Albion Analysis: Amex improvement is key to survival

It is supposed to be Albion's field of dreams.

Now the Amex is in danger of turning into a nightmare.

The atmosphere was toxic for the last home game against Millwall, the treatment of manager Sami Hyypia vicious.

You hope it will be better for the Boxing Day visit of Reading.

You fear those vehemently opposed to Hyypia will go with a pre-determined agenda.

An intially controlled and ultimately battling 1-1 draw at Wolves will not change their minds or their mood.

They want Hyypia's head after a run now stretching to one win in 18. They will not relent.

Some are actually attending, reading or listening and willing Albion to lose to improve the chances of Tony Bloom and the Board granting their wish, which is really rather sad.

The sensible majority will hopefully put their natural reservations over results to one side and realise that never, in the brief and so far success-filled history of the club at their sparkling stadium, have the team or their manager needed their support more than they do now. They need all the help they can get.

Hyypia's side is not a patch on the one Oscar Garcia had last season and nowhere near as good as the team Gus Poyet had the season before.

That is not the fault of the Finn. Even those who slate his selections, his tactics, his substitutions, his demeanour, would surely accept his task has been made so much more difficult by the club's inadequate player recruitment.

Nothing can be done about that now until January, a transfer window Bloom dislikes but which Albion are going to have to use cutely and voraciously to get out of trouble.

They do not play again at home after Reading until mid-January. Steve Clarke's first away match in charge of the Royals represents a chance to enter 2015 with renewed belief that the Amex can be a 12th man instead of the players feeling as if they only have ten, as was the case for most of the second half at Wolves.

Because it is at the Amex where Hyypia's Albion are really falling short.

The away form is respectable for a team in their perilous position. They have only won once, at Leeds back in mid-August, but the near-victory turned deadlock at Wolves followed worthy draws at Nottingham Forest, Watford, Huddersfield and Norwich.

They were drawing at Ipswich until conceding twice in the closing stages, lost 1-0 at Birmingham at the start of the season when the squad was still far from built and were beaten 3-2 at back-on-top Bournemouth and third-placed Brentford.

They also negotiated awkward Capital One Cup ties at Swindon and Burton Albion before losing at Spurs. The only time they have really let themselves down on their travels was the early surrender at Derby at the start of the month.

Eight points from 11 away games in the league is not great but the picture would not be so grim if the form at home, where every team in the country expects to do better, was not so abject.

Just two wins, five draws and four defeats from a less than taxing programme yet to feature eight of the current top ten.

No wonder the natives are restless but repeats of the negativity which engulfed Hyypia more or less throughout a tight game against Millwall will not improve matters. In fact, it will only further sap the players' confidence.

They should approach the task against Reading with heads held high, except for Bruno, who should be putting his experience and calmness in possession to use on the pitch instead of sitting in the stands after a reckless red card.

The Spaniard, moved from right-back back into midfield, is one of the players Hyypia ought to be able to rely on. He let the Finn down after losing the ball with a two-footed lunge which did not hurt Kevin McDonald but made the punishment he received inevitable.

There is never a good time to go down to ten men but Bruno's departure early in the second half, with Albion leading through Darren Bent's well-constructed second goal in four games ten minutes in, was damaging.

Albion had been reprieved not long before when a careless backpass by the recalled Joe Bennett was intercepted by substitute Nouha Dicko.

The fit-again Wolves striker tumbled as David Stockdale, hands spread, came to meet him. Referee Darren Bond initially awarded a penalty but changed his mind after consulting his assistant and booked Dicko for diving.

It was brave of Bond to alter the decision, although Hyypia pointed out the crowd, tetchy after Albion's control for most of the first half, would not have been so riled if he had consulted the linesman before pointing to the spot.

It was always going to be tough to hold out from the moment Bruno saw red. Hyypia's strugglers did so with considerable efficiency and composure until a corner came through a cluster of bodies with two minutes left for Danny Batth, the Wolves captain and centre-half to drive his team level. Early bath for Bruno, cold Batth for Albion.

They are now a worrying four points adrift of safety, rather than only two, but there were encouraging signs and contributions.

Bent's stooping header followed a neat build-up and incisive, first-time cross by the recalled Inigo Calderon. It was the kind of service which Bent craves and so obviously lacked against Millwall.

David Stockdale emphasised his growing assurance with two fine saves to deny Wolves' bulldozering danger man Bakary Sako at the end of the first half.

The top-scoring Mali international also clipped a post as he threatened to single-handedly inspire a Wolves team outplayed for 40 minutes.

In front of Stockdale, On-loan Greg Halford, back at one of his former clubs, was colossal at centre-half.

Dutchman Danny Holla excelled on his return to midfield, setting the tempo by spraying passes to both flanks. Some of his work was loose - he gifted Sako one of his openings - but it was a promising display upstaged by Jake Forster-Caskey, who was outstanding with and without the ball.

Wolves manager Kenny Jackett, steeped in Championship experience, summed it up succinctly when he said of Albion: "I think they are very good between both boxes."

They need more clean sheets, more service to Bent and more results at the Amex to survive.