00:00Batgeese fans, welcome to ExpressAndStart.com at another very happy, but quite wet haul for us today.
00:15Albion have won for the fifth time in the first six games of the campaign.
00:19Back to the summit of the championship, thanks to another Josh Madrigal, the sixth of the season.
00:25Coxey, far from vintage, but three points is three points.
00:30Yeah, hard fought, wasn't it? Gritty in the end. They didn't need to hang on, really.
00:37Plymouth kept asking questions, didn't they? To their credit, to the end.
00:40I thought Plymouth looked a decent little side, a handy outfit, to be honest.
00:43I thought Rooney's got them playing some decent stuff. Looked lively, nimble, didn't they?
00:48But how much did they test Alex Farmer, really?
00:51Even at the end there, you can think of one easy claim from a tame header, one that went well wide.
00:58It was a little bit nervy, wasn't it? Which is not good for any of our tickers in mid-September.
01:05It's going to be a long season in that regard.
01:08Not as comfortable, really, as a 1-0 could be. I think Albion were good value for the win.
01:14But we were made to wait, weren't we? Patience, I think, was the order of the day.
01:19In terms of the players, in terms of fans, maybe.
01:21But there is still that undercurrent of belief and confidence, I think, around this season.
01:26Even with the score at 0-0. And Albion hadn't started the second half well, had they?
01:31Let's be honest. Obviously, Josh Madger, as you mentioned, gets the winner just after the hour.
01:35But there hadn't been a good 15 minutes, really, until then.
01:38Corbijn had rightly readied the changes, I think. Obviously, Johnson and Grady were coming on.
01:43But Madger's a man at the moment, isn't he? He's absolutely the man.
01:48I'll have to look this up, but I'll have to go back some to find a start to the season like that for Albion striker.
01:54Six in six games. He does so much. We'll get on to this later in the week.
01:58But he does so much good, doesn't he, Madger, in terms of how he can bring teammates into the game.
02:03His technique. I just spoke to Wayne Rooney about him there.
02:06Rooney's had some very nice things to say about him, as has Carlos.
02:11But he's also been a fox in the box there, hasn't he?
02:14Six-yard box to tap home into an empty net from Rakic's excellent cross of the full debutant making his first start today.
02:22So, yeah, a bit of a nutshell there for you. But, look, good one.
02:26Good one. It'll weigh in to five in six, as you say.
02:29Yet another clean sheet here. Yet to concede.
02:32And unbeaten on top of the pile, don't they?
02:34Unbeaten on top of the pile, indeed. Three points.
02:37You know, Plymouth at times were good today. They've got good players going forward.
02:40The likes of Morgan Whittaker. However, did Albion kind of...
02:44Look, I played devil's advocate and I'm having one negative thing to say.
02:49Did Albion kind of invite the pressure that they then had to stave off in the first half?
02:54Needless errors in possession. And in the second half, certainly before the goal anyway, needless errors in possession.
03:01And they left a lot of space for Plymouth to attack at certain periods.
03:05Which we haven't kind of seen in the first few weeks.
03:08Yeah, yeah. I thought Albion were a little bit messy at times today in defence and maybe centre midfield for parts.
03:14A little bit of just a lack of technique every now and then or a decision-making sort of wrong idea, something like that.
03:22Carlos said to me in there, I said patience earlier, he actually said insistence.
03:26Like, let's have it right. That first half, it was nil-nil at the break.
03:29But Albion in the post three times, didn't they?
03:32Plymouth looked dangerous, looked a threat, but Albion created enough.
03:36I say would work three times. There was one disallowed, rightly for offside.
03:40Created enough to have a significant lead, I think, and to have it wrapped up really.
03:44But it wasn't to be. It's not always going to be, is it?
03:46So that insistence that the head coach mentions is sort of keep the faith, keep the belief that you can go again and again.
03:52Do the same things, do the right things and you'll be rewarded.
03:55It'll come and it did today after the hour.
03:58You make a fair point. I mean, regards to Plymouth and how they set up, how they played.
04:02Corbijn actually said in there just now that it caught Albion, they were a bit surprised.
04:06And he said we were a bit slow to adapt to the type of game it was.
04:10And he said in the week, Carlos, Plymouth are a team that Rooney has built to attack inside, not give too much.
04:17We spoke in a video earlier in the week, didn't we, Thor, on the defensive game.
04:22But he actually said Plymouth were happy to come here and set up quite low and big counterattack game.
04:27And I think we saw that today. We saw Plymouth happy to, your favourite word, transition quickly down the other end of the pitch.
04:34And it almost caught Albion a couple of times.
04:36Those modern phrases.
04:37Yeah, well, yeah. And Carlos said, look, it took us a little while to really adjust to the type of game it was.
04:44And different to how we sort of thought it would be, how we prepared for it.
04:48So that's maybe a little area to improve.
04:50He said to me there, we can learn to adjust to a different type of game, to how we think it is.
04:57Game sort of management, maybe something to work on.
04:59But Plymouth may be a different side to most.
05:02Albion will come against us this season.
05:03Obviously, we'll have the return to home park at some point.
05:06But an interesting side, I thought.
05:08I just think it's too much and too much of a reaction to say it felt like a significant win.
05:14But it was a different way.
05:16A different type of win.
05:18No one will remember this game in a few months.
05:21Will they? Plymouth at home, 1-0.
05:23In the same breath.
05:24I put on Twitter before that, ironically, but last season I don't think Albion had won that game.
05:30I thought it would have been 0-0.
05:31And someone tweeted me back saying it was 0-0.
05:33But you kind of get the gist of this season.
05:35There seems that little bit of extra quality, that extra fibre.
05:39I know they made the subs after the goal.
05:41But just those players to come on and see the game.
05:45Even if it's not a high-quality game.
05:49Like last week in terms of the goals.
05:51Yeah, loads of goals.
05:53I get your point.
05:54It was a perfectly timed goal, really.
05:56Because the cavalry were being readied.
05:58Albion had to turn to them.
06:00Because from 46-60, I don't think it was great at all.
06:05Carlos said he saw a couple of good moments before the goal.
06:08Not 100% that I can recall.
06:10I thought it was quite messy, really.
06:13The start to the second half was poor, wasn't it?
06:15Yeah.
06:16But it was perfect, wasn't it?
06:18And almost ironic.
06:19The subs were literally standing there about to get on, weren't they?
06:22And then Rakic was sent down the right.
06:24Whips in a wonderful low cross, really.
06:26And Magic.
06:27Great movement from him.
06:28Absolutely brilliant in the 6-yard box.
06:30And then he could hardly miss, could he?
06:32A little quick word on Rakic.
06:34Obviously, his first start.
06:35Wasn't at a full debut for the serve.
06:37Took a while to get into it.
06:38But when he did, he showed real good signs.
06:40Good and bad.
06:41Hit and miss, really.
06:42I think he did well overall.
06:43Fine overall.
06:44The assist caps it off for him.
06:46Decent energy.
06:47Some good touches.
06:48Some bad ones.
06:49A little bit of cross.
06:50It felt like he was trying to do the right thing.
06:53And it wasn't quite on at times for him in that first half.
06:55But good moments as well.
06:57And got a good reception, didn't he?
06:59With 20 minutes to go when he came off.
07:01And a lot more to come from him.
07:02I asked Carlos about him in there.
07:04And the head coach said, look, late signing in the window.
07:07Played before him.
07:09What is it?
07:10Italy, Spain.
07:11Different countries.
07:12A little bit of time to adjust, which I think is fair.
07:16Encouraging news on Molumbi.
07:18He's not too bad at all.
07:20So, options.
07:22These minutes and certainly starts for Rakic.
07:25So useful, aren't they?
07:27And a word for Diakite coming on.
07:29Obviously with Molumbi not around today.
07:32With Rakic starting.
07:33Another new signing in Diakite had to come on for 20 minutes or so, didn't he?
07:36Won a couple of big challenges.
07:38I think all the subs, again, did a job.
07:42They had that normal kind of 1-0.
07:47Tends to see a side go deep late on, doesn't it?
07:50And sort of almost invite pressure when it's 1-0.
07:53And you kind of think, well, carry on attacking.
07:55And Albion tried to counter, didn't they?
07:57There were a couple of moments.
07:58I remember one late on when it was 3-on-3 and Jed Wallace.
08:01And it couldn't quite find the cross with two colleagues.
08:05Three and Plymouth were threatening to break down the other end.
08:07But, yeah, that tends to happen in 1-0 games, doesn't it?
08:11But I don't think Albion were too stretched at the end there, were they?
08:14Despite a little bit of nerves, understandable.
08:17But great to see the outcome of the day really going back top of the pile.
08:20Because Sunderland had nicked it, hadn't they?
08:22With that early kick-off win over Bora, was it?
08:24In the derby up there.
08:26So Bora to come here next, aren't they?
08:28In a week on Tuesday.
08:29So that'll be a tasty one, I think.
08:31A real test.
08:32And obviously Sheffield Wednesday in the early one next Saturday.
08:35We'll be there at Hillsborough, of course.
08:37We really did.
08:38I'm not going to tell Tony Bum and Brian that you said the word transition.
08:40He's going to be after you.
08:41Yeah, sorry.
08:43Baggage fans, a different type of win today, but a win nonetheless.
08:46Albion won, Plymouth nil.
08:48For all the rest of your reaction, head over to expressandstart.com.
Comments