Rarely has the phrase "Failure to prepare is to prepare to fail" been so applicable to a situation, as it was for the Lions in this match. From only getting the kit from the laundrette a half hour before kick off to various members of the squad not wanting to get wet as they sat in their cars hoping for the game to be rained off, it was an absolute shambles of a build-up. And it was rightly punished by Albion who took full advantage of it to put 4 goals past us in a first half that everybody in Lion blue will want to forget. The saving grace was that we were a completely different team in the second half and at least managed to score our first goals against Albion since the 16/17 season.
A much changed team from the previous week, with Thyago making his competitive debut and many players making their bow for the season. The heavy rain overnight and throughout the morning had convinced most of the squad that the game would be cancelled off two hours before kick off but the pitch was fine with hardly any puddles, even in the central and goal areas. However, the kit hadn't been picked up the day before, so even when everybody did eventually arrive, they were still waiting around for the kit to turn up. This happened about 10 minutes before kick off, so we basically went straight into a game with no warm-up against one of the best teams in the league. A team who'd put nine goals past us without reply in two matches last season and who had already been out on the pitch for a half-hour.
Even with all that though, we couldn't have expected that first half to be so bad. We couldn't keep the ball for toffee. Our first touches turned into 5 yard passes to the opposition and each one of the goals conceded were defensive mistakes.
The first was an ill-advised pass across the face of the box that was picked off by an Albion player who threaded the ball over to one of two players who were running unmarked towards goal. Only needed one of them to beat the keeper (yours truly again) at his near post.
Second goal came from Harry dribbling with the ball in his own half for what seemed like ages before laying it off to Boan in defence. His first touch allowed the oppo striker to nick the ball off him and he produced a lob that the keeper could only get fingertips to and this wasn't enough to stop it finding the inside of the post.
The third goal was just criminal defending. An Albion player was allowed to get down the wing and put in a cross that was met on the volley by his completely unmarked colleague.
The fourth was another case of non-control, this time by Mussa, who allowed a pass to roll under his foot for the same guy striker to pounce on the mistake and send the ball past the keeper for his hat-trick.
At this stage, a repeat of the 7-0 thumping from last season was definitely on the cards as we couldn't wait for the half to end. We'd had no chances of real note at the other end and didn't look like creating one as the half came to a close.
All things considered, the half-time team talk was quite positive, although the poor ball control was rightly addressed by Davy. Maybe we just needed the breather to regroup, because we were nearly unrecognisable after the restart.
We nearly scored from our first attack, a sweeping move down our right and suddenly it looked like we'd actually turned up. Now Albion were under pressure and making mistakes. Nelson was introduced and we went to 4 at the back. We were much more controlled in possession and we finally got our reward when Harry sent Nelson through on goal and he lobbed their keeper to register his first of the campaign.
Our second goal was the absolute definition of a team move. Tight one-touch passing between Davy, Ben and Harry in the midfield left Albion players chasing shadows and opened up into a through ball for Thyago, who poked a low shot past the keeper to mark his Lions debut with a goal.
We went close again when their keeper had to take one for the team in his tender area from point-blank range and Harry produced a good save from him when he had to palm over a powerful looping drive. Once we stopped shooting ourselves in the foot, we were a lot more solid at the back and subsequently had a lot less to contend with. A free kick that was just about dealt with by the keeper and a couple of shots that grazed the post were as bad it got in the second half.
We had a couple of shouts for penalties - one a possible foul on Davy and a strong case for handball - but in the end, we just had to settle for winning the second half with a clean sheet. This had never looked likely given how the first 45 went so positives can be taken from that. We can't ever go into a game like that again though, not against anyone, because we'd basically lost the match before the first whistle.
