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West Brom Res (h) Premier Reserve League North
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Date: Monday
13th
September 2004, 7pm Venue: Kingston
Park |
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Newcastle United |
1 - 0 | West Bromwich Albion |
| Half time: | 1 - 0 | |
 |
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| Score Sheet: | ||
Ambrose (25) |
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| Teams | ||
|
Harper |
Kuszczak J.Chambers Holmes O'Connor Berthe Midworth A.Chambers Wallwork Hulse Sakiri Dyer |
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| Substitutes: | ||
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McClen for Ambrose
(60) Finnigan for Bates (63) Webster for Smylie (78) |
Elvins
for Holmes (46) Smikle for Hulse (55) Tomlinson for Midworth (78) |
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| Subs not used: | ||
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Bartlett Walton |
Hodgkiss Murphy |
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| Bookings: | ||
| None |
Berthe (foul on N'Zogbia)
(29) O'Connor (dissent) (86) |
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| Dismissals: | ||
| None | None | |
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| Referee: tbc | ||
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Attendance: 902
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Goals |
Half time: Newcastle 1 Baggies 0
25 mins Ramage's header from a Martin Brittain corner was cleared off the line but the centre-back crashed the rebound in from close range. 1-0
Full time: Newcastle 1 Baggies 0
We Said |
Tommy Craig commented:
"The fluency I would like was not there.
"But they were difficult conditions. The work-rate was phenomenal, as was the determination to dig out a victory.
"We had a difficult second half against a strong wind and we have to be pleased with the result. Every man put a real shift in.
"There were a lot of young lads out there and they knew Graeme Souness was sitting in the stand. That probably helped them dig in further. They had an added incentive.
"It was good for Darren Ambrose to get a game under his belt and he weighed in with a goal. He is good in those situations, when he is one-on-one with the goalkeeper.
"He was very clever and very cute and scored a well-taken goal."
They Said |
Baggies reserve boss Gary Shelton said:
"Rob looked very sharp in the first half and held the ball up well. He stiffened up at half-time and we only gave him an extra ten minutes because we didn't want to push him too hard.
"But he appears to have come through unscathed and it's now a case of him building up his fitness.
The signs were good. It was an encouraging comeback and he'll probably play in the reserves again against
Middlesbrough on Wednesday week.
"The game had been even-stevens until Newcastle scored - and it was the same
afterwards.
"It was a bad goal to give away. We got caught down our left-hand side, failed to cut out the cross and Ambrose dinked it over Tomasz Kuszczak at the far post.
"We had the wind behind us in the second half and put them under a lot of pressure without really creating a lot.
We huffed and puffed but the game fizzled out."
Waffle |
After beating Everton 1-0 in our opening home game two weeks ago, Tommy Craig's men repeated the feat on Monday evening by the same scoreline, inflicting a first defeat of the season on visitors West Bromwich Albion in the process.
After a bright start in which we'd dominated but seen efforts from Guy, Brittain and N'Zogbia denied by the 'keeper and the crossbar, Darren Ambrose marked his return from injury with a goal.
Martin Brittain's strong run down the right took him almost to the byline and his low centre was dummied by Bates, deflected by Guy and eventually landed at the feet of Ambrose, who squeezed his shot over the advancing 'keeper and into the net.
Ambrose, who had notched twice in the corresponding game last season was making his first appearance for the club since injuring his knee in the pre-season game with Rangers.
A thoroughly average Albion side only threatened our goal on rare occasions, Macedonian midfielder Artim Sakiri seeing one decent opportunity saved by Harper and blazing another one wide from a similar position.
However, our failure to get a clinching second goal kept the contest alive to the end, with one or two last-ditch tackles being put in by defenders as we failed to hang on to the ball upfield and run the clock down.
A decent performance from new boy N'Zogbia saw him used in central midfield before the break and then in a more left-sided role after Ambrose went off. He could even have grabbed a goal, but Thomas Kuszcak in the visitors goal was equal to his 54th minute shot.
Among the Kingston Park crowd was former Manchester United and Aston Villa defender Ronny Johnsen - in toon for talks with Souness over a move to United for the unattached player (see separate article below.)
Also spotted was Graeme Souness with Alan Murray, while Phil Boermsa was also in attendance. Souness had arrived with Terry McDermott - some people will do anything to get in for nowt.....
Other onlookers included Laurent Robert and Olivier Bernard, cheering on their fellow countryman Charles N'Zogbia, plus as usual Mick McCarthy on the lookout for castoffs and bargains.
Biffa