Albion setting high standards

Feb 3 2008 By James Peacock

West Bromwich Albion 2 Burnley 1

Equal measures of relief and delight pervaded The Hawthorns after West Bromwich Albion came from behind to see off a spirited Burnley side and resume their position at the top of the Coca-Cola Championship as outright leaders on points.

No-one could contest that is where Tony Mowbray’s side deserves to be, possibly even further clear than the meagre two-point gap separating them from second-placed Watford.

Character and composure were in abundance in Albion’s display here, which left a sense of optimism amongst supporters whose expectation of Premier League football grows each week.

After being undone once more by their inability to defend a set-piece, the home side stayed calm, stuck to their guns and gradually inched their way back into the game before assuming a total dominance midway through the second half.

If Mowbray’s side could defend corners and free-kicks with the same efficiency and deliberation that they scavenge possession and launch their free-flowing attacks, all hope of beating the Baggies to the league’s top prize would surely have been banished long ago.

It is their one major weakness and it is too often exposed. The team with the second-best away record in the league – and one gifted their opener on three minutes, which came from Albion old boy James O’Connor who tapped home a free-kick - could have been seen off long before the final whistle.

As it was, the tense dying minutes, during which Burnley launched a flurry of frenzied attacks, had hearts in mouths as the Hawthorns audience crowed for referee Mike Pike to blow the final whistle.

Mowbray said: "We gave them a goal start, as we seem to do these days with most teams, but I think you have got to give them lots of credit.

"They played some good, attacking football and gave us a few problems, but I think we deserved the three points.

"We did a lot of work this week on defending set plays and if I was a betting man, I would have put money on us conceding from the first one we had to face.

"Sometimes, the more you work on these things, the more it becomes a mental thing. It’s about getting that balance right and not becoming paranoid about them. I am sure we will improve in that area, but the bottom line for me is that, from that moment, we showed a determination not to lose the game."

A defeat would have looked impossible, rather than improbable, had Robert Koren scored the 68th-minute penalty he so skilfully earned.

But with the ineffectual Kevin Phillips off the pitch, substituted for Craig Beattie with half-an-hour to go, the Slovenian hit his spot kick straight at another former Albion old boy, Brian Jensen, whose brick-outhouse physique shrunk the Burnley goal.

The home side were leading 2-1 at the time thanks to Bostjan Cesar’s first goal for the club, which drew the sides level on 26 minutes, then Roman Bednar’s winner on the hour.

Both were clinical finishes: Cesar was left unmarked from a corner and gratefully latched on to a pinpoint Jonathan Greening delivery to volley past Jensen, while Bednar towered over veteran David Unsworth at the back post to head home a perfect Paul Robinson cross which, if it could speak, would have been begging the Czech striker to apply the finish it deserved.

It was his tenth league goal of the campaign and a fair reward for his tireless work-rate.

Even though Bednar later admitted that his first touch went awry on occasion, his ‘physicality’, as it is known in rugby circles, provided a constant source of trouble and would not have been out of place at Croke Park, where the Six Nations was getting underway.

He is a handful — even for one of the league’s tougher and more experienced centre-back pairings of Unsworth and Stanislav Varga — so it is hardly surprising that Mowbray is delighted that the on-loan striker’s long-term future looks certain to be in the Black Country.

He revealed the club’s intention to take up an option on their contract with Heart of Midlothian to make his status permanent in the summer.

Mowbray said: "The deal is done; the deal is in place. There is no out for Hearts, really. We will pay them some money at the end of the season and he will become our player

"He is an archetypal centre-forward. He is big, strong, quick, brave and he scores goals. He has a great humility about his personality, he does not think he is better than he is, he just gets on with it. Not to realise how good you are is a great quality for a footballer to have, sometimes."

The match sponsors were guilty of not realising how good he was. They awarded the man-of-the-match award to James Morrison, who certainly shone but was outshone by Bednar.

Scorers: O’Connor (3) 0-1; Cesar (26) 1-1; Bednar (60) 2-1.
WEST BROMWICH ALBION (4-4-2): Kiely; Hoefkens, Robinson, Cesar, Albrechtsen; Morrison, Greening, Koren, Gera, Bednar (Teixeira, 75), Phillips (Beattie, 61). Subs: Barnett, Beattie, Danek, Teixeira, Brunt.
BURNLEY (4-5-1): Jensen; Alexander, Unsworth, Varga, Harley; Elliott, O’Connor, McCann (Randall, 68), Gudjonsson (Spicer, 80), Blake; Akinbiyi (Cole, 61). Subs: Kiraly, Spicer, Randall, Caldwell, Cole.
Referee: Mike Pike (Cumbria).
Bookings: Burnley — McCann, Harley, Randall ( fouls).
Attendance: 22,206.
Albion man of the match: Roman Bednar — taken off with 15 minutes to go, but his impact on the game was huge and his workrate was tireless.