Fulham 2, West Brom 0: Christopher Lepkowski's big match verdict

Feb 23 2009 by Christopher Lepkowski, Birmingham Mail

Zamora opened the scoring on the hour. John Pantsil’s cross was headed on by Johnson and Zamora raced in at the back post to hook the ball past Carson.

It got worse. Brede Hangeland’s header struck the bar before hitting Carson. And within a minute Johnson increased Fulham’s lead. Zamora raced on to Murphy’s free-kick only to see his shot saved by Carson. The ball came out to Johnson who placed it past a stranded Meite.

Albion had a late chance to pull a goal back through Roman Bednar after he was brought down by Hangeland. But the Czech international’s spot-kick was weak and saved by Mark Schwarzer.

So what now for Albion? It’s difficult to know where their next point is coming from.

They looked devoid of all confidence. Allowing Manchester United to play “olé” football is one thing – but seeing Fulham do so is not acceptable.

Manager Tony Mowbray, correctly to a degree, points to the fact that Albion will struggle to compete due to their wage bill being the lowest in the Premier League. Yet it’s becoming increasingly difficult to sympathise with his views about Albion’s prudency when Borja, the club’s record signing, continues to look out of his depth physically and, lately, unable to even complete passes over five yards.

Throw in the fact that defenders worth a combined total of around £8million are struggling with the basics and mis-timing challenges then you could argue that players brought in by the manager are simply not up to the job.

Albion may have the lowest wage bill but that is no excuse when players are continuing to make basic mistakes and, at times, even showing a lack of desire.

You can forgive players for not being good enough – but not when there is a distinct lack of application from one or two key individuals, who would rather duck out of the way than head a ball out of the box.

Good players win games. Two of Albion’s best players are injured and whether they have enough of them overall to stay up remains open to debate. But you can’t help wondering whether a few individuals simply aren’t up to the mental battle ahead of them, let alone anything else.