Albion grind out victory (From The Argus)

Albion grind out victory

3:30pm Monday 7th December 2009

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Exeter 0 - Albion 1

IT was like chalk and cheese but the end result was just as valuable.

Albion showed Gus Poyet at Southampton that they can win pretty, now they have demonstrated to the Uruguayan that they can win ugly.

Southampton play in red and white, so do Exeter. There the similarities ended between Poyet’s first game in charge and his seventh in the space of three hectic weeks, apart that is from another clinching goal for Andrew Crofts.

St Mary’s is an impressive stadium and there was a big crowd for Poyet’s managerial debut in front of the live TV cameras. Albion responded with attacking fluency on a perfect playing surface.

Fast forward to a dank and much more low-key afternoon in Devon at ramshackle St James Park, with a modest attendance.

Poyet’s side were back in the relegation zone and desperate to get something out of the game following a hat-trick of league defeats, albeit against the top three.

There was very little in the way of eyecatching forward play from Albion on a heavy, stamina-sapping pitch.

Instead, the kind of result by which promotions are won and, more pertinently at present, relegations avoided was achieved with bucket loads of determination, effort and grit and another dream debut for the latest challenger to Michel Kuipers for the No. 1 spot.

Kuipers was due to make his comeback from a groin problem until it became clear in training on Friday he was not ready.

Graeme Smith, Kuipers’ unconvincing deputy for the previous four matches, was ill so Peter Brezovan was chucked in at the deep end, less than a week after linking up with Poyet again on trial.

The towering Slovakian is no rookie. He made plenty of impressive appearances for Dennis Wise and Poyet at Swindon but, after they left for Leeds, his fortunes nosedived.

A broken arm and loss of form brought his spell at the County Ground to a close at the end of last season.

Since then he has had a trial at Crewe which, by his own admission, “didn’t go well,! and his fitness is “very bad”.

His last appearance for Swindon was back in March so, in the circumstances, for Brezovan to keep Albion’s first clean sheet in the league since mid-October, and first away since mid-September, is some feat.

He had his moments and, again by his own admission, his kicking “wasn’t great” but his handling was assured, both a head height and ground level, and his presence encouraged Albion’s leaking defence to hold a higher line.

He also made some important saves, a couple of them to make amends for his own blemishes.

It was not really that much of a surprise, on two counts, that Brezovan saved Marcus Stewart’s 47th-minute penalty after bringing down former Seagull Stuart Fleetwood.

He saved two on his debut in English football for Swindon in a win at Hartlepool and club statistician Andy Heryet had passed on to goalkeeping coach Tony Godden information that Stewart normally places his spot-kicks low to the keeper’s left. Brezovan revealed: “He (Godden) told me where to go on the penalty so that was good advice.”

Later in the second half, Brezovan’s poor clearance from outside his area fell to Ryan Harley 35 yards out.

The midfielder’s precise attempt to find the vacant net was foiled by a combination of the recovering keeper and Adam El-Abd, who together scrambled the ball for a corner.

It was that kind of game for Albion, one where the little breaks that had been going against them went their way.

They were impotent going forward until Poyet brought on Liam Dickinson and the manager’s late introduction of Jimmy McNulty as a left-sided midfielder proved pivotal.

Two minutes into stoppage time McNulty crossed with his right foot for Crofts to flick in a header, his third goal since Poyet’s inspired decision to hand him the captaincy, and fourth for the season in total.

Exeter must be wondering how they did not win, let alone lose. Stewart, as well as his penalty failure, should have scored when he dragged wide in the first half.

The hosts found room between the Albion defence and midfield in the opening 45 minutes to get themselves into some promising situations without causing as much alarm to Brezovan as their superiority warranted.

Poyet’s side dug in to turn a hard-earned point into a precious three, pushing them to within another win of a number of teams in the bottom half of the table.

What pleased him most was the long overdue shut-out. “I think I said those couple of words (clean sheet) ten times in the dressing room after the game,” he joked.

“Apart from when he got tired towards the end I think Brezovan gave us an extra bit.

“He had a very good first game. Sometimes in football the first thing you do is the key because everything that comes after is better.”

Albion (4-4-2): Brezovan; Hoyte, Elphick, Tunnicliffe, El-Abd; Bennett, Crofts Navarro, Dicker (McNulty 87), Bennett; Murray (Dickinson 63), Forster (Cox 90).

Subs not used: Pelling, Whing, Virgo, J. Smith.

Goal: Crofts (90).

Yellow cards: Crofts (17) foul, Navarro (43) foul, Hoyte (69) foul.

Exeter (4-3-3): Marriott; Duffy, Taylor, Archibald-Henville, Golbourne; Cozic, Russell (Stansfield 69), Harley; Stewart (Dunne 80), Fleetwood (Logan 69), Corr. Subs not used: Jones, Tully, Edwards, Sercombe.

Goals: None.

Yellow cards: None.

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