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Saturday, January 31, 2009

Football : Albion 0 Manchester United 5

TEN-MAN Albion suffered their heaviest home defeat of the season - after being on the wrong end of a debatable red-card ruling. After Dimitar Berbatov had fired the world champions ahead on 22, the Baggies had a real mountain to climb when stand-in skipper Paul Robinson was sent off for a challenge on Ji-Sung Park five minutes before the break. But TV replays showed the left-back got the ball. Leaders United sealed successive league win No.6 thanks to Carlos Tevez's 44th-minute strike, Nemanja Vidic's 61st-minute header and a Cristiano Ronaldo double. The outcome brought Albion's six-game unbeaten home run to a halt as Sir Alex Ferguson's title favourites showed no mercy. Albion started the day only three points off 12th as bottom literally entertained top in the Barclays Premier League. With only 18,000 fans inside the stadium at 7.45pm, and major congestion on the M5, the kick-off had to be delayed by 30 minutes. Tony Mowbray's fitness woes eased ever so slightly, as Ryan Donk passed a late fitness test and James Morrison returned to the bench - leaving only NINE players out injured! Gianni Zuiverloon made his first start in a month, after recovering from a knee injury, in an unfamiliar right-midfield role. Borja Valero, Marc-Antoine Fortuné and Chris Brunt also came in for injured skipper Jonathan Greening plus benched trio Filipe Teixeira, Do-heon Kim and Roman Bednar. United made four changes, recalling fit-again duo Rio Ferdinand and Park, plus Ryan Giggs and Edwin Van der Sar.

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