Albion's 61 year Barnsley jinx continues

BARNSLEY manager Simon Davey was as upbeat as Tony Mowbray was lugubrious. He was drawn to comparing his team's committed performance against West Brom with the outfit that had taken the field a week earlier against Coventry City. "At Coventry we thought we could win the game because we are technically a good side, but you don't win a game like that. From sheer hard work and passion you can produce a performance like the one we've managed today."

As an exemplar of that positive attitude, Davey settled on striker Brian Howard. "He didn't shirk a tackle all day, but he knew that getting his name taken would mean he couldn't play next week [in the fifth round of the FA Cup] against Liv-erpool."

It is 61 years since the Baggies won at Oakwell, and judging by the standards of yesterday's performance it could be another 61 before they put the record straight. "We had a poor 90 minutes with a lot of below par individual performances," Mowbray conceded, "Barnsley deserve credit. They worked hard."

Barnsley came out hearts on sleeves, Howard firing in a great shot and Danny Nardiello hitting the post and watching the ball roll the length of the goalline. All this with not 60 seconds on the clock. Home pressure was relentless and a terrible error by Cesar on the half hour allowed Nardiello to compensate for the many offside calls he had been guilty of. He ran on with a ball he took off the Slovenian with alarming ease. It was an intended back pass, but Cesar failed to get his frame behind the ball. Dean Keily was a mere spectator for the strike with not a defender in sight.

When Nardiello shot from the penalty spot, it bounced off Greening on the goalline and Macken was on hand to mop up the loose ball and double Barnsley's lead on half-time.

After the break James Morrison had come to life and, on 54 minutes, gave Tony Warner his first real test of the day. Morrison's reveille seemed to affect Kevin Phillips and on 58 minutes they combined to score a sweetly taken goal. Phillips backheeled Morrison's pass inside the goal area back to him and Warner had no chance from such close quarters.

As Jonathan Greening was given licence to operate all over the pitch, most Championship sides might have gone on the defensive. But Barnsley are not built like that and sterling performances at the back by Dennis Souza and Lewin Nyatanga kept the Baggies at bay.

Star man: Lewin Nyatanga (Barnsley)

Player ratings. Barnsley: Warner 7, Foster 6, Souza 7, Nyatanga 8 , Kozluk 7, Devaney 6, De Silva 7, Howard 6, Leon 6 (Hassell 86min), Macken 7 (Ferenczi 80min), Nardiello 7 (Coulson 73min).

WBA: Kiely 6, Hoefkens 5, Robinson 5, Greening 7, Bednar 5 (Beattie ht, 7), Albrechtsen 5, Teixeira 7, Phillips 6, Cesar 4 (Barnett ht, 7), Morrison 7, Brunt 6 (Gera 64min)

Scorers: Barnsley: Nardiello, Macken WBA: Morrison

Referee: T Bates

Attendance: 13,083