THE INDEPENDENT - OUTSTANDING STAND-IN KEEPS ROBSON'S DREAM ALIVE
Old Trafford should have known that any team in Bryan Robson's image would not be going down without a fight, but even the old stadium cannot have envisaged the point pulled off by their old captain here last night. It really was something to marvel at.
In as one-sided a Premiership match as you can get, West Bromwich were out and seemingly down until Robert Earnshaw's penalty threw them a lifeline they will grab hold of until next Sunday's do-or-die affair with Portsmouth. They may still be odds-on for the drop, but this unlikeliest of draws will tell them that nothing is beyond them. Not after a day when for so long their relegation had seemed a mere formality.
Indeed, the cheers that were to greet Earnshaw's leveller had to go some to threaten the decibel level reached a full half-hour before kick-off when the news of the Southampton equaliser reached the West Brom support. Until that moment their task had appeared utterly hopeless.
The blushes were well and truly raised in the 62nd minute when John O'Shea clumsily bundled Geoff Horsfield and Halsey pointed to the spot. Earnshaw's composed finish belied the pressure the Welshman must have been feeling to bring his disbelieving side back into it.
Cue the cavalry - Scholes, Rooney and Louis Saha, but by now the United scalp had been exposed and West Brom were not for the taking. With Kuszczak inspired to the very end, they somehow hung on, and Kanu even had a late appeal for a penalty. That would have been infinitely more than their display warranted. Their guts, in contrast, may yet deliver them something far more precious.
THE OBSERVER - EARNSHAW PENALTY KEEPS WEST BROM HANGING ON
Finally, a Premiership match at Old Trafford with some importance riding on it and one which leaves West Brom going into the final game of the season, at home to Portsmouth a week today, with at least a fighting chance of avoiding the relegation that many would have expected to be a formality from the moment they were promoted 12 months ago.
A 61st minute Robert Earnshaw penalty, awarded, harshly perhaps, after a shove by John O'Shea on Geoff Horsfield, brought a potentially priceless point for Albion and their living Old Trafford legend Bryan Robson. Even if United's superior possession and goal chances rendered that a slight fortunate point, the sub-par performance from the home team's sub-par line-up at the end of a sub-par season was wholly predictable.
Events, immediately pre-match, for Robson may have fallen kindly with that dramatic late Southampton equaliser but it did not take long for the football gods to redress the balance and deflate Albion optimism. Twenty-one minutes to be precise, the length of time it took for the visiting goalkeeper Russell Hoult to injure himself and United to take the lead.
Hoult's injury appeared a freak one, a muscle pulled as he he scampered across his goalline to cover Neil Clement's defensive header that looked in danger of turning Cristiano Ronaldo's cross in at the far post.
The keeper required treatment but was clearly at a disadvantage two minutes later when Thomas Gaardsoe brought down Alan Smith on the edge of the Albion area and United prepared for the free-kick. Hoult was still preparing his wall, and looking ill at ease, as Ryan Giggs hit the quickly-taken free-kick left-footed into the corner of the Albion goal.
After the Albion equaliser, and the arrival of United's big guns Rooney, Saha and Scholes, there were plenty of chances for the home side to effectively relegate Albion. Scholes came closest, thundering a 20-yard shot against the foot of the post from Giggs' free-kick, but those football gods decreed Robson and his team would live to fight for one more day at least.
THE SUNDAY TIMES - KEEPER SAVES ALBION'S DAY
Sir Alex Ferguson has ordered his players to give Chelsea a guard of honour on Tuesday when they walk out at Old Trafford as champions. There were no special welcomes for West Brom yet Bryan Robson departed Old Trafford clutching the gift of a point.
It wasn’t that United were generous to their former son. They attacked relentlessly but, as has been the story of their season, couldn’t score. Mark Halsey was Robson’s benefactor. His charitable penalty award allowed Robert Earnshaw, icily from the spot, to equalise Ryan Giggs’ first-half free kick. Paul Scholes struck the inside of the post in the final moments but West Brom hung on.
Robson was angry about Giggs’s goal, Halsey allowing the Welshman to take a quick free kick when, according to the manager, the referee had told Zoltan Gera that West Brom could wait until they lined up their wall and he blew his whistle. Nwankwo Kanu was also denied a so-so penalty claim at 1-1 when Giggs stood on his foot, but Halsey’s generosity in the 63rd minute superceded his other decisions. Geoff Horsfield and John O’Shea raced to reach a through ball and Horsfield threw an arm across the defender’s chest. To get back on terms, O’Shea placed his hand on Horsfield’s shoulder and the forward took his cue to collapse inside the box. Halsey pointed to the spot. "A big decision," thundered Ferguson. "A lot of other teams were depending on that."
Ferguson finished the day in purple mode. He was annoyed at Halsey, angry that United will now surely finish third and already brooding about the prospect of again having to qualify for the Champions League. "It’s disappointing and I’m sorry," he said. But most of all he was furious, absolutely beetroot, about United’s finishing. "Ridiculous," he kept saying.
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH - ALBION DRAW A CAPTAIN MARVEL SMILE
Bryan Robson asked only for a fighting chance in next week's final round of this bruising, gruelling survival contest and that much, at least, he has. The man they still honour here as "Captain Marvel" now needs his West Bromwich Albion to beat Portsmouth and hope their rivals sustain more blows than they can take.
An evening of tangled emotions and inevitable controversy reaped a precious point for Robson against his former club when Robert Earnshaw, given a rare start, dispatched a disputed second-half penalty.
Albion were over-run for much of the match and seemed on their way to a comprehensive defeat when Ryan Giggs curled a quickly-taken free kick wide of Russell Hoult.
The struggling goalkeeper departed, giving his deputy, Tomasz Kuszczak the opportunity to become Albion's hero. The Pole made a series of athletic saves, notably from United's most dangerous player, Cristiano Ronaldo, and then from Wayne Rooney.
Robson's beaming smile contrasted with a glum expression of the United manager, Alex Ferguson, who accepts his team have scant chance of finishing runners-up now.
The United gallery gave Robson a rapturous ovation but he was given little comfort by the home team's ebullient early play. Ronaldo stretched Albion's defence with his left-wing surges and the Portuguese winger stretched Hoult with a low, angled shot. The goalkeeper reacted smartly again to turn over a 25-yard effort by Quinton Fortune.
Another raid by Ronaldo almost produced an own goal by Neil Clement, whose header had Hoult scrambling.
The exertion proved costly for Hoult. He required treatment for a groin injury and appeared in some distress as United were awarded a free kick outside the area. Giggs took it quickly, placing the ball beyond the powerless Hoult.
The goalkeeper indicated he was unable to continue and Robson summoned Kuszczak.
The Pole was instantly put to work, scampering to cover a shot from Giggs. He was fortunate Giggs failed to punish him for a misjudged rush from his line but then won his dual with Ronaldo with two excellent saves. Perhaps the best chance of the first half fell to Rio Ferdinand, who fluffed embarrassingly. This from a man demanding £120,000 a week - a point not lost on the mocking United supporters.