ALBION'S Barclays Premier Reserve League (South) campaign finished on a losing note as they suffered a 2-0 defeat by Arsenal at Barnet's Underhill Stadium.
The Baggies fielded a young XI, with not one senior appearance between them, as the two sides met for the second time in five days following Wednesday's 1-1 draw at The Hawthorns.
Michael Appleton's men had the better of the first half and England Under-16s striker Saido Berahino was twice denied by fine Vito Mannone saves, including one from a 24th-minute penalty.
The Gunners came on strong after the break and opened the scoring within six minutes of the restart as skipper Mark Randall fired home from a well-worked free-kick.
Super-sub Jay Emmanuel-Thomas sealed the points for the hosts 13 minutes later with an impressive individual goal.
Albion started the game brightly and created the first opening of the game in the tenth minute.
Sebastien Lake-Gaskin managed to get to the right by-line and cut the ball back for Berahino, whose 12-yard strike was well saved by Mannone low to his left.
The Baggies were enjoying the majority of possession without really threatening the Gunners defence.
But the hosts shot themselves in the foot in the 23rd minute when Josh Knight managed to wrestle the ball away from Kyle Bartley as he tried to shepherd it out for a goal-kick.
In his haste to make amends the Gunners centre-back then fouled the Baggies midfielder to concede a penalty.
Berahino stepped up to take the spot-kick but saw Mannone fling himself to his right to save one-handed and regain his feet to push the rebound to safety.
Arsenal's first effort at goal did not materialise until six minutes before the break when Giles Sunu teed up Sanchez Watt, who sliced his 15-yard effort wide of the right-hand post with the goal at his mercy.
Sunu let the visitors off the hook again in the 40th minute when he latched onto Francis Coquelin's pass and forced Ryan Allsop into his first save of the night as he tipped the midfielder's ferocious shot over the bar.
Randall tried his luck from inside his own half straight from the second-half kick-off and had England Under-17s goalkeeper Allsop frantically back-pedalling to clutch the ball on the goalline.
Cameron Gayle then brought down Sunu just outside the box and from the resultant free-kick Emmanuel Frimpong squared the ball for Randall to fire under the Baggies wall and into the bottom left-hand corner of the net to open the scoring in the 51st minute.
Two minutes later Watt laid the ball off to Rhys Murphy on the right-hand side of the box and he screwed his shot wide of the far post.
Watt got the better of George Thorne from a ball over the top just before the hour-mark and chipped the ball over Allsop - but inches over the bar.
The hosts did double their lead in the 64th minute when Coquelin rolled the ball into Emmanuel-Thomas on the edge of the area and the Arsenal substitute produced a classy turn to leave Thorne and Paul Downing for dead before coolly sliding the ball home.
Allsop had to be at his best in the 75th minute as he dived to his right to pluck Randall's 25-yard free-kick out of the air.
And Albion needed captain Downing to come to the rescue four minutes from time when he blocked Emmanuel-Thomas' strike with a brave block in the penalty area.
The North Londoners could not extend their lead but ran out comfortable winners.
ARSENAL (4-4-2): Mannone; Ogogo, Bartley (Ayling 56), Miquel, Steer; Coquelin, Randall, Frimpong (Evina 68), Sunu; Murphy (Emmanuel-Thomas 56), Watt. Subs not used: Shea (gk), Eastmond.
ALBION (4-3-1-2): Allsop; Gayle, Thorne, Downing, Samuels; Knight (Grier 84), Labadie, Mantom; Sawyers; Lake-Gaskin, Berahino. Subs not used: Lovell, Malcolm.
BOOKINGS: ARSENAL - Bartley (foul 23), Ayling (foul 79). ALBION - Downing (dissent 50), Labadie (foul 74), Grier (foul 90).
GOALS: ARSENAL - Randall (51), Emmanuel-Thomas (64).
ALBION STARMAN: Dwayne Samuels.
Subscribers to our SMS breaking news service got this story first. To sign up, simply text CLUB WBA to 88442 (texts cost 25p each) or click here. |
