games, but doesn't. It's not all about him though, the team as whole played well tonight and it was good to turn what could of been a fourth straight draw into a victory. We haven't seen many at home either, so a welcome return for the faithful I am sure. Why Bilic took off Sema is beyond anyone's guess, he may of got a hatrick! Defence was solid enough although their second goal was a total gift and Sema did have another one ruled out for offside, so he almost got it. Tough game next, a visit to faultering Sheff Utd. We can cut their lead over us to a massive nine points if we go there and win. Four points out of six against WBA is very good, and it keeps them off our backs for now at least.
Vital win. We are still effectively 9th given the extra games played but keeps us in contention for a top 6 finish.
Think Ken's was offside, as there was only one player level with him as he was behind the keeper and everyone else. Mind you, Davis should have buried it anyway
Yeah, it was certainly naive and stupid from the West Brom players too, which was nice for us, at least.
Good win, probably just about deserved it, but I’d be starting Hamer on Saturday 100%. Sick and tired of Bachmann’s s**t now.
Just a little bit of praise for Super Mario Gaspar too. Great for the first goal and others bits of attacking and didn't look too shabby defending. He doesn't run out of puff on 70 mins as he did in his early days (as a Kucka tribute act). Bar not high I'll admit but at least he doesn't look out of place like he used to and contributes.
The way things are set I wouldn’t be surprised to see us win at Sheff Utd now. But whatever happens I just hope we finish above WBA so you can get one thing right. Hoping for you brother
Excellent win against a playoff rival. I'm not going to jump on the Koné hate bandwaggon because he's been one of our better players over the past couple of games (miss vs Blackburn aside), is still young and rightfully deserved his starting place IMO.
Vintage Chalobah performance tonight, too. Hopefully a reminder to some as to how poor he actually is. Couple of fouls, and the worst pass % of any outfield starter. Rightfully hooked at half time and WBA looked a better team for it.
A largely poor performance all told. Hasn't really shown us anything about Bilic that we didn't know already - he doesn't have a style to impose on the team and the patterns of play are non-existent. We dominated the ball in the first half and showed very, very, little attacking intent. So pedestrian. His subs again were very questionable...I imagine that Assombalonga was preferred over Araujo for his strength at the death...but Araujo should have been for Davis far earlier. And Bilic said yesterday that Louza was fit to start and would do so...yet he barely featured and Bilic has said in his postgame interview on Sky that Louza still isn't ready. So what is the truth? Sarr - very poor again but he does have the knack of popping up with a goal. Which frankly is more than we can say for Davis. He was garbage all night and how he was kept on for 90 mins was wild. Gaspar and Sema were tight calls for MOTM for me - closely followed by an assured effort from Morris. I love watching Porteous too - the exact type of CB we have needed for years and was calling the line like a decent, confident should do. Was barking an orders at a former Dutch International and didn't care. He's surely next season's captain. I also like Hoedt at this level - but he cost us a few times by charging out from the back to anticipate the ball and had it nicked past him each time. Needs to hold his line more. Thought Kone was good too and his only negatives were down to inexperience. Joao Pedro was as quiet as I've seen him - but he was still, somehow effectual as captain. Was strange - as I said, I think it was a poor performance. Yet we deserved to win still, and against a form side too. I guess the biggest positive was that we showed character to bounce back 3 times after being pegged back...but how much of that was luck more than judgment? Jury still out on Bilic for me. Don't want him sacked but he still has to do far, far better.
Think we deserved to win but did our best not to! Some good play at times from Sema and Kone with Porteous the best defender. Also really took too many risks at the back and naturally got caught out .
