January 24: Albion 1 Barnsley 0

1:58pm Wednesday 19th July 2006

Football has an unwritten rule that what goes around comes around. Luck, legend decrees, evens itself out over the course of a season.

In Albion's case the scales of justice have been balanced much sooner, in just seven days in fact.

Don't get me wrong, Mark McGhee's reshuffled side deserved their victory over a Barnsley team displaying a disappointing lack of ambition.

The manner in which it was achieved, however, made up for that controversial moment at QPR the previous Saturday, when Clarke Carlisle's unpunished handling of Charlie Oatway's shot denied Albion an early one-goal and one-man advantage.

Barnsley had no complaints about referee Ray Olivier awarding a penalty when Trevor Benjamin's powerful run into the box on his Withdean debut was halted by Craig Ireland's rash challenge. It was, as Sue Barker would say, what happened next which left the visitors grumbling all the way back to South Yorkshire.

Tony Caig, on loan from Newcastle, dived to his left to keep out Leon Knight's spot-kick, only for Olivier to order a re-take because he had advanced off his line.

Knight, displaying nerves of steel, made no mistake second time around, choosing the opposite corner and sending Caig the wrong way for his 19th goal of the season.

Albion manager Mark McGhee said: "That's the rules. It's difficult to see from where we are in the dugout exactly what went on, but the referee clearly judged he (Caig) had taken at least a step forward. We were grateful for that. It was the break we have been missing in recent games."

Gudjon Thordarson, Barnsley's Icelandic manager, could not understand why Olivier's sharp eyes deserted him when Gary Hart, a second-half replacement for Chris McPhee, appeared to bundle over fellow substitute Alex Neil inside the Albion area in the closing stages.

"If it was clear to the ref that Caig came off his line then I am very surprised why he wasn't clear when Alex was thrown down. They were two drastic decisions which have a major effect on the League table, but the bottom line is we didn't play well enough."

Knight checks his run-up when taking penalties, a technique which has served him well so far this season. He has been successful from the spot four times, including three in his last five home appearances.

McGhee joked: "I approve of the second one, I didn't approve of the first one. I am not going to tell Leon how to take penalties. It's not how I would take it, but if Leon is scoring with it then he's happy. I took a few at Newcastle. My technique was head down and hit it as hard as I could into the right-hand corner!"

You could call that "agricultural", which is how McGhee described only Albion's second win in the last seven League outings. "I still don't think it was totally convincing," he admitted. "We dominated the game. Physically it was good and we didn't look like conceding, which is important, but 1-0 is always dangerous.

"I'd like to see a lot more football, but we've played some good football recently and got nothing for it."

McGhee unexpectedly solved the left-sided midfield problem by playing Paul Watson there and giving Adam Virgo his first start since Steve Coppell's first match in charge at rightback.

Virgo, who almost scored with a header from a Watson corner in the second half, will have enjoyed his 21st birthday celebrations yesterday and the chance to put his feet up.

He was shattered at the end of the match after such a lengthy absence.

"I've been asking the manager why I haven't been playing," Virgo said. "He has given me a chance like he said he would. It wasn't at centre back, but I'm happy to play at rightback. Hopefully I can get a run in the team now.

"When Steve Coppell was here I was out the door, then he left and it's an amazing turnaround. The manager has come in with an open view on everyone and it was just such a confidence boost for me to hear him say he would give everyone a chance. If you are given a chance and you don't take it then that's your fault, but hopefully my performance has been good enough for him to think about playing me again.

"I have never started at rightback, but it's not too dissimilar to playing at centre half. I was just winning my headers, clearing the ball down the line and trying to win my tackles.

"It was probably in unknown territory trying to get a couple of crosses in, but I'm just happy to be playing again. I've worked so hard to try and get back into the team. Being out for 15 months is a long time. When you are not playing that is when your mental attitude counts."

Virgo was not the only one to return from a long absence. Ben Roberts did not re-appear for the second half because of a back injury so Michel Kuipers made his first appearance in goal since a car crash in November.

Albion could probably have won without a goalkeeper. It was 75 minutes before Barnsley managed a shot.

• ALBION (4-3-3): Roberts (gk) 6; Watson (lm) 7, Mayo (lb) 7, Cullip (cd) 7, Knight (f) 7, Oatway (rm) 7, Carpenter (cm) 7, Butters (cd) 7, Benjamin (f) 7, Virgo (rb) 8, McPhee (f) 6. Subs: Kuipers for Roberts (injured 46), Hart for McPhee (withdrawn 57), Harding, El-Abd for Knight (withdrawn 89), Robinson.
• Scorer: Knight (32) penalty.
• BARNSLEY (3-5-2): Caig; Austin, Handyside, Crooks, Burns, Lumsdon, Stallard, Betsy, Monk, Kay, Ireland.
• Subs: Hayward, Alcock, Neil for Lumsdon (withdrawn 83), O'Callaghan for Ireland (injured 35), Rankin.
• Bookings: Kay (24) foul, Ireland (30) foul.
• Half-time: Albion 1 Barnsley 0.
• Attendance: 6,033.
• Fans' view: Colin Lacey (Brighton) I'd rather win 1-0 than lose 4-3 but Barnsley were awful and we should be much more exciting to watch. We are consistently very dull and have been lacking creativity in midfield since Sidwell went to that lot in Berkshire (Reading). There was absolutely no spark in our starting 11 to excite anyone.

Jonathan Beeby (Heathfield) It was a great improvement on recent weeks. Barnsley were unlucky not to get a penalty but I thought Virgo was outstanding, looking comfortable and mature.

Fran Hagarty (Burgess Hill) It wasn't a brilliant performance but Barnsley were poor. I thought Virgo did very well, especially considering he hadn't been in the first team for some time. I was a little bit worried when that Barnsley player went down because I feared it would be a penalty and it did look like it should have been.

Alan Golds (Haywards Heath) Although it's always very nice to win, our performance was workmanlike rather than inspiring. We need someone in midfield to replace Mark Yeates.

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