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FA CUP DEJA-VU 22-2-07
Tom Warnock
Firstly, apologies for a distinct lack of a Tom Warnock column last week. Sorry to any who were disappointed - technical difficulties led to me writing an article which it turns out will never see the light of day. A shame, but moving on;
We suffered an FA Cup déjà vu on Saturday, another 2-2 draw, and letting a 2-1 advantage slip yet again was not the ideal scenario. We now not only have to go away to the Hawthorns and attempt to knock out a side who will be fired up by Tony Mowbray (brief salute), but then we face the prospect of the Premiership leaders at home.
If we can set up that tie, it will be a mouth-watering game, which could possibly bring the first full house of the season, depending on prices and form. However we will ultimately be the underdogs, but if you're going to win the FA Cup, might as well do it in style.
We can't have many complaints over Saturday's end result; they came and did the job, and got a replay. And their second half performance earned them this right. Our full backs didn't know how to cope with the pace of the Baggies midfield, and Taylor will admit he has had much better games in a Boro shirt.
Viduka was left out against Bristol City and made his mark from the bench, but he was well marked by West Brom and they handled him as well as any team I've seen this season. It was disappointing to draw the game after leading at the interval, simply because one more would have probably done it. If we could've crashed out of the dressing room and attacked them with movement and got the ball to Downing and Viduka we might well have had the game over sooner rather than later.
Instead we allowed the visitors to get their way and use the ball very effectively when the chance arose. Perhaps there was a bit of complacency in out minds during the half time break - I'm not saying there was, only perhaps. You can imagine the opposite dressing room at that same time, Mowbray wasn't about to give up the fight, not against his former club, (former only in employment, yet still his current in affection).
Enough of mulling over what could have been - what about the league? Is there anything left for us to play for in the league? We've still to play Manchester United and Liverpool away, but the rest of our schedule is within our limitations. Start winning away and things could look up. What better way to start an away revival than beating the Geordies away and doing the double on them for the first time in years. It's Reading at home next - revenge time. After the last time we let our lead slip and handed them the game, we need to put them back in their place.
In terms of league positions this is an important game for us, defeat would lift them to fourteen points above us, and they're sixth. In real terms a defeat would make it impossible for us to get sixth and thus win a place in Europe. With thirty-three points to play for, to catch them in sixth we'd have to win five more than them with just eleven games left, like I said; nigh on impossible. Southgate should be getting this message across loud and clear, if you want Europe: beat Reading.
We can all collectively acknowledge that we didn't have a very productive transfer window, and if you want to make it even less productive, don't play the new signing. Actually, don't even give him a run out, or even a place on the bench. In fact has anyone actually seen Lee Dong-Gook? (re-arrange name order as desired). I'm just not convinced when I see Malcolm Christie come off the bench. Its no disrespect to him because any lack of belief in him is because we've hardly seen him play, and so I just can't quite grasp why we sign a striker and hes never involved, particularly when you consider that after Yakubu and Viduka we really are struggling for options.
It's mere speculation on my part, but perhaps he just isn't good enough. It's possible that the coaching team have looked at him in training and decided he's just not going to do it in the first team. I could of course be completely wrong and he might not only play against Reading but could bag a hat-trick. But if he was that good, he would've been involved by now, surely. And as far as the 'jet lag fatigue' thing, I just don't buy it, no matter how bad the turbulence was.
On the whole, we did well to bounce back from the Chelsea game and get through to the next round of the FA Cup, and our form is pretty decent, but it needs to be better if we're to achieve anything other than another season in the Premiership. So let's take on Reading this weekend, and let's show them what Premiership football is all about and at the same time begin our assault on their sixth place status.
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