Albion must be more clinical in front of goal

ALBION are sitting pretty at the top of the league after stretching their unbeaten run to seven games.

They are two points clear and, more importantly, four points clear in terms of an automatic promotion place of Bournemouth, the Saturday lunchtime visitors to Withdean.

Could hardly be better could it? Except that it could, in fact, be a lot better.

It is scary to think how many more points, or at least more goals, Gus Poyet’s table-toppers would have by now if they had taken even half of the number of chances they have created.

Glenn Murray, Ashley Barnes and Fran Sandaza have seven between them following the former’s audacious opener at Prenton Park. That tally should easily have been more than doubled by now.

Barnes missed a bucket load against Oldham last Saurday, as well as scoring, and he squandered two great chances to put Tranmere to bed by half-time. Murray has also been profligate in some games and Sandaza should have put Albion 2-0 up in the second half against Rovers after replacing Barnes.

Poyet’s nagging doubt about his team’s ability to stay where they are in the table is the absence of a 25-goal striker.

It was an issue he raised, you may remember, in The Argus in mid-August, before the transfer window closed. He revealed that he wanted to spend the rest of his budget on a goalscorer but the Board would not allow him to. In the end he got Sandaza on a free from Dundee United.

How ironic that Chris Holroyd is scoring goals for fun on loan to League Two newcomers Stevenage, where he is benefiting from a more direct style of play.

That is not Poyet’s way and Murray, Barnes and Sandaza may yet provide enough goals between them to keep Albion at the head of affairs but their manager is concerned about those missed chances.

“That is the problem,” he said. “That is what I said to you in the middle of August. At the moment we are trying to give ourselves the options to make a difference.

“It’s up to them. I cannot score from the bench. I can train them, I can make them understand the way we play, give them information to a point as well – because they need to make decisions on the pitch –- and then the rest is up to them.

“We made practically 75 per cent of the right decisions in the first half, except in front of goal. We scored the most difficult chance – it wasn’t even a chance. I can’t control that. I was just worried about playing the way we played and finishing the chances we would have, because we always have them.

“At Plymouth in the second half we had five, against Oldham we had 20 shots and against Brentford. It was the same story again. If you don’t take advantage you’ve got no chance and we are top. Imagine if we took our chances?”

Imagine indeed. If Tranmere had been as far adrift as they ought to have been then they surely would not have had the stomach to mount a stirring second-half fightback which, in the end, earned them a point they deserved.

It was certainly a point gained for them, two dropped as far as Poyet was concerned.

“It is probably one of the best chances you are ever going to have to go to Tranmere and be three or four up by half-time,” he remarked somewhat ruefully.

“I think they were very lucky to have the chance in the last half-hour to get something from the game.”

Albion’s football was as cultured as ever in the opening 45 minutes, although route one proved the route to a breakthrough. Murray took deadly aim with his right foot from 25 yards after the Tranmere defence failed to deal with Casper Ankergren’s long clearance straight down the middle of the pitch.

Murray’s third of the campaign – and first away since at Leeds in February – should have been supplemented by two for Barnes in the run-up to half-time, both of them rebounds from Elliott Bennett shots which Hungarian keeper Peter Gulacsi could only parry.

He lashed the first over the bar from only five yards and was also too high with a header from similar range.

The goals to chances ratio may be worrying Poyet but his only concern at the other end for Bournemouth’s visit is which centre-halves to pick from an exceptional list.

Lewis Dunk, probably fourth choice in most people’s eyes, has the potential to become the club’s most accomplished defender since Mark Lawrenson.

Dunk, filling a gap created by a ban for Adam El-Abd and Gordon Greer’s continuing calf issue, showed astonishing maturity and composure considering he had previously been restricted this season to just 45 minutes in the reserves.

Late in the second half, with Albion pretty much under siege, he controlled a high punt forward by Tranmere on his chest and slotted a pass calmly into the path of a team-mate.

Dunk, not 19 until next month, is under contract until the end of next season. I would be surprised if that deal is not stretched considerably pretty soon.

As Poyet observed: “He can cope with any situation, big players, quick players, because he’s calm and he can play football. He is an excellent young boy who is going to bring plenty of happy moments to the club.”

Dunk was the pick of a cluster of eye-catching prospects. Teenage wingers Lucas Akins and Dale Jennings both contributed to Tranmere’s second-half riposte, which saw Albion survive several scrapes.

These included the powerful Enoch Showunmi hitting both posts, first directly with a left-foot rasper and then indirectly when Dunk stretched to cut out his low cross.

The pressure finally told three minutes from time when another teenager, Scott Wootton, celebrated his debut on loan from Manchester United by getting the credit for the decisive touch in a flurry of heads from an Aaron Cresswell free-kick.

Sandaza would have negated the late assault if he had tucked away, instead of dragging wide, a shot after fellow replacement Radostin Kishishev picked him out.

That brings me back to Poyet’s bone of contention. He said: “It’s a little bit of a risk, because if you get to the end of the season and one of them (strikers) hasn’t scored 25 then that is a problem.”

Albion (4-3-3): Ankergren; Calderon, Elphick, Dunk, Painter; Bridcutt, Sparrow (Kishishev 64), Dicker; Bennett, Barnes (Sandaza 64), Murray (LuaLua 79).

Subs not used: Brezovan, Smith, Battipiedi, Baz.

Goal: Murray (35).

Red cards: None.

Yellow cards: Barnes (58) foul, Kishishev (77) foul, Elphick (84) unsporting behaviour, Dicker (86) unsporting behaviour.

Tranmere (4-3-3): Gulacsi; Blanchard, Goodison, Wootton, Cresswell; Labadie, Welsh, Mendy (Fraughan 79); Akins, Showunmi, Jennings. Subs not used: Cathalina, McLaren, Collister, Wood, Bakayogo, Morrow.

Goal: Wootton (87).

Red cards: None.

Yellow card: Goodison (66) foul.