Middlesbrough 2 - West Bromwich Albion 0

Date:	Tuesday 21st January 2025
Competition:	Sky Bet Championship
Middlesbrough: 6.3
WBA: 4.4	(4-4-2) Palmer 5.0, Furlong 4.3, Holgate 4.6, Heggem 6.2, Styles 5.3, Fellows 5.2, Mowatt 5.1, Molumby 4.6 (Swift, 65 3.8), Johnston 5.7 (Cole, 78 3.9), Diangana 4.5, Grant 4.5 (Wallace, 66 4.3) Unused subs: Wildsmith, Taylor, Diakité, Racic, Frabotta, Bostock Manager: Tony Mowbray 4.3
Referee:	Andrew Kitchen 4.6
Attendance:	22,323 Home Fans 4.5 Away Fans 6.3

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Ratings submitted so far: 13

Brendan Clegg:

On the whistle emotional reaction.

I thought that wasn’t great. We looked like a team in transition that didn’t know what to do.

I was surprised at the 11 - very surprised Diakite didn’t get a start and I thought for the majority of the first half we were overrun in midfield and Fellows, Johnston and Grady were too weak to look after the ball. In the final third we were typically erratic and useless.

For me their opener was a clanger though… Mowatt has to come out 5 yards and press and Palmer has to stop it… swerve or not it wasn’t even in the corner.

2nd half at least Molumby and Mowatt played higher. We had them pinned in but other than the Holgate header never looked like we had the belief or quality to score.

I thought the subs killed us… we lost control, didn’t look any more like scoring and eventually conceded on the break. A great finish but another avoidable one.

It would be a huge shame to allow this season to be written off but I’m afraid to say that allowing us to get to the 21st of Jan without at least 1 striker coming in makes me feel like we have. It won’t be as easy a league next season.

Palmer - 5 a rare shot stopping error cost us a point
Furlong - 5 form on the ball since Corberan left/Holgate inside him is really worrying
Holgate - 5 Bartley or Ajayi are just miles better
Heggem - 6 Can’t do it all. Solid enough.
Styles - 6 Neat on the ball but Doak gave him problems
Fellows - 6 Well marked but tried to make things happen
Molumby - 5 effort and battle but little else
Mowatt - 5 did okay but lacked legs and threat
MJ - 6 Lively until he got near the box then just looked like he had no confidence or composure
Grant - 5 battled but half the player without Maja
Grady - 5 nowhere near enough where or when it mattered

Wallace - 5 predictable, no threat
Swift - 5 the odd nice touch but it was all too much effort
Cole - 5 ran about, win flicks, no service or threat