Bournemouth 2 - West Bromwich Albion 1

Summary:

Albion's second string bowed out of the League Cup and missed out on a quarter final place thanks to defeat by Bournemouth's second string. Both sides made ten changes from their respective league games on Saturday with only Craig Dawson keeping his place for Albion while £10 million Brown Ideye started up front.

After a goalless first half, Bournemouth took the lead four minutes into the second when Youssouf Mulumbu lost the ball, they broke and Junior Stanislas fed Eunan O'Kane to shoot past Myhill. Albion brought on Gergios Samaras, Stephane Sessegnon and Saido Berahino as the game wore on and equalised when Samaras' shot was turned into his own net by Tommy Elphick.

Albion were only level for a minute, however, because they switched off at the restart and Callum Wilson fired home to see Bournemouth through.

Mark Koppel:

So that is why we haven't been playing the second string players - they aren't good enough.

Games against Oxford, Hull's 2nd Team, and Bournemouth's 2nd Team have squashed the argument we have got a strong squad this year.

We have got numbers in certain positions but tonight proved that you couldn't risk them in the Premier League games.

We were out played tonight by their second Team for 70 out the 90 minutes, a really quite shocking performance.

• Myhill 4 - A long way behind Foster and really should have done better for their winner.
• Gamboa 5 - Tried but ineffective. Some very, very poor crosses and never really got at the 37 year old Ian Harte.
• McAuley 6 - Played alright but out of position on the left side exposed his ability to tackle with his left foot.
• Dawson 5 - Tried to score on several occasions with headers from a ridiculous distance out that missed by miles. Also punched the ball away in the first half in his penalty area and got away with this one again.
• Davidson 2 - God forbid if he ever has to play in the first team. Dived in for their winner, never once overlapped successfully, and overall made that other Albion Aussie Jason Van Blerk look a better option!
• Mulumbu 6 - Started bright but gave the ball away with some bad passing for their first goal. Not the player he was and still looks overweight.
• Blanco 4 - Don't remember him doing anything positive and as a result was subbed off.
• O'Neill 3 - Worrying slow for a youngster. Struggled to get near opponents to tackle them. Also subbed off.
• Baird 5 - Sat in but rarely pressed forward. When he did missed a sitter with a header near the end.
• Big Vic 6 - Started well but never looked like scoring tonight. Set up the equaliser though with great flick on.
• Brown 'No' Ideye 1 - Lets leave the best to last. He may have been 10 million but surely not sterling? If not Alan Irvine who was the very clever person who decided to buy him ? Mr. Garlick? Mr. Peace? Mr. Day? Mr. Burton? Funny that no one wants to own up to this joke signing.

Subs:

• Saido 5 - Only given just over 15 mins to turn the game.
• Samaras 5 - Lounged about for 30 mins. Cannot really claim the goal.
• Sess 4 - Lost possession easily again like Saturday. But this time though against Bournemouth's Second Team.

Malteser:

Some things never change at the Albion. One of them is falling flat in the League Cup - apart from 2010/2011 (when we flopped against Ipswich) and the narrow defeat against Fulham in 2001/2002 ( we were in the QF on both occasions), and memorable wins at Derby and vs Man Utd ( as a 2nd tier side) I cannot recall any joy in this cup in my 25 years of supporting this club.

It is fair to say that Bournemouth are on fire. And steadily marching towards a first ever promotion to the top flight. They outplayed us for long spells and never gave us space in their final third.

I would have preferred a 3-5-2 formation with Baird dropping at the back, O'Neil, Mulumbu and Gardner (shamefully, he wasn't played) in midfield and the two wing backs performing effectively.

Our full backs did well. Mulumbu toiled in midfield albeit a few errors. Baird was average at best. McAuley was excellent positionally and performed well against a much faster opponent. Dawson was ok but misses a catalogue of headers - his goal scoring exploits at Rochdale seem to have abandoned him. Anichebe worked hard and contributed greatly. Blanco put in a few crosses but was hardly effective. O'Neil seemed to have lost his position and was put out wide(?).

Ideye is certainly not worth £10million. Honestly, Callum Wilson looked far better than him when he came on for the Cherries, and that's not just cos he found the net.

Samaras provided height but should probably have started. We brought in Saido and Sessignon late in the game but it is evident that while we have strength in numbers, we lack strength in quality, not least in players who may hurt the opposition.

Back to the PL now... but Irvine must have a serious re-think. Our squad is simply not good enough once injuries take their toll on our star players.

PS: Just read that Bournemouth made TEN changes from the side that trashed the Blues last weekend. For the Lord's sake, we were playing against Bournemouth's squad players.

Brendan Clegg:

Can't even bring myself to give player marks - it was that bad. Credit to Bournemouth as they were tactically and technically much better than us all over the pitch. They worked harder, they were more patient on the ball, they deserved to win and even our goal was an embarrassment.

I think it's fair enough to blame the players because many of them (if not all of them) were poor. But I would look strongly at the manager and coaching staff. We had absolutely no width or space out wide all game due to the midfield selection and formation.

Malteser is right - even with the players we had a switch to 3 at the back would at least have given us natural width. As it was we had 2 holding centre midfielders in the middle, one on the right wing and Blanco coming in off the left onto his right foot at every opportunity. Or at least that's what it looked like - I have no idea to be honest.

All I know is that as soon as Bournemouth won the ball they spread the ball wide and were 2 on 1 all night against our full backs, getting in behind with pace and causing us problems - but also able to just get it out there and keep the ball off us for long periods.

Whenever our full backs got the ball (and at least Gamboa tried) they had opposition players in front of them. Gamboa got past his first man a lot but then too often had to play a pass inside or backwards having done so. And yes his crossing was poor.

It's easy to ridicule Ideye but with that midfield and formation behind him there was never any space to play in, balls to run onto or anything else.

He might well not be worth 10 million but in fairness to him and some of these other players, the reality is that it's very difficult to have that sharpness, fitness and confidence when you don't play any football. The under 21/development league is a glorified kick-about and many of them don't even play in that. Certainly the case for the quality of squad player we can carry in any case.

You've only got to look at Morrison, Dorrans, Olsson, McAuley, Foster even (and others) in the past. None of them ever come into the first team after absence and are bang at it - they all take 4 or 5 games to get to their level.

Even Rosenberg - playing regularly in his favoured position and scoring in the Champions League.

If you put 10 players in like that it's a big ask - and although it's the same for Bournemouth with their changes, they've played many more games than us and all of their players had many more minutes this season than ours.

I think our biggest problem is we are still at least a winger light and a centre midfielder too heavy even when Varela is fit. He might have made the difference tonight (he did against Hull).

Need a win at Leicester badly.