Albion 1-3 Blackburn Rovers

This was a game both clubs would have looked at and believed a win was realistic, thus leading to a step further to safety. As it resulted, Blackburn took the points back to Lancashire after a scrappy affair. The Baggies were strong favourites initially, after a sterling performance against Bolton two days earlier when they created chance after chance, but to no avail, and were punished by two sucker punches at the end of each half. On the other hand, Blackburn were in disarray; the new foreign owners had inexplicably sacked Sam Allardyce and had put assistant Steve Kean in charge for the remainder of the season, however they lost at home on Boxing Day to Stoke, 0-2.
        Albion kept the same team that lost to Bolton, except the suspended Chris Brunt missed out and was replaced by Youssouf Mulumbu. Rovers started Nicola Kalinic alongside Mama Biram Diouf in a 4-4-2 formation.
      And it was the £6 million Croat who coolly slotted home after a few minutes to give the visitors a surprising early lead.
    This woke Albion up, and they immediately started to move the ball around with the same charisma as was usually witnessed by the Albion faithful. This led to a superb equaliser ten or so minutes later. Graham Dorrans appeared to be surrounded by black and red shirts, but managed to squeeze the ball through to the impressive James Morrison. He took on a couple of Blackburn players before laying the ball out wide to Somen Tchoyi. First time, the giant Cameroon winger side-footed the ball across goal, beating two defenders and the move was completed when Thomas brushed home for his second of the season.

 For the remainder of the half, the Baggies looked a revitalised team, in search of three valuable points against fellow relegation candidates. The Lancashire defence, however, remained firm.
   The second half was not one that Albion fans will remember- and if they do so, it will not be remembered in a positive way. Two quick goals- both headers from corners- from Kalinic (his 2nd of the match) and Mama Diouf sealed an unlikely victory to send the Rovers fans behind the goal into raptures.

Things turned sour not long after, as Kalinic lunged in on Paul Scharner to earn himself a straight red card. The situation was not helped by El Hadji Diouf's contribution, the Senegalese hitman widely known as a wind up merchant. The numbers were even again soon after, however, when Gabriel Tamas was beaten to the ball by Mama Diouf, and he had no choice but to chop his opponent down when he was clear through- thus, resulting in another sending off. This capped of a miserable week for the Baggies, who lost to Bolton recently. On the other hand, things may now turn around for Blackburn, who play Sunderland next, but they will have to do the job without their suspended top scorer.