By Stuart Kidson
April 27 2003

The Baggies were humiliated by Michael Owen this weekend as the England striker went on a one man rampage at the Hawthorns and notched up his 100th Premiership goal for the Reds. The heaviest defeat of the season so far has been described by Gary Megson as an accident waiting to happen. West Bromwich Albion v Liverpool
Saturday 26th April 2003

The Baggies were humiliated by Michael Owen this weekend as the England striker went on a one man rampage at the Hawthorns and notched up his 100th Premiership goal for the Reds. The heaviest defeat of the season so far has been described by Gary Megson as an accident waiting to happen.

The Baggies never looked as if they were in the right frame of mind for this fixture despite the optimism within the ground that Jason Koumas was going to produce the performance of his career against his boyhood heroes. The whole atmosphere before kick off was subdued.

Albion produced the first shot of the game with less than 30 seconds on the clock after Jason Roberts found Danny Dichio on the edge of the area from a Derek McInnes through ball. The lanky cockney striker hit the ball first time but sent the shot wide of the mark. The Reds reply came from England midfielder Danny Murphy who saw his shot from 30 yards parried and then held by the Baggies keeper.

A Roberts and Dichio combination produced the Baggies next chance but Dichio wasted the effort after screwing his shot wide despite showing good skill by controlling the ball with his chest. Koumas, who spent his childhood watching the Reds from The Kop, then made a crunching 50 - 50 tackle on Steven Gerrard, leaving the Reds star on the floor needing treatment.

Liverpool opened the scoring shortly after when John Arne Riise sent the ball through for Owen to run onto. Holding off challenges from Neil Clement, Owen was able to shoot across Hoult from 8 yards and send the ball into the net. This goal moved Owen up to 99 in the Premiership for Liverpool.

Danny Murphy carved open the patched up Baggies defence following his quick free kick, when he found Czech star, Milan Baros. Baros controlled the ball well and hit a low strike towards the Baggies net which Hoult held low to his right. Murphy again added to the pressure on the Baggies back line when he hit a 20 yard free kick which was cleared off the line by McInnes. However, typical of the Baggies luck, the ball fell at just the right height for German World Cup Finalist, Dieter Hamman, who fired in a 30 yard volley which went inches wide.

Again Murphy was at the heart of the next attack by the Reds when he sent over an aerial ball for Baros, but the Czech striker was left kicking air as he missed the ball all together thanks to the pressure from Sean Gregan and the ball rolled out for a goal kick.

The Baggies were on the back foot again as the Reds surged forward with impunity and Neil Clement was called upon to make a series of superb blocks and tackles as the Albion struggled against the Red swarms. Clemmo was playing out of his skin and easily stood out as the Baggies best player in the first half.

Owen should have doubled his tally for the day after a simple ball over the top caught the home defence out and Owen skipped round Igor Balis. With just the keeper to beat Owen should have scored but Hoult did well to make himself as big as possible and dealt with the danger well. Gary Megson decided to change things around tactically and pushed Ronnie Wallwork into midfield from defence. Albion were now playing 4 - 4 - 2 in order to deal with the pace of the two Liverpool strikers.

Things were not all Liverpool though, and Wallwork almost netted for the Baggies after Dichio had headed down a Koumas cross for him to volley from 15 yards out but the ball was just that touch to high and went inches over the crossbar. Albion again pressed forward and McInnes was unlucky not to get his third Premiership goal of the season after exchanging passes with Roberts. As he lined up his shot Norwegian international Riise, made a fine interception to rob the former Morton midfielder of the chance to shoot.

Roberts and Dichio were again at the forefront of the Baggies attacks just before the break when Dichio headed just over following an in swinging Koumas corner and Roberts hit a weak shot straight at Jerzy Dudek after turning his man in the box and finding space to fire off a shot.

Owen led the charge on the Baggies goal minutes before the break, when he nutmegged Gregan on the edge of the box and hit a curling shot which Hoult managed to turn around the post for a corner.

Despite weathering the storm well during the first half, the Baggies could not continue to restrain Owen or Baros. Steven Gerrard supplied two deep crosses within the first 4 minutes of the restart that were to prove to be the nails in the Baggies coffin. His first cross found Owen who shot from close range only for Hoult to save, but the rebound was pounced on by Baros who toe poked the ball across the line despite Danny Dichio's desperate lunge to clear from the line. The second cross fell for Baros, who shot at goal and was denied by Hoult. This time it was Owen who responded first and prodded home the ball for his 100th Premiership goal.

Gary Megson had seen enough to know that 4 - 4 -2 was not working and replaced Wallwork with local star James Chambers and reverted back to the familiar 3 - 5 - 2 line up. Albion, now playing with a familiar formation enjoyed a very brief period of pressure but the failure of the strike duo for the Baggies meant that nothing was to come of it.

Baros was to be provider for Owen's hat-trick in the 61st minute after making his way around Clement and Chambers into the box. His pass left Owen to tap in his third of the game and earn the match ball. The Baggies players were looking shell shocked as they struggled to contain the Reds onslaught. It had been made very apparent early in the first half that Referee Mr. Phil Dowd was going to continue the poor standards set by visiting officials at The Hawthorns this season, and this combined with the relentless pace of Liverpool was too much for the Baggies stars. The heads began to drop and frustration was setting in.

The home fans at the Hawthorns have been praised by the players and management alike throughout this campaign. Home and Away the support shown by the Barmy Army has been of the highest standard and despite the best efforts of the Scousers to celebrate the Hawthorns faithful were not going to go down with a whimper. The noise level inside the stadium went through the roof as the home fans got behind the Stars in Stripes and Gary Megson.

Owen's fourth of the game came on 68 minutes when Murphy again sent the Hero of Munich clean through on goal to slot the ball past Hoult. This had the effect of raising the volume from the home fans even louder as they tried to lift the players.

Des Lyttle, christened Little Dave by the home fans this weekend, almost gave Baros a chance to double his tally on 75 minutes when he miscued and was caught out by the Liverpool striker but Hoult saved his blushes.

Koumas was not going to give in easily and on 82 minutes he unleashed a powerful 25 yard shot which Dudek spectacularly tipped over the bar. The Reds again pushed forward with ease and Baros finally got his second in the 85th minute when he raced clear from Gerrard's through ball and nutmegged the oncoming Hoult.

Albion launched one final attack on the Reds goal but Dudek, who had nothing to do through large periods of the game, was able to save a point blank header from Dichio and then Sammi Hyppia cleared off the line from Roberts prod at the rebound seconds before the final whistle.

At the start of this season many thought that the Baggies would suffer this kind of defeat weekly against the elite of the Premiership but it is to the credit of both players and management at the Hawthorns that this first battering came with just 2 more games left on the schedule. The positive aspects of this defeat are limited but it will build character within the team for next season. From the start the Baggies never looked comfortable in this fixture and Megson admitted on Radio WM after the game that he had difficulties motivating the team before the game. Lets hope that the next home game, our last in the Premiership against Newcastle, will produce a better result.

A first for this feature this week with two players sharing the Man of the Match award. Selected by myself for effort and contribution to the team - Neil Clement & Derek McInnes

Team: Russell Hoult, Sean Gregan (86), Ronnie Wallwork (55), Neil Clement, Igor Balis, Derek McInnes, Jason Koumas, Andy Johnson, Ifeyani Udeze (73), Jason Roberts, Danny Dichio

Subs: James Chambers (55), Des Lyttle (73), Jordao (86), Scott Dobie, Joe Murphy