Albion 0, Middlesbrough 3
The moment has arrived. A pivotal moment which is going to reveal a lot more about the direction Albion are heading in for the rest of the season.
Chris Hughton knows it and experienced members of his team know it.
That is why the manager, skipper Gordon Greer and goalkeeper David Stockdale, all responded in the dressing room immediately after a comprehensive end to the 21-match unbeaten run and heaviest defeat ever at the Amex with a call to the squad to regroup and show the doubters they are wrong.
The doubters who have argued the Seagulls have been in a false position and will now make way for the clubs with a Premier League pedigree surrounding them, Boro and Derby, Hull and Burnley. Especially with Hughton still engulfed by injuries to key players.
The next six Championship fixtures between Boxing Day and the end of January are crucial. During this period Albion will be trying to strengthen their hand in the transfer window and get some of their casualties back.
While that is happening they need to keep accumulating points. A few more than the nine collected in the demanding last six matches away to Burnley, Derby and QPR and at home to Birmingham, Charlton and Middlesbrough.
They have just faced four of the current top seven. No games are easy, not when all 11 of your wins have been by a one-goal margin.
Trips to Brentford, Rotherham and Blackburn, combined with visits from Wolves, Ipswich and Huddersfield, nevertheless represent a less taxing schedule than the one they have just emerged from, an opportunity to re-assert their promotion credential before the cavalry arrives for the final three-month push in the form of new and fit-again players.
By the end of January we will have a better idea of whether Albion are still in with a shout of automatic promotion or worrying about staying in the play-off places.
On this impressive evidence Boro will remain in the former category. They quickly replaced QPR as the best side the Seagulls have encountered this season.
Having said that, how much more of an examination might Albion have given them with Gaetan Bong, Liam Rosenior, Kazenga LuaLua, Solly March and Sam Baldock available to Hughton rather than in the treatment room or, in the case of Lewis Dunk, suspended for his own recklessness?
It was not just the chronic injury list which worked in Boro's favour, so too did the fixture list.
Albion went into the lunchtime, top-of-the-table showdown after gruelling draws at Derby and QPR. Boro, by contrast, had home games against Birmingham and Burnley.
While Boro manager Aitor Karanka was able to rotate, Hughton's hands were largely tied by the injury situation.
Over the course of the last three games he has made only two changes to the starting line-up, Rajiv van La Parra for the stricken Solly March and Uwe Huenemeier for Dunk, serving a one-match ban for his red card at QPR.
Karanka, Jose Mourinho's former No.2 at Real Madrid, had the sacked Chelsea manager for company at the Amex.
Mourinho may have been in unfamiliar territory but he soon had the familiar feeling this season of watching the team in blue losing.
Any chance Albion had of overcoming the disadvantages they confronted going into the game effectively evaporated within four minutes of the kick-off, when Boro scored.
Albert Adomah cut inside to cross for Kike, beating Huenemeier to the ball, to convert his first goal since August and fourth of the season with a diving header at the near post.
Albion were 2-0 down around the same time against Charlton in the previous home game. They recovered to win but Boro are heaps better than Charlton, as a difference of 28 points and 22 places in the table demonstrates.
Karanka's well-drilled side, cohesive in possession and with the ability to be incisive on the break, are devilishly difficult to break down once they have their noses in front.
They have now won 14 times out of 15 after taking the lead and have not conceded a league goal for nine hours and seven minutes, compelling evidence of the task Albion gave themselves once behind and the agitation of not allowing themselves more wriggle room for a bad result by making more of being in front at Derby and QPR.
Two or more goals have now been leaked in each of the last four games. It is difficult to win in these circumstances and no coincidence that the damaging statistic has been accompanied by defensive disruption via the absences of Liam Rosenior and Dunk.
The disturbing aspect is that four of the last seven goals conceded have been headers via corners, including the two either side of the break against Boro which sealed Albion's fate.
Just before half-time Daniel Ayala gave Greer the slip to head powerfully towards goal. It brushed off the back of Bruno's head and Adomah was credited with the direction-altering final nod, although replays left the suspicion his marker Inigo Calderon may have applied the decisive touch.
When you are 2-0 down, home or away, you can do with two or three game changers up your sleeve.
Behind Hughton on the bench from his depleted squad sat a row of largely defensive options, apart from Bobby Zamora and the so-far struggling Elvis Manu.
One of them, Connor Goldson, was needed for his debut when Huenemeier, his hopes of keeping Dunk out for longer already damaged, joined the sidelined multitude with a groin problem.
Within minutes it was game over, not through any fault of Goldson but from an annoyingly persistent route.
Bradley Johnson headed in from a corner for Derby, ditto Charlie Austin for QPR with Dunk back in the dressing room.
This time Stewart Downing's corner over the head of Beram Kayal reached Kike in the far side of the penalty area. He fashioned space to curl an effort which Christian Stuani bravely headed in from close range, with Ayala and Tomer Hemed in close attendance.
There was a time when a Uruguayan was popular at the Amex. Not anymore. Guy Poyet's fellow countryman Stuani delivered a scale of defeat at the Amex not seen in his reign or that of Oscar Garcia, Sami Hyypia or Hughton.
I guess if you are going to relinquish a magnificent unbeaten record, equalled only by West Ham in the second tier post-War, you may as well let it go with a bang.
What matters much more now is how Hughton's aching squad, on their return from a well-deserved Christmas break in Spain, respond in those next half-a-dozen matches.
Original article
The moment has arrived. A pivotal moment which is going to reveal a lot more about the direction Albion are heading in for the rest of the season.
Chris Hughton knows it and experienced members of his team know it.
That is why the manager, skipper Gordon Greer and goalkeeper David Stockdale, all responded in the dressing room immediately after a comprehensive end to the 21-match unbeaten run and heaviest defeat ever at the Amex with a call to the squad to regroup and show the doubters they are wrong.
The doubters who have argued the Seagulls have been in a false position and will now make way for the clubs with a Premier League pedigree surrounding them, Boro and Derby, Hull and Burnley. Especially with Hughton still engulfed by injuries to key players.
The next six Championship fixtures between Boxing Day and the end of January are crucial. During this period Albion will be trying to strengthen their hand in the transfer window and get some of their casualties back.
While that is happening they need to keep accumulating points. A few more than the nine collected in the demanding last six matches away to Burnley, Derby and QPR and at home to Birmingham, Charlton and Middlesbrough.
They have just faced four of the current top seven. No games are easy, not when all 11 of your wins have been by a one-goal margin.
Trips to Brentford, Rotherham and Blackburn, combined with visits from Wolves, Ipswich and Huddersfield, nevertheless represent a less taxing schedule than the one they have just emerged from, an opportunity to re-assert their promotion credential before the cavalry arrives for the final three-month push in the form of new and fit-again players.
By the end of January we will have a better idea of whether Albion are still in with a shout of automatic promotion or worrying about staying in the play-off places.
On this impressive evidence Boro will remain in the former category. They quickly replaced QPR as the best side the Seagulls have encountered this season.
Having said that, how much more of an examination might Albion have given them with Gaetan Bong, Liam Rosenior, Kazenga LuaLua, Solly March and Sam Baldock available to Hughton rather than in the treatment room or, in the case of Lewis Dunk, suspended for his own recklessness?
It was not just the chronic injury list which worked in Boro's favour, so too did the fixture list.
Albion went into the lunchtime, top-of-the-table showdown after gruelling draws at Derby and QPR. Boro, by contrast, had home games against Birmingham and Burnley.
While Boro manager Aitor Karanka was able to rotate, Hughton's hands were largely tied by the injury situation.
Over the course of the last three games he has made only two changes to the starting line-up, Rajiv van La Parra for the stricken Solly March and Uwe Huenemeier for Dunk, serving a one-match ban for his red card at QPR.
Karanka, Jose Mourinho's former No.2 at Real Madrid, had the sacked Chelsea manager for company at the Amex.
Mourinho may have been in unfamiliar territory but he soon had the familiar feeling this season of watching the team in blue losing.
Any chance Albion had of overcoming the disadvantages they confronted going into the game effectively evaporated within four minutes of the kick-off, when Boro scored.
Albert Adomah cut inside to cross for Kike, beating Huenemeier to the ball, to convert his first goal since August and fourth of the season with a diving header at the near post.
Albion were 2-0 down around the same time against Charlton in the previous home game. They recovered to win but Boro are heaps better than Charlton, as a difference of 28 points and 22 places in the table demonstrates.
Karanka's well-drilled side, cohesive in possession and with the ability to be incisive on the break, are devilishly difficult to break down once they have their noses in front.
They have now won 14 times out of 15 after taking the lead and have not conceded a league goal for nine hours and seven minutes, compelling evidence of the task Albion gave themselves once behind and the agitation of not allowing themselves more wriggle room for a bad result by making more of being in front at Derby and QPR.
Two or more goals have now been leaked in each of the last four games. It is difficult to win in these circumstances and no coincidence that the damaging statistic has been accompanied by defensive disruption via the absences of Liam Rosenior and Dunk.
The disturbing aspect is that four of the last seven goals conceded have been headers via corners, including the two either side of the break against Boro which sealed Albion's fate.
Just before half-time Daniel Ayala gave Greer the slip to head powerfully towards goal. It brushed off the back of Bruno's head and Adomah was credited with the direction-altering final nod, although replays left the suspicion his marker Inigo Calderon may have applied the decisive touch.
When you are 2-0 down, home or away, you can do with two or three game changers up your sleeve.
Behind Hughton on the bench from his depleted squad sat a row of largely defensive options, apart from Bobby Zamora and the so-far struggling Elvis Manu.
One of them, Connor Goldson, was needed for his debut when Huenemeier, his hopes of keeping Dunk out for longer already damaged, joined the sidelined multitude with a groin problem.
Within minutes it was game over, not through any fault of Goldson but from an annoyingly persistent route.
Bradley Johnson headed in from a corner for Derby, ditto Charlie Austin for QPR with Dunk back in the dressing room.
This time Stewart Downing's corner over the head of Beram Kayal reached Kike in the far side of the penalty area. He fashioned space to curl an effort which Christian Stuani bravely headed in from close range, with Ayala and Tomer Hemed in close attendance.
There was a time when a Uruguayan was popular at the Amex. Not anymore. Guy Poyet's fellow countryman Stuani delivered a scale of defeat at the Amex not seen in his reign or that of Oscar Garcia, Sami Hyypia or Hughton.
I guess if you are going to relinquish a magnificent unbeaten record, equalled only by West Ham in the second tier post-War, you may as well let it go with a bang.
What matters much more now is how Hughton's aching squad, on their return from a well-deserved Christmas break in Spain, respond in those next half-a-dozen matches.
Original article