Another 3 o’clock Saturday kick off, another shocker. City went into this game against a mediocre Albion side, that was sat fourth from bottom in the league, on the back of a 5-2 thumping of Charlton the week before. Stuart Pearce named an unchanged side but it proved to be unrecognisable from the one that had performed so well only 6 days previous. Perhaps it was arrogance, perhaps it was conceeding so early, more likely it was the Typical City effect that allows for the supporters hopes to be built up before being brought firmly back down to earth with a bump. Whatever was behind the performance it was every bit as poor as last season’s visit to The Hawthorns which ended the same way.
Albion opened the scoring after just five minutes when Kamara made a fool of Thatcher before firing past a static James in the City goal. A bad start that was to get no better. Albion continued to control the game as City demonstrated their ability to look like relegation fodder against poor sides. Cole and Vassell were kept out of the game and City’s attacking threat went with it. Sinclair and Sun were anonymous on the flanks, Reyna looked unfit and only Barton shone in the midfield. The defence that looked so steady last season looks dodgy again with Dunne in particular suffering a loss of form since his return from injury. On 61 minutes the game was effectively ended as a contest when Kevin Campbell scored his obligatory goal against City. Worse was still to come however as City lost any sense of discipline (frustrated by such a poor performance?) and Cole was rightly dismissed for two rash challenges late on.
All in all a bad day in the Midlands. The poor run against Albion goes on and City must hope it is little more than a blip. Birmingham come to Eastlands next Saturday, let’s hope we see a performance more akin to Charlton than this shocker today.
Manager Rating
Psycho got it wrong when he replaced Sommeil with Ireland which meant several positional changes. Albion scored on their first attack after the substitution as Sun stood still and watched the cross delivered in for Campbell to head home.
Opponent Rating
Albion thoroughly deserved their win despite their moaning manager at the end. He spent most of his career where?
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