West Bromwich Albion 0 - Millwall 0

Date:	Saturday 1st April 2023
Competition:	Sky Bet Championship
WBA: 5.4	(4-2-3-1) Griffiths 6.8, Furlong 4.9 (Albrighton, 89 4.1), Ajayi 5.4, Pieters 6.0, Townsend 6.4, Yokuslu 6.8 (Bartley, 89 4.6), Chalobah 4.9 (Gardner-Hickman, 74 6.5), Wallace 5.4, Swift 5.1 (Dike, 64 5.4), Reach 4.1 (Rogic, 74 4.7), Thomas-Asante 6.1 Unused subs: Button, Livermore Manager: Carlos Corberán 5.6
Millwall: 5.1	(4-2-3-1) Long, McNamara, Cresswell (Malone, 99), Cooper, Wallace, Leonard, Saville, Honeyman (Hutchinson, 92), Flemming (Shackleton, 92), Watmore (Burke, 63), Bradshaw (Vogslammer, 84) Unused subs: Bialkowski, Esse
Referee:	Jeremy Simpson 2.4
Attendance:	24,334 Home Fans 6.3 Away Fans 4.6

Brendan Clegg:

Another flat and apathetic afternoon at The Hawthorns.

The injuries to O’Shea and Molumby summed up our season but I still thought we’d have enough - I’d have gone for TGH in the centre as he actually might be an upgrade on our Irishman in pure quality/creativity terms and does have energy.

But it was Chalobah - a wee bit conservative for me. Otherwise the team made sense.

So, a massive game but no Liquidator to stir the crowd and possibly contributing to our flat atmosphere. I heard it at Stamford Bridge on the Radio WM Villa coverage so it feels like an act of sabotage.

And then from the off it was clear Millwall were happy with a point. We were underwhelming, too patient and it was also clear why Chalobah got the nod.

Yokuslu came and got the ball from every goal kick rather than the CBs in the absence of Dara which meant Reach and Wallace tucked in deep and Barrow with NC in midfield, leaving BTA isolated and Semi and Pieters spare.

Therefore, lots of tippy tappy passing in our own half but very little going forward and we were so slow to do it that by the time it got to Swift there was nothing on. Wallace and Reach never got the ball wide at all and we struggled for chances.

This style also feels like it contributes to the apathy... and despite the dire situation we’re in financially the protests were met with a bit of a collective shrug. Deary me.

I also thought we looked over-coached. This is a difficult one but a few times we engineered it well but then the obvious forward pass was avoided instead to follow a planned passage of play and switch. Little was left to instinct... probably why TGH isn’t trusted.

I thought we shaded the first half with Reach blowing our best chances.

Second half they were in it more and we struggled. Although he was frustrating, I couldn’t believe Swift made way before either Chalobah or Reach in a game we needed to win.

It was only really the intro of TGH and Rogic, 15 mins too late, that gave us a push.

At the end we might’ve got a couple of penalties and the ref was terrible throughout but he didn’t stop us going for it. Surprised how we just let it pass us by. If you look at this and Cardiff… we’ve been two safe. We’d have been better off losing one and winning one.

Next two are must-win

Griffiths - 6 Did his job
Furlong- 6 Okay… no options ahead of him
Ajayi - 6 Got away with some poor passes but solid
Pieters - 6 Did his job… composed.
Townsend- 7 Defended well I thought
Yokuslu- 7 Probably our best player again
Chalobah - 4 I just found it all a bit boring and he lost the ball a bit
Wallace - 5 We’ll off it. Is he injured?
Swift - 5 A few good moments but we needed more
Reach - 4 Being asked to do things way beyond him but honest shift.
BTA - 7 Had a go despite terrible support. Did okay in the left.

I thought all the subs were a 6... they all contributed.