1:00pm Tuesday 9th February 2010
By Andy Naylor
Albion will take a victory any way they can get it against Huddersfield tonight.
But if they could choose the manner in which it is achieved, a matchwinner from a set piece would go down especially well with centre half Tommy Elphick and manager Gus Poyet.
Elphick scrambled in an equaliser from a corner in the FA Cup at Aston Villa last month.
He could, and by his own admission should, have been on target again at Leyton Orient on Saturday.
Twice in the first half routines put together on the training ground by Poyet and his assistant Mauricio Taricco almost paid off.
A Gary Dicker free-kick released Elphick but he failed to connect properly on the volley, then he headed wide from an Elliott Bennett free-kick.
Elphick was outstanding in his defensive duties at the Matchroom Stadium but those chances left him frustrated.
He admitted: "The first opportunity was a glorious one, probably the best opportunity I've had to score all season, and I should have buried it.
"It's things like that, where we go 1-0 up and don't take it to two or three and have a comfortable game. We are always hanging on or one down."
Poyet is frustrated too that all the planning on set pieces is being let down by the final execution.
He said: "You can work on them every single day for hours and hours but you might have once chance during the match, one moment, and then it is up to the player. We cannot do anything about that.
"The good point now is that the players believe in them, because they see that they work. It would really help if we put one of them in the net."
Elphick also had a late header from a Bennett corner cleared off the line in the last home game against Millwall.
An earlier mistake by his partner Adam Virgo gifted Millwall the points and at Orient a slip by Michel Kuipers from Elphick's backpass led to Orient equalising from an indirect free-kick inside the penalty area.
Elphick said: "We should have had four points from the last couple of games and we have come away with one.
"Two moments of madness cost us but I feel we are looking more solid now. If we'd had those points we would maybe be halfway up the league. We have got to use that to spur us on."
Albion will climb at least three places if they win tonight, four if Oldham fail to do likewise at Swindon and five in the unlikely event they go some way to avenging that 7-1 hammering at Huddersfield earlier in the season by prevailing by four goals.
If they are to remove themselves from the relagtion zone once more they will have to reverse a trend.
Results against the top 11 in the table so far read played 13, lost eight and drawn five, food for thought with leaders Norwwich up next on Saturday, followed by Leeds and Charlton.
Elphick said: "The two things wrong with out season so far have been mainly our home form and also the results against teams in the top half "We've got two opportunities now at home against two big teams to put that right. It's getting to a stage now where we need to start climbing.
"The quicker we get into that mix of teams halfway up the table the better. The table isn't lying. We are where we are for a reason and we can't keep getting unlucky. It has got to change."
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