Brentford 0, Albion 0
Albion will enter 2016 still unbeaten away from home this season in the Championship, a magnificent achievement.
And yet the latest stalemate sealing this distinction has dropped them to fourth, their lowest position of the campaign if you discount the irrelevance of the one-game table.
The Seagulls end the year with consecutive home matches against Ipswich and Wolves, looking like a team that is running out of steam.
This is concerning at the halfway stage but entirely understandable due to the cumulative impact of a chronic injury list.
Derby's promotion bid fell apart last season primarily because they lost one player, Chris Martin.
Albion have coped admirably up to now but it has gradually taken a toll. The addition of captain Gordon Greer to the headaches, forced off 15 minutes from the end at Brentford by hamstring trouble, means there are now seven contenders for Chris Hughton's best starting eleven on the sidelines.
Even bloated Premier League clubs would be affected by adversity on such an inhibiting scale.
The facts speak for themselves. Six of Albion's eleven victories to date were squeezed into August and the first half of September, before Kazenga LuaLua's groin problem launched the procession of casualties.
Twenty of Albion's 44 points were accumulated in those opening eight matches. In the absences at various stages since then of LuaLua, Gaetan Bong, Sam Baldock, Liam Rosenior, Solly March, Uwe Huenemeier and now Greer, only five victories have been sneaked in 15 games.
January cannot come quickly enough. The Seagulls need fresh legs and impetus. Landing Liam Ridgewell from MLS outfit Portland Timbers would ease both the left-back and centre-half worries but they still require a striker and a winger, possibly the on-loan Rajiv van La Parra.
*
The Dutchman borrowed from Wolves, desperate to escape a return to the fringes at Molineux, was the brightest of Albion's attacking options at Brentford.
The injuries have turned Hughton's weary troops from a team capable of edging wins into one capable of avoiding defeat. The difference is the difference between retaining a chance of automatic promotion and, as happened to Derby, missing out altogether, not even making the play-offs.
Albion have now drawn six in a row away from the Amex, each result in isolation satisfactory against sides currently in the top half of the table.
Back in the days when Hughton was defending at Spurs and only two points were on offer for a win, this would have been less of a handicap than it is now.
Apart from a goal difference disadvantage and the confidence retained from remaining unbeaten, the Seagulls might just as well have lost four of their last six away games and won the other two.
Draw a lot in the three points for a win era and you don't just tread water, you begin to sink.
That is what is happening to Albion, from first to second to third and now fourth following a seventh deadlock in the last eleven fixtures.
It was entertaining, not dull as the scoreline suggests, but Albion are getting half a result because they are only producing half a performance.
Resilience returned at Brentford after an uncharacteristic burst of conceding two goals or more per game. They kept their first clean sheet since another 0-0 draw at Sheffield Wednesday at the start of November.
It was accompanied by a failure to score for a second match in succession, which has not happened before this season.
So the two elements are not quite coming together at the moment. When Albion are scoring they are porous, when they are preventing the opposition from scoring they are impotent.
It was mainly the combined efforts of Hughton and David Stockdale which averted a second defeat on the trot to follow the humbling by Middlesbrough at the Amex.
Hughton played his part with a substitution at half-time, when he brought on Andrew Crofts for James Wilson.
The Manchester United loanee, feeling under the weather, was off-colour in the first half, an obligatory trait at the moment it seems for Old Trafford employees.
Introducing a midfielder for a striker may appear to be a step backwards but it was a shrewd move. Beram Kayal and Dale Stephens had been outnumbered in the centre of the park and Brentford's high-octane, high pressing approach had Albion at full stretch to combat them throughout the opening 45 minutes.
The arrival of Crofts gave them a foothold. They saw more of the ball and became much more of a counter-attacking threat.
They might have won if they had capitalised on their best spell of the match in the 20 minutes after half-time with a goal.
Kayal, released further forward, provided a glorious chance for Jamie Murphy in that period which the Scottish winger spurned by curling his shot wide.
The Brentford players, given Christmas Day off by recently installed manager Dean Smith, found a second wind and came on strong again in the final quarter of the contest.
Stockdale, such a different goalkeeper this season compared to last, continued his high standards to foil them.
Saves from shots by the energetic and innovative Alan Judge you would have expected of Stockdale in the form he has been in.
He tipped over an angled rasper from Brentford's impressive midfielder and also diverted a 20-yard effort which threatend to bounce into the bottom corner.
A stop in-between from James Tarkowski's header, one-handed diving to his right, was stunning. The centre-half thought it was in, so did most people inside Griffin Park.
Stockdale's easiest save, with Albion clinging onto parity, came courtesy of the charity of Philipp Hofmann. The substitute should have buried a header which was directed instead straight into his grasp.
Brentford, denied a fourth straight home win, would not have been flattered by a 1-0 victory. Smith said they made Albion look average.
He had a point but it was a little unfair. It is the injury list which is making Albion look average.
Ipswich's visit tomorrow night, psychologically and in terms of momentum, has extra significance attached to it now that they are seven points adrift of the Seagulls in sixth place.
Immediately below them are Sheffield Wednesday. The eight-point cushion Albion have over them feels more important right now than the danger of Derby and Middlesbrough fleeing out of reach.
Original article
Albion will enter 2016 still unbeaten away from home this season in the Championship, a magnificent achievement.
And yet the latest stalemate sealing this distinction has dropped them to fourth, their lowest position of the campaign if you discount the irrelevance of the one-game table.
The Seagulls end the year with consecutive home matches against Ipswich and Wolves, looking like a team that is running out of steam.
This is concerning at the halfway stage but entirely understandable due to the cumulative impact of a chronic injury list.
Derby's promotion bid fell apart last season primarily because they lost one player, Chris Martin.
Albion have coped admirably up to now but it has gradually taken a toll. The addition of captain Gordon Greer to the headaches, forced off 15 minutes from the end at Brentford by hamstring trouble, means there are now seven contenders for Chris Hughton's best starting eleven on the sidelines.
Even bloated Premier League clubs would be affected by adversity on such an inhibiting scale.
The facts speak for themselves. Six of Albion's eleven victories to date were squeezed into August and the first half of September, before Kazenga LuaLua's groin problem launched the procession of casualties.
Twenty of Albion's 44 points were accumulated in those opening eight matches. In the absences at various stages since then of LuaLua, Gaetan Bong, Sam Baldock, Liam Rosenior, Solly March, Uwe Huenemeier and now Greer, only five victories have been sneaked in 15 games.
January cannot come quickly enough. The Seagulls need fresh legs and impetus. Landing Liam Ridgewell from MLS outfit Portland Timbers would ease both the left-back and centre-half worries but they still require a striker and a winger, possibly the on-loan Rajiv van La Parra.
*
The Dutchman borrowed from Wolves, desperate to escape a return to the fringes at Molineux, was the brightest of Albion's attacking options at Brentford.
The injuries have turned Hughton's weary troops from a team capable of edging wins into one capable of avoiding defeat. The difference is the difference between retaining a chance of automatic promotion and, as happened to Derby, missing out altogether, not even making the play-offs.
Albion have now drawn six in a row away from the Amex, each result in isolation satisfactory against sides currently in the top half of the table.
Back in the days when Hughton was defending at Spurs and only two points were on offer for a win, this would have been less of a handicap than it is now.
Apart from a goal difference disadvantage and the confidence retained from remaining unbeaten, the Seagulls might just as well have lost four of their last six away games and won the other two.
Draw a lot in the three points for a win era and you don't just tread water, you begin to sink.
That is what is happening to Albion, from first to second to third and now fourth following a seventh deadlock in the last eleven fixtures.
It was entertaining, not dull as the scoreline suggests, but Albion are getting half a result because they are only producing half a performance.
Resilience returned at Brentford after an uncharacteristic burst of conceding two goals or more per game. They kept their first clean sheet since another 0-0 draw at Sheffield Wednesday at the start of November.
It was accompanied by a failure to score for a second match in succession, which has not happened before this season.
So the two elements are not quite coming together at the moment. When Albion are scoring they are porous, when they are preventing the opposition from scoring they are impotent.
It was mainly the combined efforts of Hughton and David Stockdale which averted a second defeat on the trot to follow the humbling by Middlesbrough at the Amex.
Hughton played his part with a substitution at half-time, when he brought on Andrew Crofts for James Wilson.
The Manchester United loanee, feeling under the weather, was off-colour in the first half, an obligatory trait at the moment it seems for Old Trafford employees.
Introducing a midfielder for a striker may appear to be a step backwards but it was a shrewd move. Beram Kayal and Dale Stephens had been outnumbered in the centre of the park and Brentford's high-octane, high pressing approach had Albion at full stretch to combat them throughout the opening 45 minutes.
The arrival of Crofts gave them a foothold. They saw more of the ball and became much more of a counter-attacking threat.
They might have won if they had capitalised on their best spell of the match in the 20 minutes after half-time with a goal.
Kayal, released further forward, provided a glorious chance for Jamie Murphy in that period which the Scottish winger spurned by curling his shot wide.
The Brentford players, given Christmas Day off by recently installed manager Dean Smith, found a second wind and came on strong again in the final quarter of the contest.
Stockdale, such a different goalkeeper this season compared to last, continued his high standards to foil them.
Saves from shots by the energetic and innovative Alan Judge you would have expected of Stockdale in the form he has been in.
He tipped over an angled rasper from Brentford's impressive midfielder and also diverted a 20-yard effort which threatend to bounce into the bottom corner.
A stop in-between from James Tarkowski's header, one-handed diving to his right, was stunning. The centre-half thought it was in, so did most people inside Griffin Park.
Stockdale's easiest save, with Albion clinging onto parity, came courtesy of the charity of Philipp Hofmann. The substitute should have buried a header which was directed instead straight into his grasp.
Brentford, denied a fourth straight home win, would not have been flattered by a 1-0 victory. Smith said they made Albion look average.
He had a point but it was a little unfair. It is the injury list which is making Albion look average.
Ipswich's visit tomorrow night, psychologically and in terms of momentum, has extra significance attached to it now that they are seven points adrift of the Seagulls in sixth place.
Immediately below them are Sheffield Wednesday. The eight-point cushion Albion have over them feels more important right now than the danger of Derby and Middlesbrough fleeing out of reach.
Original article