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Albion V Rochdale (2-1)
Back in the old routine
by Andy Naylor
August 19, 2000
Zamora and Niel Edwards chuckle after colliding
It was as if he had never been away.
Bobby Zamora continued where he left off last season to launch Albion's home campaign with an action-packed victory.
Two clinical finishes from the teenager erased the memory of that opening day let-down at Southend and stretched the Seagulls' unbeaten run at Withdean to ten games.
Off the pitch manager Micky Adams says Zamora has been a little subdued, but on it he is certainly not goal-shy.
Six in six on loan last season and now two in two already this time is a ratio any established marksman would be proud of, yet alone a raw lad in the infancy of a promising career.
It wasn't so much that Zamora struck twice as the manner in which he took them. Both in their own way demonstrated a coolness beyond his years.
Bobby Zamora pounces to head in Albion's vital equaliser against Rochdale
The first, within three minutes of the evergreen Tony Ford's stunner for Rochdale, owed much to the kind of quality delivery which strikers young and old thrive on.
Paul Watson's inswinging cross from the right flank found Zamora goal-side of a Rochdale rearguard betrayed by Clive Platt defending as naively as forwards usually do.
Platt ensured Zamora was on-side. He still had plenty on, but you could almost sense him sizing up the angles in his mind as he planted the precisest of headers past Neil Edwards.
That composed finish was nothing to the one which settled the issue on the stroke of half time.
Match Facts
Scorers: Albion: Zamora(17)and(45);Rochdale: Ford(14).
Sent Off: Albion: Crosby(19) violent conduct. Rochdale: Ellis(19) violent conduct.
Bookings Albion: Hart(26)foul, Oatway(64)unsporting behaviour, Zamora(66) unsporting behaviour. Rochdale: Hill(37)foul, Ware(59)foul, Todd(61)foul, Lancashire(85)foul.
Shots on target: Albion: 4, Rochdale: 4.
Off target: Albion: 4, Rochdale: 4.
Corners: Albion: 10, Rochdale: 4.
Free-Kicks: Albion: 17, Rochdale: 18.
Offside: Albion: 7, Rochdale: 3.
Referee: Mr P. Prosser (Abbeymead, Glos).
Venue: Withdean.
Attendance: 6,076.
Pitch Conditions: Good, watered before kick-off.
Weather: Warm and sunny.
Next match: Albion v Millwall, Worthington Cup first round first leg, tomorrow (7.45pm).
Gary Hart, provider of the baulk of Zamora's goals, released him through the inside right channel as Rochdale once again looked in vain for an offside flag.
He checked Edwards' positioning before curving the ball with pinpoint accuracy beyond the keeper into the far corner with his left foot.
Zamora said that Edwards "showed me a massive amount of the goal." His modesty did scant justice to the expertise which clinched Albion's first three points of the season.
Zamora's performance was a headline-grabber, but Paul Rogers deserves the praise heaped on him by Adams as well.
Having taken off his skipper and last season's midfield lynchpin at half time at Southend, Adams left Rogers out of the starting line-up this time.
Rogers, not the type to whinge, entered the fray much sooner than he could have imagined, midway through the first half in fact at the expense of his original replacement, the unfortunate Darren Freeman.
He did a fine job in plugging the gap created in the centre of defence by Andy Crosby's baffling dismissal for a clash with fellow red card victim Tony Ellis straight out of the handbags at ten paces variety.
A candid Adams admitted: "I was running around like a headless chicken, because I didn't realise they were down to ten men as well until the referee told me at half time. Without another recognised centre half available, we had to make do.
"What a man and what a captain. Paul did an excellent job to slot in alongside Darren Carr.
"It's never an easy decision to leave anybody out. Paul is 36-years-old and he wants to train every day.
"I have to encourage him to take a bit of time out. He is just a tremendous professional.
"I suppose in a way it's good that we can look at the bench now and think that we have at least got a bit of centre half cover. Before the game we didn't have that."
Albion will need it again soon. Danny Cullip is available after a two-match ban for Millwall's visit tomorrow night, but Crosby now faces a suspension from the home League game against Torquay on September 2.
When Crosby clashed with Ellis just outside Albion's area and just after Zamora's equaliser, it all seemed fairly innocuous.
The crowd and both players were expecting at best a lecture, at worst a yellow card. Bemused shock greeted the sight of double red from referee Phil Prosser.
Mark Cartwright grabs Tony Ellis who is about to be sent off with Andy Crosby
The Gloucester novice, in his first season on the League list, also managed to book seven players. Steve Parkin, the Rochdale manager, reckoned "there wasn't a bad tackle in the game."
Prosser, a chief technician with the RAF, is seemingly intent on becoming a high-flying ref. He relished a request from the press to explain himself. Here was a man too eager for my liking to make a name for himself.
Few would argue with Parkin's assessment. "Both players are experienced enough to have shaken hands. He could have given them both a yellow. At the end of the day I thought it was ridiculous."
Parkin's side committed the cardinal sin of losing concentration soon after his assistant Ford, old enough at 41 to be Zamora's father, nodded in a left-wing cross from Simon Davies.
Albion's marking at the back early on left a lot to be desired and that was when Rochdale were at their most dangerous. Once Rogers brought calmness to the chaos they looked safer, although Ford blazed wastefully wide in the second half when looking yards offside.
Adams said: "We started averagely to say the least. When they scored it jolted us back a bit, but give the lads credit for sticking at it. We looked a better side with ten men.
"It doesn't matter how you get your first three points. There are areas we can work on and we are not firing on all cylinders, but the best is yet to come. If we can turn Withdean into a fortress it will help us enormously."
The only disappointment, apart from Crosby's dismissal, was the size of the crowd. Although a Withdean record there were around 1,000 empty seats, many of them in the new sections either side of the east goal.
A precision header from Zamora
Fan's View
by Iain Ross (Greenwich)
That's the sort of game we would have lost in the first half of last season. Rochdale are a decent side and should push for the play-offs but we kept going after their goal and didn't allow the atrocious referee to distract us too much.
Their bloke had to be sent off but Crosby's only 'crime' was to be kicked hard in the leg. Perhaps that's also a sending off offence this season! I hope the incident shows up on the video because then I've no doubt we'll get his suspension overturned.
Bobby's goals had class written all over them. Rogers did okay when he came on but we'd have been in trouble if Rochdale had any pace up front.
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