West Bromwich Albion 1 - Stoke City 1

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Ratings submitted so far: 14

Brendan Clegg:

Another frustrating one. We had enough of the game and openings or situations to win it comfortably but it’s another draw.

And I think this spell post Carlos has proved that the ‘Drawberan’ tag has a hell of a lot to do with the quality of our strikers and our general composure and decision making in the final 3rd.

Whilst I’m all for signing promising midfielders… ANY money we spend should be going on a striker first, as was the case before Maja’s injury and even more so now.

Back onto the game, I thought it was really harsh to leave Diakite out but otherwise with Bartley and Maja out the side was fair.

I’m personally delighted to have Tony back - my favourite Albion manager of the 35-odd years of attending. I hope it works and it was great to be there early to enjoy the best atmosphere in a while.

I thought Stoke were poor and easy to play against.

And apart from one foray into our box and a sequence of breaks and ricochets that got them the goal (although we’ve got to be better, meaner, aggressive in those too frequent situations) Palmer had little to do and it was one-way traffic. We had very little issue getting through them or winning the ball high and engineering situations but the decisions on shooting, crossing, coming inside off the wing or just our final pass was wrong. Our set pieces too were terrible.

Despite a load of pressure Stoke held on and we went in behind, with Molumby missing a sitter at the death when laid on 6 yards out.

For the opening 5 or 10 of the 2nd half we were slow and out of ideas, nearly conceding a second. With a tactical switch and Styles moving into midfield and what looked like a 3-5-2 we gradually got back on top but it was all a bit desperate, wild and rushed.

Having had a go at his fullback all game, MJ flashed an early ball over and Grady darted across and steered it home superbly.

You felt the win was on and it probably should have been.

Molumby was played through and, had he got his head up he might have rolled in the runner alongside him for a tap-in but he blasted a left foot shot at the goalie.

From another break Grant shot wildly and too early when Wallace was open to be put through.

I thought the subs weakened us again and there was one last ditch tackle on Grant before the remarkably short added time was over.

There is work for Mowbray to do but also a lot to work with. Every fan knows we need a striker but also we’ve got to sort out the composure issues in the opposition third. The is something that can be coached and drilled to get better out of what we have. If anyone can…

• Palmer - 6 nothing to do
• Furlong - 6 shakey, Koumas caused him problems
• Holgate - 6 terrified me on the ball and just not imposing
• Heggem - 7 sound
• Styles - 8 impressive energy and touches but deffo one who needs to calm down in and around the box
• Fellows - 6 Mixed it up but came inside too often. I thought he looked after the ball well.
• Mowatt - 6 we dominated but his legs were a problem
• Molumby - 6 All action and energy but had to do better in front of goal
• MJ - 7 Lively, always wanted it. A Mowbray player.
• Grady - 7 Some genius moments and some casual errors. Great goal. Also a Mowbray player
• Grant - 6 An honest shift and battled but he’s got lovely hard feet and also we needed him in the box more and he kept dropping too deep or being wide.

• Wallace & Cole - 5 didn’t impact