West Bromwich Albion 0 - Middlesbrough 1

Date:	Tuesday 1st October 2024
Competition:	Sky Bet Championship
WBA: 4.5	(4-2-3-1) Palmer 7.1, Furlong 5.1, Ajayi 5.1, Bartley 4.3, Heggem 5.3 (Styles, 77 5.7), Racic 4.1 (Molumby, 63 5.8), Mowatt 6.7, Wallace 3.9 (Fellows, 54 5.7), Swift 4.3 (Johnston, 63 4.3), Grant 5.1 (Dobbin, 77 3.9), Maja 5.4 Unused subs: Wildsmith, Holgate, Diakite, Cole Manager: Carlos Corberán 4.2
Middlesbrough: 6.6	(4-2-3-1) Dieng, Ayling, van den Berg, Edmundson, Neto Borges, Morris, Hackney, Doak (Jones, 82), Azaz, McGree (McCormick, 90), Latte Lath (Burgzorg, 76) Unused subs: Brynn, Barlaser, Dijksteel, Hamilton, Forss, Hunt
Scorers:	Hackney (73)
Referee:	David Webb 6.1
Attendance:	23,769 Home Fans 5.1 Away Fans 6.4

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Ratings submitted so far: 15

Brendan Clegg:

Didn’t expect Carlos to rest Fellows for this one.

I thought it was an even game that Borough shaded but it could’ve gone either way or been a draw.

They played a bit like Plymouth did but had more quality and their young right winger was impressive.

There’s no doubt for me that we looked a bit disjointed and leggy. Swift and Maja in particular looked tired and not fully at it.

Racic looked a bit lost again, moments of good play but disappeared for ages. I felt we missed Molumby even though I’m sure Racic is a better footballer.

By the time Fellows made his entry I thought we’d win it but it wasn’t to be, and Borough engineered a goal through some okay play and a bit of bumbling on our part.

Disappointed overall but it was close and there was nothing to fear. I think had Grady been fit he’d have played, and with minor tweaks the result might just have swung our way. At the same time our lack of a striker other than Maja might cost us and is something to worry about.

Back to basics Saturday, hopefully.

Palmer - 7 big saves and solid
Furlong - 6 Did okay but final ball poor.
Semi - 6 okay but some poor passes
Barts - 6 Same but too many hopeless punts as well
Heggem - 6 Their winger had him on retreat.
Mowatt - 7 Tried to make things happen
Racic - 5 good touches but little influence on things
Wallace - 6 grafted but no threat and big chance missed
Swift - 5 Looked physically and mentally tired and did bizarre silly stuff
Grant - 6 Pit himself about and ran hard
Maja - 5 the odd good touch but little service

Fellows - 7 created our best moments
Molumby - 6 Got stuck in and passed it.
MJ - 4 a bad one, over hit stuff or was just poor
Styles - 6 okay cameo
Dobbin - 5 can’t recall anything of note

Ancient Baggie:

Strange performance from us and I think Boro probably deserved the win. I'm not sure why Fellows didn't start but that's the managers call. Wallace definitely had our best chances of the first half but looked well short of match sharpness. When we had the ball I felt our build up was a bit too slow and they just fell back to two banks of four very deep and we never really found an answer to it. We did create a few opportunities second half but couldn't find a finish and got caught with a soft goal as the game opened up.

A few players underperformed Wallace, Swift, Furlong, and Johnson when he came on but more worrying for me was a lack of a plan B when our possession game wasn't working. If we can pick up 3pts off Millwall before the break it'll still be a solid start to the season.

COYB