Game #5178
Aston Villa
Sunday, 30 September 2012
Drew
15th (-1)
Last 5: 🟨 🟩 🟥 🟩 🟨
Premier League
Attendance: 34,489
West Bromwich Albion
Villa Park
Aston Villa
1-1
West Brom
Assist(s) | Not recorded
MATCH SUMMARY
Scarcely believably but Paul Lambert loses the Villa dressing room after just eight games in charge as the folly of his appointment is laid bare for all but the most hopelessly optimistic of supporters.
KEY MAN
Darren Bent strikes before running off to make his point as Paul Lambert loses the dressing room in just eight games and a single Premier League win in six, Sunday, 30 September 2012.
PREVIOUS MATCH
NEXT MATCH
MATCH TIMELINE
Sunday, 30 September 2012
🟨 | 23’ Booking, Fabian Delph
🕒 | HT Aston Villa 0-0 West Bromwich Albion
🥅 | 51’ Goal, 0-1, (West Bromwich Albion)
🔁 | 66’ Sub off, Marc Albrighton, Sub on, Charles N’Zogbia
🔁 | 68’ Sub off, Christian Benteke, Sub on Darren Bent
🔁 | 71’ Sub off, Fabian Delph, Sub on Barry Bannan
⚽ | 80’ Goal, 1-1, Darren Bent
🕒 | FT Aston Villa 1-1 West Bromwich Albion
ON THIS DAY
Paul Lambert's Villa fail again in the League as they can only draw at home to Albion but for all the concern about team selection and on-field performances it is behind the scenes where alarm bells are now ringing loudly in just his eighth game in charge.
Lambert who had proved extremely poor thus far in his reign as Villa boss, languished in 15th, having already confounded expectations in all the wrong ways imaginable.
The counter-productive bomb squad having been re-implemented, and the bizarre policy of recruiting lower league imports well before their due date only to see them being preferred ahead of calm, experience, meant any semblance of a honeymoon for Lambert was well and truly over.
That the mono-syllabic manager decided to pick a fight with Villa’s record signing, days after picking a fight with the manager of the reigning champions seemed at best questionable.
Given Lambert’s protestations of innocent motives didn’t wash with even the most gullible who recognised reality when they saw it, it was no surprise that the offended player taunted his new boss on celebrating his equalising goal.
Mutual respect was clearly in short supply, the question was just how far that was ingrained in the dressing room after eight, largely painful, games into Lambert’s reign.
Aston Villa
European Cup / Champions League: 🏆
League Champions: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
FA Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
League Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Last Trophy: 1995-96
West Bromwich Albion
European Cup / Champions League: ❌
League Champions: 🏆
FA Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
League Cup Winners: 🏆
Last Trophy: 1967-68
FIXTURE HISTORY
West Bromwich Albion
Previous 5 vs. Albion: 🟩 🟩 🟥 🟥 🟨
FIXTURE DETAILS
Season | 2012-13 |
Matchday | #8 |
League Game | #6 |
Manager Game | #8 |
Sunday, 30 September 2012
MATCH SUMMARY
Manager: Paul Lambert | 🏴 | Glasgow, 2012-2015
Referee: Anthony Taylor | 🏴 | Wythenshaw, 2006-
Kick off: 4.00pm
HT Score: 🟨 0-0
FT Score: 🟨 1-1
FT Result: 🟨 Drew
Last 5: 🟨 🟩 🟥 🟩 🟨
MANAGERIAL RECORD
Paul Lambert | 🏴 |
GAMES | WINS | DRAWS | LOSSES | POINTS PER GAME
🕒 8 | 🟩 | 3 🟨 | 2 🟥 3 | 1.38
Villa Career Form:
Mid Table
Paul Lambert | 🏴 |
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Anthony Taylor | 🏴 | Wythenshaw, 2006-
Previous 5: 🟩 🟩 🟥 🟥 🟨
Last Match: 🟨 21 Apr 12, Villa 0-0 Sunderland, (h)
Cards: 🟨 🟨
Assistants: Andy Halliday, Scott Ledger
Anthony Taylor
CARDS
Villa
🟨
West Bromwich Albion
🟨
TEAM NEWS
Paul Lambert recalls Brad Guzan in place of Shay Given as Marc Albrighton and Brett Holman replace Andreas Weimann and Charles N'Zogbia despite the heroics in the League Cup last time out, whilst record signing Darren Bent misses out on selection for the second successive match.
TEAM STATS
Starting XI Average Age
| 24.95 |
Oldest Player |
W Brett Holman | 🇦🇺 | 28.53 |
Youngest Player |
CF Christian Benteke | 🇧🇪 | 21.84 |
MANAGER
Paul Lambert | 🏴 |
Aston Villa
GK Brad Guzan | 🇺🇸 |
LB Joe Bennett | 🏴 |
CB Ron Vlaar | 🇳🇱 |
CB Ciaran Clark | 🇮🇪 |
RB Matt Lowton | 🏴 |
M Karim El Ahmadi | 🇲🇦 |
M Fabian Delph | 🏴 | 🟨 | 🔁 |
W Marc Albrighton | 🏴 | 🔁 |
W Brett Holman | 🇦🇺 |
F Gabriel Agbonlahor | 🏴 |
CF Christian Benteke | 🇧🇪 | 🔁 |
MANAGER
Steve Clarke | 🏴 |
West Bromwich Albion
GK Ben Foster | 🏴 |
CB Jonas Olsson | 🇸🇪 |
LB Goran Popov | 🇲🇰 |
CB Gareth McAuley | 🇬🇧 |
RB Billy Jones | 🏴 | 🔁 |
M Claudio Yacob | 🇦🇷 |
M James Morrison | 🏴 |
M Chris Brunt | 🇬🇧 | 🔁 |
M Youssuf Mulumbu | 🇨🇩 |
M Zoltán Gera | 🇭🇺 |
CF Shane Long | 🇮🇪 | ⚽ | 🔁 |
Not necessarily indicative of the actual matchday formation
SUBSTITUTES
🔁 W Charles N’Zogbia | 🇫🇷 | for W Marc Albrighton | 🏴 | 66’ |
🔁 F Darren Bent | 🏴 | ⚽ | for CF Christian Benteke | 🇧🇪 | 68’ |
🔁 M Barry Bannan | 🏴 | for M Fabian Delph | 🏴 | 71’ |
SUBSTITUTES
🔁 | RB Billy Jones | 🏴 | (CB Gabriel Tamaş | 🇧🇪 | 🟨 |)
🔁 | M Chris Brunt | 🇬🇧 | (M Graham Dorrans | 🏴 |)
🔁 | CF Shane Long | 🇮🇪 | ⚽ | (CF Romelu Lukaku | 🇧🇪 |)
UNUSED SUBSTITUTES
GK Shay Given | 🇮🇪 |
RB Eric Lichaj | 🇺🇸 |
M Ashley Westwood | 🏴 |
F Andreas Weimann | 🇦🇹 |
UNUSED SUBSTITUTES
GK Luke Daniels | 🏴 |
W Yassine El Ghanassy | 🇧🇪 |
CF Marc Antoine Fortuné | 🇫🇷 |
CF Markus Rosenberg | 🇸🇪 |
SQUAD STATS
1st XI: £58.60m
Home Nation 🏴 🏴 🏴 🇬🇧 : 5/11
Homegrown: 3/11
Squad:
Home Nation 🏴 🏴 🏴 🇬🇧 : 7/18
Homegrown: 6/18
MATCHDAY SQUAD
SQUAD STATS
Team Cost: £11.35m
Home Nation 🏴 🏴 🏴 🇬🇧 : 6/14
MATCHDAY SQUAD
UNAVAILABLE
Injury | 3 |
M Stephen Ireland | 🇮🇪 |
CB Richard Dunne | 🇮🇪 |
M Gary Gardner | 🏴 |
Illness | 1 |
M Stiliyan Petrov | 🇧🇬 |
Bomb Squad | 1 |
RB Alan Hutton | 🏴 |
Out on Loan | 3 |
M Jean Makoun | 🇨🇲 | Stade Rennais
F Nathan Delfouneso | 🏴 | Blackpool
LB Stephen Warnock | 🏴 | Bolton
UNAVAILABLE
Not Reported
Player Positions:
GK : Goalkeeper
CB, D, B : Centre Back, Defender, Back
FB, LB, RB, WH : Full Back, Left Back, Right Back, Wing Back, Wing Half
M, CH, LH, RH : Midfielder, Centre Half, Left Half, Right Half
W, OL, OR : Winger, Outside Left, Outside Right
F, IF, IL, IR : Forward, Inside Forward, Inside Left, Inside Right, Second Striker, False 9
CF : Centre Forward
Match Symbols:
⚽ | Goal
🔥 | Assist
🔁 | Substitution
🟨 | Booking
🟥 | Sending off
🆘 | Poor refereeing performance
🟢 : Debut 🔴 : Final Game
DEBUT APPEARANCES
FINAL APPEARANCES
MATCH STATS
Possession F | 63%
Possession A | 37%
Shots F | 11
Shots A | 10
Shots on Target F | 5
Shots on Target A | 4
Corners F | 10
Corners A | 5
Fouls F | 8
Fouls A | 12
LEAGUE TABLE
MATCHDAY PROGRAMME
MATCHDAY QUOTES
“I explained that the captaincy thing was to let him do what he did there, which is to concentrate on scoring.”
Paul Lambert with a straight face, Sunday, 30 September 2012.
*The Guardian*
Sunday, 30 September 2012
*Darren Bent’s late landmark earns Aston Villa draw with West Brom*
On a day when Darren Bent endured the disappointment of being dropped in front of the England manager, the Aston Villa striker provided the best possible riposte as he came off the substitutes’ bench to score 10 minutes from time and deny West Bromwich Albion the victory that would have lifted them to third in the table.
All the frustration that Bent had been bottling up on the sidelines, where he had a face like thunder at times as he watched the two strikers picked ahead of him huff and puff without success, came to the surface as he celebrated the 150th league goal of his career.
Having also lost the captaincy earlier in the month, it was easy to understand why Bent was so fired up as he set off in the direction of the dugout before being mobbed by team-mates.
It was a big call for Paul Lambert to leave out the club’s record signing, especially as Bent scored against Southampton last weekend, and it looked as though the Villa manager’s decision would backfire when Shane Long, returning to the ground where he was on the receiving end of a dreadful tackle from Alan Hutton last season, put Albion ahead in the 51st minute.
There was a sense that Villa were beginning to run out of ideas when Lambert replaced Christian Benteke with Bent in the 69th minute. Neither Benteke nor Gabriel Agbonlahor, who kept his place after scoring twice against Manchester City in midweek, looked particularly threatening, and it was easy to imagine Bent relishing the chance to prove Lambert wrong.
His eyes must have lit up when Albion failed to deal with Barry Bannan’s corner and the loose ball dropped invitingly for him to sweep a left-footed volley beyond Ben Foster with what was only his third touch of the game, to give Villa the point they deserved.
Roy Hodgson, the England manager, was still in the ground at that point. “It was fantastic,” said Bent, who was omitted from the England squad last month. “Obviously it would have been nice to play from the start of the game but I managed to get the goal so it
gets us a point.”
Asked whether his goal was the perfect response to being placed on the bench, Bent replied: “Yeah, maybe. It’s obviously been a difficult couple of weeks, losing the captaincy first off then finding out I wasn’t playing today. But at the same time I thought the boys played fantastically well and battled all through the game, and we deserved a point.”
Lambert, who showed his ruthless edge when he dropped Shay Given after the second game of the season, insisted there was no ill-feeling between him and Bent. “He’s got nothing to prove to me, Darren, because I know what he can do,” Lambert said. “As I’ve said before, I’ll need everybody at the football club.”
Although Albion started brightly and could have gone ahead when Long headed wide in profligate fashion, Villa looked the more accomplished side in the first half. Ben Foster, poor in midweek against Liverpool, tipped Brett Holman’s 30-yard half-volley over the bar and produced an even better save to deny the same player later in the half, when the Australian’s angled shot took a wicked deflection. “I said there were no worries about Ben Foster,” said Steve Clarke, Albion’s head coach, who had to reorganise after Chris Brunt pulled his hamstring and Billy Jones picked up a knee injury.
Long’s goal arrived after Zoltan Gera’s perfectly weighted pass released Morrison in the inside right channel. Played onside by Matthew Lowton, Morrison delivered a low centre that Long tapped in at the far post after Ron Vlaar had tried and failed to sweep the ball behind.
In a frantic finish, Romelu Lukaku twice came close to restoring Albion’s lead, only to be denied by the post and Brad Guzan’s reflexes – while at the other end Bent’s whipped effort flashed inches over. By that point, though, the striker had already made his mark. “His goal was brilliant, it was a world-class finish – that’s what he does,” Lambert said. “I explained that the captaincy thing was to let him do what he did there, which is to concentrate on scoring.”
Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. With thanks to Trinity Mirror. Digitised by Findmypast Newspaper Archive Limited. All rights reserved. Source: British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)