Hammond stays positive after frustrating draw (From The Argus)

Thought Dean played well last night. Got forward well and won the ball back on numerous occasions.

yes its unbelievable how we didnt score a hat full of goals before half time, and then to give away a silly defendable goal . vicente was amazing and for 90 minute.. I feel for hosko getting injured ,i thought saurdays officials were bad, but those two muppets, the ref and lino on west side are a disgrace to the fa.there officating all eve was of a very poor standard.it wasnt just one decision wrong but loads .. we move on "frustrated"..UTA

He is a decent player, wasnt on top form last weekend, but was better last night.

Excellent team performance from the whole team with Vicente pulling the strings. Feel sorry for Hoskins, looks like the end if his season with a reported ankle injury

Oh dear, I'm usually ok by the following morning, but still feeling somewhat frustrated. We play some brilliant stuff as we all know, and watching Vicente is the stuff of dreams on occasion. However, there is a pattern to our games, and we saw it again last night. During each game, we have so much control over the opposition for the first thirty or so, but by not scoring, the other team seem to get a lift and manage to get into the game and I find myself waiting for them to score. Fortunately it doesn't always happen, but it isn't good for the heart.
For sometime now, many on here have been saying that we only need to put a run of good results (wins) together and we'll make the playoffs or even second place, But, with each passing game this becomes more and more difficult, not least because it's also dependent on what our rivals are doing, eg Boro and Hull last night.
I think I need to try and get my mindset to am place where I can continue to enjoy the ride, but not worry to much about reaching the goal this season. Now where's the paracetamol and the cat to kick.
Oops, sorry, have I gone over the allotted 350 words?

Like I said previously, I don't believe it is possible to play at the level we are are not get to the playoffs. I have not watched a team in the Championship who can play as well as us. I'm sure our luck in front of goal will change. Add goals to our performances and we would win every game in this division. We were so much better than Blackburn last night, we looked a division apart at times. Now we have "The Dagger" back, we just have to be even more positive and go for it. 45 points to play for, we can absolutely do it, we are a Premiership Football Club in waiting.

Alan G Skinner wrote:
Like I said previously, I don't believe it is possible to play at the level we are are not get to the playoffs. I have not watched a team in the Championship who can play as well as us. I'm sure our luck in front of goal will change. Add goals to our performances and we would win every game in this division. We were so much better than Blackburn last night, we looked a division apart at times. Now we have "The Dagger" back, we just have to be even more positive and go for it. 45 points to play for, we can absolutely do it, we are a Premiership Football Club in waiting.

Agree that the level of footballing ability is best in the Championship, but quality of the strikers is not. It's not coincidence that we keep seeing fantastic displays of controlled football but little end product. Other sides are aware of this so they know they are likely to be in the game for a long time irrespective of how much possession Albion have. The more successful sides have a number of options up front, with guys scoring regularly. Hope it does not cost us a play-off place, but fear it might. Lot resting on Vicente.

Ken from Beamish wrote:

Alan G Skinner wrote:
Like I said previously, I don't believe it is possible to play at the level we are are not get to the playoffs. I have not watched a team in the Championship who can play as well as us. I'm sure our luck in front of goal will change. Add goals to our performances and we would win every game in this division. We were so much better than Blackburn last night, we looked a division apart at times. Now we have "The Dagger" back, we just have to be even more positive and go for it. 45 points to play for, we can absolutely do it, we are a Premiership Football Club in waiting.

Agree that the level of footballing ability is best in the Championship, but quality of the strikers is not. It's not coincidence that we keep seeing fantastic displays of controlled football but little end product. Other sides are aware of this so they know they are likely to be in the game for a long time irrespective of how much possession Albion have. The more successful sides have a number of options up front, with guys scoring regularly. Hope it does not cost us a play-off place, but fear it might. Lot resting on Vicente.

Having said that, I didn't even notice Jordan Rhodes playing last night -I had to check the Argus team listings to check. Totally anonymous.

I 'm sort of thinking our style of football might be more suited to the premiership than the championship where there are quite alot of thuggish teams (Blackburn being one of them as demonstrated in the away fixture with them a few weeks ago).

You could argue Hammond might have buried at least one of his chances and that's the difference between him and Van Persie but actually the keeper made superb saves from both his headers (both provided on a plate by Vicente of course).

best football I have seen from an Albion side in 50+ years without exaggeration. Exceptional skill and quality - a delight to watch!
Desperately unlucky not to score three in the first 25 minutes and then over-elaborated. Maybe Kaz for Buckley at Cardiff?
So hope Hoskins is okay. He looked very useful last night. Desperately bad luck for him.
Hammond's best performance after copping some flak on Saturday and Ulloa will be a beast once he adjusts - the man playing off him just needs to have his sharpshooting boots on to take advantage. Upson and elAbd looking good in tandem (very lucky on the penalty shout against us mind...absolute stonewall). Bruno nearing match fitness. All good.
Can qe realistically beat Cardiff? We have Vicente - of course we can!

Just a word on refeeeeing standards. Appleton was upset but this ref was bad for both sides in equal measure. Murphy should have been sent off and they could have finished with 9 men if the ref hadnt backed off from issuing second yellows. Too many abysmal decisions to mention. It feels like every game the standards are getting lower but as the authorities have banned criticism it seems unlikely to be acknowledged let alone acted on.

One thing sprung to mind last night watching the game. There was a shot from Bridge that fizzed across the box and hit Ulloa in the 6 yard box and came back out into play. If that had hit CMS there would have been people on here saying ' he should have put that in ' !!!! I think people are a bit hard on CMS, Barnes, Dicker and Hammond on here and they are all decent players at this level.

Tony the tiger eastbourne wrote:
Excellent team performance from the whole team with Vicente pulling the strings. Feel sorry for Hoskins, looks like the end if his season with a reported ankle injury

LOL,odd that he told Gus it was his knee when he came off lol.Even more odd know other player has the same bad luck as him.Money off the wage bill the club can't afford anymore.Not one other club wanted to sign him because they all knew about his history.Its happened at every club his been at lol.Even when on loan at Sheff U last season.He played just a few games then out with a injury.Did they want him back."NO."

Freeloaders wrote:

Tony the tiger eastbourne wrote:
Excellent team performance from the whole team with Vicente pulling the strings. Feel sorry for Hoskins, looks like the end if his season with a reported ankle injury

LOL,odd that he told Gus it was his knee when he came off lol.Even more odd know other player has the same bad luck as him.Money off the wage bill the club can't afford anymore.Not one other club wanted to sign him because they all knew about his history.Its happened at every club his been at lol.Even when on loan at Sheff U last season.He played just a few games then out with a injury.Did they want him back."NO."

LOL! It's lucky we have someone like you on the inside who listens to all conversations between player and manager, LOL! Yes, it's very odd that a player got injured, LOL! Still, maybe you could have shown him how to put in a shift if only your dad had got you a freeloading job at the club. LOL!

farside wrote:
best football I have seen from an Albion side in 50+ years without exaggeration. Exceptional skill and quality - a delight to watch!
Desperately unlucky not to score three in the first 25 minutes and then over-elaborated. Maybe Kaz for Buckley at Cardiff?
So hope Hoskins is okay. He looked very useful last night. Desperately bad luck for him.
Hammond's best performance after copping some flak on Saturday and Ulloa will be a beast once he adjusts - the man playing off him just needs to have his sharpshooting boots on to take advantage. Upson and elAbd looking good in tandem (very lucky on the penalty shout against us mind...absolute stonewall). Bruno nearing match fitness. All good.
Can qe realistically beat Cardiff? We have Vicente - of course we can!

Just a word on refeeeeing standards. Appleton was upset but this ref was bad for both sides in equal measure. Murphy should have been sent off and they could have finished with 9 men if the ref hadnt backed off from issuing second yellows. Too many abysmal decisions to mention. It feels like every game the standards are getting lower but as the authorities have banned criticism it seems unlikely to be acknowledged let alone acted on.

This ref should be banned. I look in the programme at every match in fear in case the dreaded AW is the ref. He is nothing short of disgraceful every time we have him. Mention this name to Michel Kuipers, then stand well back!

Whilst a lot of comments above make sense--many are saying how unlucky we have been---you make your own luck and cannot continue making this the excuse. I support BHA 100% but am also a realist. Last nights game may have included periods of play when we played our best ever---however, if that was the best, we STILL could not score in open play. Many other teams are scoring 3 and 4 goals, we rarely do. I want Albion to go up but only when we are fit to do so, not just for the sake of it. We have players this season we will not have next--Upson, Bridge, maybe Vicente--others are getting to the 'twilight' of their careers. When we go up we have to have a team that stands a good chance of staying up. We have 13 draws this season and as Ken from Beamish says, although we have quality players --fit maybe for the Premiership---our goalscoring striker dept is sadly lacking. CMS puts in a full shift but just cannot score and no matter how well they play if they cannot score goals freely and consistantly then we will not win matches or gain promotion. If we struggle to get into the playoffs, we will certainly struggle in the Premiership.

mikeygit wrote:
Whilst a lot of comments above make sense--many are saying how unlucky we have been---you make your own luck and cannot continue making this the excuse. I support BHA 100% but am also a realist. Last nights game may have included periods of play when we played our best ever---however, if that was the best, we STILL could not score in open play. Many other teams are scoring 3 and 4 goals, we rarely do. I want Albion to go up but only when we are fit to do so, not just for the sake of it. We have players this season we will not have next--Upson, Bridge, maybe Vicente--others are getting to the 'twilight' of their careers. When we go up we have to have a team that stands a good chance of staying up. We have 13 draws this season and as Ken from Beamish says, although we have quality players --fit maybe for the Premiership---our goalscoring striker dept is sadly lacking. CMS puts in a full shift but just cannot score and no matter how well they play if they cannot score goals freely and consistantly then we will not win matches or gain promotion. If we struggle to get into the playoffs, we will certainly struggle in the Premiership.

What does 'make your own luck' even mean? It's a trope rolled out by co-commentators every week, but like all clichés it doesn't really mean anything or help at all.

OldScrote.

As a person who lives in the gambling capital of the world, and one that gets to play a little poker every now and then, I can tell you that many many poker players consider the word, 'luck,' as something that does not exist.

Percentages are what count, not luck. If you stay in a hand and have 16, 'outs,' the percentages are in your favour, it's not luck if your card comes on the river as the percentages say that it probabaly will happen.

Gus fileded our best shot stopper. He put out the best defenders available. He fielded a strong attacking formation and the midfield suited that formation.

Once the game started it was all down to the skills of the players selected. If a bunch of chances were created and we didn't take any of them that is down to the skill of the opposing keeper and or, the lack of finishing skills of our players.

A keeper might save a shot and not really know anything about it, but he had the instinct to be in the right place at the right time for the ball to hit him and not go in the net. Some would call that luck, bad luck on our part and good luck on his, but to say that is to ignore the keeper's natural instinct to take up the position he did.

We need to rely on skills not luck. Vanpersie is not lucky.

Vegas - an excellent post - 'luck' is just a tired excuse. This is why any suggestion of capping at 350 words is nonsense :-)

I may have said 'words' but I meant 'characters'. Still any capping is ridiculous - we need fewer trolls, not fewer words!

Old Scrote of the Amex wrote:

mikeygit wrote:
Whilst a lot of comments above make sense--many are saying how unlucky we have been---you make your own luck and cannot continue making this the excuse. I support BHA 100% but am also a realist. Last nights game may have included periods of play when we played our best ever---however, if that was the best, we STILL could not score in open play. Many other teams are scoring 3 and 4 goals, we rarely do. I want Albion to go up but only when we are fit to do so, not just for the sake of it. We have players this season we will not have next--Upson, Bridge, maybe Vicente--others are getting to the 'twilight' of their careers. When we go up we have to have a team that stands a good chance of staying up. We have 13 draws this season and as Ken from Beamish says, although we have quality players --fit maybe for the Premiership---our goalscoring striker dept is sadly lacking. CMS puts in a full shift but just cannot score and no matter how well they play if they cannot score goals freely and consistantly then we will not win matches or gain promotion. If we struggle to get into the playoffs, we will certainly struggle in the Premiership.

What does 'make your own luck' even mean? It's a trope rolled out by co-commentators every week, but like all clichés it doesn't really mean anything or help at all.

I agree with Mikeygit on this one - the build-up play last night was incisive and direct, shots on target were a high number, shots off target were higher (but you might as well miss by a mile), and the ref made some awful decisions, including letting off ElAbd when I had a clear view from 70m away that it was a penalty. We are 'unlucky' in the respect that we cannot convert chances which strikers of a higher quality or greater composure or capable of showing greater anticipation would have buried last night. 2 shots across the 6-yard area in the second half just needed somebody on the same wavelength as VR to stick something on it. I thought we got what we deserved against a very solid back four.

But not being able to afford players of a higher calibre has nothing to do with luck.

Old Scrote--Vegas answered my point about 'making your own luck'---yes agree seems a queer statement but Albion and posters cannot continue to say 'we are unlucky' at some stage players have to work to create actual goals to win games and in a funny sort of way THAT is CREATING your own luck. However it is good that these points are creating healthy debate.

When you walk to work in the dark of the morning and that one lamp post is out,and you tread in the biggest pile of dog ****,thats bad luck!. when the same lamp post is working and it allows you to avoid it,thats good luck!.

Right at the moment we are having all the game and none of the gain,fancy ..no..true yes. UTA

tug you sure that isn't a chinese proverb!!

Did very little to help the cause as on Saturday Should not have been in the side DICKER is a very much better player and has football brain.

tinker111 wrote:
Did very little to help the cause as on Saturday Should not have been in the side DICKER is a very much better player and has football brain.

But Dicker is not as proficient at the defending part of the game - important with such an attacking line-up.