West Brom 2-2 Burnley
By Jemma Tappenden
April 11 2009
West Brom were hoping to be in the draw for the 5th round of the FA Cup after this fixture, but it would be no easy task, a home tie against Burnley who had already swept aside Premiership opposition Fulham, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham in the Carling Cup this campaign. The Baggies were without nine first teamers through injury, allowing starts for Pele, Bednar, Kim and Teixeira.

West Brom started brightly, and had carved their first real chance within the opening 5 minutes.  Roman Bednar broke the offside trap and cut into the box, only to fire his effort straight at Brian Jensen after doing all the hard work of skipping past Clarke Carlisle.  But giant killers Burnley soon gave the Baggies a sense of what they were made of, as Wade Elliot played a sublime ball to put Paterson clear of the Albion defence.  Only the presence of Ryan Donk put off Chris McCann from challenging for the through ball.

After a series of half chances from both sides Albion found themselves a goal behind in the 24^th minute after conceding what they felt to be a harsh penalty.  A seemingly accidental collision between Jonathan Greening and Robbie Blake in the box caused referee Mike Dean to point to the spot, despite Greening having chested the ball away before the contact.  Alexander made no mistake in converting the spot kick to give the visitors a goal advantage.

However Albion were only behind for 7 minutes.  A Greening corner was cleared only as far as Koren on the edge of the box, and the midfielder smashed the ball home into the top left corner, giving Burnley keeper Jensen no chance.

Albion had a real let off in the 35^th minute when Paterson who had cleared their shaky defence crossed for Blake.  His effort smashed the underside of the crossbar, but somehow avoided crossing the line keeping the scores level.   West Brom failed to deal with the clearance properly, allowing Burnley another chance, Blake once again attempting to fire the ball home, this time Hoefkens thwarting his efforts before the ball had barely left his feet.

The 40^th minute saw Albion suffer yet another injury blow as Jonathan Greening limped off and was replaced by record signing Borja Valero.  Both sides tried frantically to get their noses in front before the break, Carson making a save from Alexander’s 30 yard effort.  But it was Albion who went into the interval with the advantage after Kim smashed a 25 yard freekick against the wall, somehow the ball looping over the wrong footed Jensen.

Half Time: West Bromwich Albion 2-1 Burnley

Albion started the second half brightly.  Jay Simpson ran at the Burnley defence only to fire wide from 20 yards, and then Roman Bednar charged at left back Christian Kalvenes before firing straight at Jensen from 18 yards.  In the 57^th minute Bednar went even closer when skipped past both Duff and Jensen, only to fire at the post when he had an entire empty net to aim for.

In a bizarre move Paul Robinson teed up Donk with an overhead kick, but the defender could only manage a half shot which landed straight into the arms of Jensen.  It took Burnley 20 minutes into the second half to produce any kind of threat to the Baggies.  But in the 66^th minute Carson was well placed to deal with Blake’s 8 yard header.  In the 71^st minute Carson had to produce a super save as Steve Thompson would have been odds on to score had Blake’s dangerous cross found him.

 

Albion’s injury woe continued, and Donk was the next casualty, replaced by the now fit Zuiverloon.   As the game wore on Burnley got more of a foothold, and they really should have been level in the 77^th minute when a poor clearance from Koren allowed Elliot a free run at goal.  Luckily the Burnley man wasted horrifically from just 10 yards.

Ten minutes later the Baggies had the chance to put the game well and truly out of Burnley’s reach, but Alexander was on hand to clear the ball away from Brunt, after Simpson had teed him up nicely.  It proved to be a costly wasted chance as just two minutes later the Clarets found the equaliser they needed to force a replay.  An inch perfect cross from Elliot allowing Paterson to breeze in unmarked and slot past Carson.

Full Time: West Bromwich Albion 2-2 Burnley

Koren (31)

Kim (45+3)

Alexander (Pen 24)

Paterson (89)

Attendance: 18,294

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