West Bromwich Albion 2 - Southampton 0

Date:	Monday 5th November 2012
Competition:	Barclays Premier League
WBA: 7.2	(4-2-3-1) Foster 7.1, Jones 6.6, McAuley 7.2, Olsson 7.3, Ridgewell 6.8, Mulumbu 8.2, Yacob 7.2, Odemwingie 7.5 (Fortun, 83 5.7), Gera 7.4, Dorrans 5.9 (Brunt, 67 6.5), Long 7.9 (Lukaku, 71 5.6) Unused subs: Myhill, Popov, Rosenberg, Tamas Manager: Steve Clarke 7.2
Southampton: 5.1	Gazzaniga, Clyne, Yoshida, Fonte, Fox (Shaw, 81), Schneiderlin, Davis, Ramirez (Guly, 76), Lallana, Lambert, Rodriguez (Mayuka, 76) Unused subs: Davis, Hooiveld, Ward-Prowse, Puncheon
Scorers:	Odemwingie (36, 60)
Referee:	M Halsey (Hertfordshire) 6.6
Attendance:	25,635   Home Fans 7.2   Away Fans 6.2

Summary:

It wasn't the most convincing of performances, but it was more than enough to overcome bottom club Southampton at the Hawthorns and end Albion's short run of defeats. Fit-again Billy Jones joined the starting lineup at the expense of Gabrial Tamas while Claudio Yacob made a much-needed return to partner Youssouf Mulumbu, although James Morrison missed out altogether through injury.

Peter Odemwingie probably summed up the whole team: brilliant at times but wasteful and lacking in ideas at others. After a couple of wayward efforts he gave Albion the first half lead through a shot that was heading straight at the keeper until a lucky deflection gave him no chance.

Southampton had little in reply after the goal, apart from a bit of a defensive ping-pong where they managed to hit the crossbar through top scorer Rickie Lambert early in the second half. But there was nothing unconvincing about Albion's second, Liam Ridgewell playing the ball right down the pitch for Shane Long to turn the defender and make a superb cross into the box where Odemwingie had run half the length of the pitch to head home, and it effectively ended the contest.

The victory moves Albion back up to fifth place, and left Nigel Adkins admitting that he was the favourite for being the first Premiership manager to lose his job.

oshawabaggie:

I had an uneasy feeling about this game before the start and for the first half an hour it looked like my fears might be warranted, but in the end this was a very solid performance and a well deserved victory. Some fans might be disappointed it wasn't more emphatic, but we shouldn't forget Southampton have given a few teams a scare this year and scored 14 goals in the process. Only Wigan had kept a clean sheet against them.

I loved our workrate and the constant harrying of Southampton when they got the ball. Gradually we strangled them and their only real chances were a header in the first and a somewhat fortuitous shot against the bar early in the second half.

Peter O. managed to be both magnificent and bloody frustrating in the same game. His first goal had a touch of luck about it. He handled the ball (upper arm) before getting the ball back ten passes later and smashing it in off a defenders knee and the goalies wrist. It was his fourth shot, but the first on target. Several times he could have laid the ball off to a better placed forward, but chose to shoot or lost the ball in a dribble. Nevertheless his selfishness paid off eventually. His second goal was brilliant. A superb ball 60 yards down the line by Ridgewell, a great hold up, cut back and perfect cross by Long and, after a 60 yard sprint by Peter O., a lunging header into the corner. Game over.

I watched Long when he came off (again). There was a little shake of the head. I just hope he was still carrying a knock and the coach told him beforehand he would give him an hour. He didn't look tired or injured to me. Also, it was interesting to see Gera giving Lukaku sh** for not chasing back after losing the ball. Gera had a good game for me, as did all the starting 11 really. Mulumbu worked so hard again.

The three subs didn't really do much and weakened the team, I thought, but it's hard to come on for 20 minutes and make an impact. Overall, a good performance. It should give the team confidence for Wigan.

Philip Cole (RSABaggie):

Again I find myself agreeing with oshawabaggie's match summary, although unlike him I was not worried about this match. Southampton reminded me of the Tony Mowbray West Brom EPL team of 2008/09. Trying to play football the 'right way'. Lovely approach play with little threat or end product. And the same calamitous defensive errors.

Frankly this was a routine vistory for us and we didn't need to get into top gear. Again I was impressed by our strong organisation with everyone knowing their job and place. The defence is now looking seriously strong and are so quick in closing down any space that it's only the top strikers that make more than half-chances against us. This often makes it difficult for me to give marks as its very much a team performance.

The flair switch was turned off for most of attackers last night - but then it didn't need to be on against a defence as woeful as Southampton's. With the exception of the wonderfully worked second goal, which must have been worth the price of admission alone for those actually there!

I think that we missed Morrison a bit last night. He's become a very important player for us as he can run at the defence with pace, place a killer pass or use his pretty decent shot - a great mix of skills to have. I love Zoltan Gera who is still an important player for us with great passing and crossing ability as well as a strong shot. But he understandably no longer has the pace that he had in his first spell with us and last night we really missed someone who could run at Southampton's shakey defence.

Steve Clarke also had the good sense to hold on a bit longer before rotating his strikers. I thought Long and Odemwingie worked well together last night - obviously so for the goal but also with good link up play a number of times. These are our top two strikers with Lukaku as an impact sub. Interestingly Lukaku didn't look especially up for it when he came on and he was very visibly the only member of the team failing to track back and play his role.

But these are minor quibbles in the end. It feels good as a Baggie to use the phrase 'routine victory' after the long yo-yo years of the last decade. Long may it continue!

Davo from Dudley:

I thought that last night's performance was not our best this season. We'd played better in the previous 2 games and got nothing, so it was nice to see us getting 3 points again.

Odemwingie summed up last night, magical one minute, frustrating the next.

However, onwards and upwards. Wigan away won't be easy, and then we have London "cry babies" at home the week after. I'll be glad of a point from each game.