[Albion] Set pieces and crosses

[AnotherArch]

The way Stephens kicked the ball for the corner right in front of us second half, it looked as though he was intending to keep it low.
As exampled when he later did give one some air from the other side and cleared everybody.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I got Skybet to quote me for Vincente to score direct from a corner, and they offered me really crappy odds.
I didn't take the bet but it was bloody close as in the next game he had one cleared by the near post defender.

Same as just about every other Albion corner of recent times then.

 

[Stat Brother]

Same as every other Albion corner of recent times then.

Oh no this was the fella stood on the goal line holding the post and just in time jamming his foot into the ball sized gap between himself and the post.

Not some random bloke placed 'out of harms way' on the edge of the 6 yard box.

I can't remember the game but it was definitely at the North Stand goal, taken from the NE side.


Vicente had clearly been building up to it, but Skybet offered unfunny joke odds, like 66/1, when I was expecting something glorious like 6 bazillion/1.

 

[drew]

Only saw a stream of the second half and agree the set pieces were very poor. However, disagree about the overall set pieces this season, especially corners. Think that Stephens puts in a good corner, the only problem being that he isn't able to get on the end of them!

 

[BBassic]

Set pieces have always been shocking. It's gotten to the point where I don't get even marginally if we get a free kick or a corner.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Isn't it just the case of reverting back to the norm.

Even with exquisite dead ball specialists in the team, the Albion have always been poor at set pieces.
They were the only attacking outlet last season and fortunately Dunk made the most of it.

Now the team have gone back to the days of Spanish Dave & Orlandi booting the ball straight at the wall or first man from a corner.

Yeah, Spanish Dave who never missed a penalty, and scored that exquisite free kick against Palace. He was crap wasn't he?

Face it, Albion corners have ALWAYS been crap. Low point was at Withdean was when Charlie Oatway would trot over for some imagined skill short corner only eventually to be met with a torrent of 'Furk Off Charlie!' abuse. Last free kick expert we had was Chippy. That's a LONG time ago now. LuaLua looked promising for a while in that direction but that's sort of fizzled out now. Big oversight tactically, a free kick on the edge of the box SHOULD be worth a few goals a season, COULD make the difference between success and failure. Long overdue for sorting out IMHO.

I've seen LuaLua score several great free kicks from the edge of the box, especially at Leeds last year, but is sadly injured right now.

.. and sadly as you are right probably the only one EVER.

You must be too young to remember Kit Napier.

 

[Stat Brother]

Yeah, Spanish Dave who never missed a penalty, and scored that exquisite free kick against Palace. He was crap wasn't he?.

Nobody has mentioned penalties, and you've quoted one free kick.

I do wonder if corners are all they are cracked up to be.
Last season and Dunk does seem to be the exception.

Very rarely does the ball even reach an Albion player, but the same can be said for the opposition as well.

Sure when corners work it's the next best thing to a penalty for scoring,
But there were 10 corners yesterday, 13 v Cardiff, all resulting in nothing.

 

[Lincoln Imp]

Rotherham's - ROTHERHAM'S - set plays were better than ours the other week.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

Good. If we were where we are without room fro improvement, then the only way would be down. If we can add menace from set pieces then there's loads of additional goalscoring potential left to exploit.

 

[samtheseagull]

I wouldn't say our set pieces have been too bad this year, Stephens usually puts in a decent set piece(even tho yesterday was poor). Saying that, apart from Lua Lua, I don't fancy is often scoring from free kicks.