Match Review: West Brom 1-3 Brighton
When are people going to learn to stop writing premature obituaries for the footballing career of Glenn Murray? It’s becoming a recurring exercise in how to end up with egg all over your face.
Before last weeks trip to Fulham, there was an increasingly loud clamour on social media for Murray to be replaced as first choice front man by either Florin Andone or Jurgen Locadia. He was too slow, too old and hadn’t scored for nine games. Time to send him out to the field to graze.
Murray of course silenced the doubters with two first half goals at Craven Cottage. He was even better at the Hawthorns, stepping off the bench in the 102nd minute and scoring in the 104th and 117th minutes to end the FA Cup challenge of West Bromwich Albion‘s spirited reserve side.
Baggies boss Darren Moore made seven changes from West Brom’s 3-2 defeat to fellow Championship promotion chasers Middlesbrough at the weekend, fielding a number of academy graduates just as he had in the first meeting between the two at the Amex 11 days ago.
Chris Hughton followed suit by making 10 changes of his own from Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Watford. But while the Baggies second string contained youngsters including 16-year-old Morgan Rogers, the Albion could still name a starting line up costing a cumulative total of over £56m in transfer fees.
That disparity in quality was born out by the match statistics, if not the score line until Murray’s extra time entrance. The Albion mustered up 21 shots and 12 corners to go with their 24 shots and eight corners from the first tie. Their problem was that they just weren’t clinical enough.
Leon Balogun and Florin Andone both missed glorious chances in the first half, Balogun hitting the bar from a matter of yards with a free header and Andone dragging an effort wide after he’d been played in by the impressive Anthony Knockaert.
Andone was lucky to be on the pitch at all by that point. The Romanian is a bustling, physical presence who likes to let opponents know he is there, but sometimes he crosses the boundary from hard-but-fair into the realm of illegality.
There was certainly nothing subtle about his use of the dark arts on Sam Field, Andone choosing to smash the Baggies midfielder with an elbow to the face. Referee Paul Tierney must be a fan of WWE or something as despite being right on top of the incident, he saw nothing wrong with Andone’s impersonation The Rock.
West Brom had a few chances of their own in that first half, David Button unconvincingly pushing away a couple of efforts from Jay Rodriguez who seemingly managed to get through the day without racially abusing anyone and Hal Robson-Kanu rattled the bar with a wonderfully hit volley from outside the box.
That first half had already proven to be 100 times more entertaining than the entire 90 minutes at the Amex in the original tie, and there was more fun to come after the break.
Record buy Alireza Jahanbakhsh was making his first Albion appearance since November and he looked relativelt lively but his end product was often lacking. He failed to beat Jonathon Bond with a curling effort and then had a strong penalty appeal turned down after a heavy challenge from Tyrone Mears.
It was from some comedyfending that West Brom took the lead with just over 10 minutes of the 90 left to play. Dan Burn had sent a Wes Hoolahan free kick into orbit and with the ball dropping out of the atmosphere having just completed a flypast of Mars, Balogun had plenty of time to work out what he was going to do about the situation.
Remarkably, Balogun’s answer was to do absolutely nothing as he allowed the ball to fall straight to Kyle Bartley who hooked a volley home from a matter of yards.
Perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised. Having started his Brighton career so promisingly, Balogun has made a couple of costly but hilarious mistakes on the rare occasions he’s been on the field.
Burn in contrast had another outstanding display to follow on from his debut against West Bro last time out and, based on the two centre backs contrasting fortunes, the £3.5m signing from Wigan Athletic can’t be far away from usurping Balogun for third place in the defensive pecking order.
Balogun’s blushes were spared by Andone’s equaliser which arrived a short while later. The Romanian put his desire to good use on this occasion to take advantage of indecision between Craig Dawson and Kyle Bartley to motor through the two of them and beat Bond with a low finish.
That sent the game to extra time, where West Brom were forced to battle with 10 men after Robson-Kanu hobbled off with Moore already having used all his permitted substitutes.
Hughton on the other hand could turn to Murray. The veteran striker’s 104 previous Albion goals have included finishes with his left, his right, his head, his thigh and his knee but he broke new ground here by turning home Locadia’s low cross with his penis.
His second came in much more conventional fashion, a slotted effort after collecting a pass from Davy Propper. That goal confirmed the Albion’s place in round five and a home tie with another Championship side, this time Frank Lampard’s Derby County as the Rams were re-branded in the summer.
With Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal already out the competition and one of Chelsea or Manchester United set to follow suit, the draw is now beginning to open up nicely for an unfashionable club to go far.
We’re clinging to the hope that it could be the Albion. Murray scoring the winner in the final at Wembley? That really would silence the obituary writers.
