3:30pm Monday 15th March 2010
By Andy Naylor
GUS Poyet has improved Albion in several respects.
They are defending so much better now and his signings have brought more quality to the team.
But he has not been able to do anything yet about the appalling home form.
That will have to change if the Seagulls are going to mount any sort of challenge in League One next season.
This is assuming survival, of course, which is dangerous, although the comfort cushion has only been trimmed by one point to five by the latest Withdean setback.
The giveaway stats are that Albion have now lost more home matches (11) than anyone else in the division and scored the fewest goals (14 in 17).
The second of those wretched tallies is the most significant. If you are averaging less than a goal per game then there is not much chance of winning too many or, for that matter, avoiding defeat.
The startling difference between the Seagulls’ home and away form is encapsulated by the extraordinary diversity of Glenn Murray’s scoring record.
Wycombe or Walsall, Southampton or Leeds, no problem. Murray has hit the target 12 times in his last 12 away league appearances.
Compare that with Withdean and that old chestnut linking the rear end of a farm animal to George Formby’s instrument springs to mind.
It is an unlucky 13 outings in all competitions since the net bulged for Murray at Albion’s adopted home.
Unlucky because he has suffered injury problems during the course of a barren spell which, amazingly, now stretches back a calendar year to a goal against Yeovil.
The sequence nearly ended in the first half against Swindon, when wide men Kazenga LuaLua and Elliott Bennett combined to set up Murray for an angled header from beyond the far post.
It beat replacement goalkeeper Phil Smith but did not carry sufficient weight to prevent skipper Gordon Greer making a comfortable goal-line clearance.
Poyet was quick to seize upon the puzzling Murray scoring anomaly when asked about Albion’s lowest home goals record.
“It’s simple,” he said. “My main striker since I have been here is Glenn and he hasn’t scored at home.
“He had a great chance. If it was away from home would he have scored? I don’t know, you tell me.
“It is a problem so we need to make sure we are better. I have got no explanation.
“Coincidence or confidence? I don’t know. If he didn’t have chances I would accept it is the team performance. He had enough to score at least one but we’ll see. We’ll keep working on it.”
Albion had enough opportunities in general to grab the opening goal in the kind of game where one was always likely to be enough but Bennett, Andrew Crofts and Gary Dicker all missed the target when well-placed.
It would be easy to blame the 4-5-1 system, which had previously worked well home and away during the four-match unbeaten run.
But the truth of the matter is they did not look any likelier to score once they had fallen behind and Poyet switched first to 4-4-2 and then 4-3-3, via the introductions of Chris Holroyd and Nicky Forster.
That was in response to the decisive strike from Charlie Austin, his 14th of the season for Swindon. A left wing cross from lively sub Mark Marshall eventually landed at the feet of Jon-Paul McGovern.
He laid the ball back for Austin, plucked from non-League Poole, to plant a low shot beyond Peter Brezovan from 12 yards.
It was a missed-the-boat outcome for Albion, a terrific one for Swindon after successive defeats had raised doubts about their ability to last the promotion course.
They were quite literally hamstrung, that particular injury ruling out top scorer Billy Painter and forcing off both his replacement Vincent Pericard and keeper David Lucas in the first half, together with winger turned striker Daniel Ward (head).
The visitors, more by luck than judgement on Danny Wilson’s part, became more threatening once forced themselves to go 4-5-1.
Albion’s performance simultaneously tailed off, although Inigo Calderon was excellent again and LuaLua’s delivery was better this time following more of those electric bursts.
He almost scored inside the opening minute and nearly rescued a point in the last, skating past two challenges from the halfway line to unleash a low drive which Smith did well to keep out.
Poyet said: “I think he (LuaLua) had a terrific game, probably just a little bit under Calderon, who was outstanding.
“We have been working with him every week, one session for him, and he was definitely better in terms of delivery.”
The Seagulls need to deliver now against Brentford at Withdean tomorrow night, although Poyet admitted: “With respect to the fans, I don’t know if I am glad to have it at home.
“It’s going to be another difficult game. They are very organised and tough, so we need to be better.”
Albion (4-5-1): Brezovan; Calderon, El-Abd, Elphick, Painter (Forster 75); Bennett, Navarro (Holroyd 71), Crofts, Dicker, LuaLua; Murray. Subs not used: Walker, McNulty, Hart, Carole, Hoyte.
Goals: None.
Yellow cards: None.
Swindon (4-4-2): Lucas (Smith 12); Darby, Cuthbert, Greer, Sheehan; McGovern, Douglas, Ferry, Ward (Easton 46); Pericard (Marshall 33), Austin. Subs not used: Timlin, Ritchie, Amankwaah, Jean-Francois.
Goal: Austin (69).
Yellow cards: None.
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