West Bromwich Albion 5 - Portsmouth 1

Date: Saturday 25th January 2025 
Competition: Sky Bet Championship
WBA:
7.7
(4-4-2) Palmer 6.7, Furlong 6.6, Holgate 6.4, Heggem 7.3, Styles 7.3, Fellows 6.9, Mowatt 6.7 (Diakité, 46 7.5), Swift 6.3 (Price, 61 6.6), Johnston 8.1 (Grant, 61 6.3), Diangana 7.4 (Racic, 66 5.4), Wallace 6.7 (Cole, 61 5.7)
Unused subs: Wildsmith, Taylor, Frabotta, Bostock
Manager: Tony Mowbray 7.0
Portsmouth:
3.4
(4-2-3-1) Schmid, Swanson (Lang, 69), Pack, Towler, Ogilvie (Williams, 69), Hayden (Potts, 58), Dozzell, Devlin, Saydee, Ritchie (Murphy, 69), Bishop (Waddingham, 57)
Unused subs: Archer, McIntyre, Moxon, Atkinson
Scorers: Mowatt (25), Diangana (32, 44), Wallace (37), Swift (56); Waddingham (93)
Attendance: 25,261   Home Fans 7.2   Away Fans 6.6
Submit your ratings for this game by clicking here: Ratings submitted so far: 19

Brendan Clegg:

Been a while since we scored 5! Welcome back Tony.

Got to be honest like many others I saw the starting 11 and felt a panic. We looked weak and lacking a ball winner.

First 20 mins this was how it proved. Pompey but us under pressure and asked more questions of us. Apart from a high press their main plan was to target Styles (shortest player)in the air.

We edged into the game but it flipped for us when we got a goal from Mowatt that was a clean distance hit.

After that we relaxed, Pompey capitulated and we ran riot. It was great to see so many runners getting into the box when we broke… more options means composure is easier.

It could’ve been 6 or 7. We got loads of minutes into the subs and it was a good day other than conceding the goal.

But let’s not get carried away. Pompey were bad. Really bad. We won’t have an easier game this season although this did show what many fans have been frustrated at - the league isn’t very good, you don’t have to show many of the teams in it too much respect. As a confidence-booster and a way of getting belief into how Mowbray wants to play it was very helpful.

  • Palmer - 6 Not much to do, I doubt we’ll have loads of clean sheets from now on though
  • Furlong - 7 Better today, used the ball well
  • Holgate - 6 Probably his level, still got done a few times
  • Heggem - 7 good on the ball and some superb defending
  • Styles - 8 Really good again on the ball and stood up to them. Enjoyed the rotation into midfield when we had the ball
  • Fellows - 7 A threat, deserved a goal, looking after the ball so much better
  • Swift - 6 Did okay and scored
  • Mowatt - 7 moved it around well and tried to sped things up
  • MJ - 8 getting the ball to him early in space allows him to cause havoc. Brave and carefree
  • Grady - 8 2 decent goals, composed assist, again we found a way of getting him the ball early in dangerous zones with runners off him
  • Wallace - 7 Ran a lot as he always does, sensible with the ball, good finish
  • Diakite - 7 Looked really good again to me… like he needs to start good. Power, legs, good use of the ball.
  • Grant - 6 worked hard, created bits
  • Price - 6 looked good, neat technique, covered the grass
  • Cole - 5 also had a go but nothing fell for him in the box
  • Racic - 5 okay but some powderpuff moments again

A successful week would be to return Racic and get 2 strikers in, or one really really good one.

Having Bartley, Ajayi, Maja, Molumby and others who didn’t start today to possibly come into an 11 playing this way is exciting.

Hippothirteen:

A Grand Day Out (With Wallace and Mowatt)

Even the most optimistic fan would not have predicted TM 2.0 Baggies scoring 5 on his return to the Hawthorns. But in truth we could have had more.

The game from an Albion perspective started slowly, with the away fans singing loud and Pompey using a high press. All well and good but as soon as MJ and Tom on the wings got the ball we began to dominate. Getting behind them time and time again the Pompey defence had to double up on them. This freed up Alex and Jed to score (goals 1 and 3), and Grady to get 2 and 4. 4-0 at HT and poor Portsmouth all at sea (S coast reference there). Their LB and RB might be planning a career change after this match. Comfortable 1-1 draw in the 2nd half as our subs made us less effective.

Well done TM 2.0 for taking the brakes off. Let's hope we make the playoffs but I don't think many Albion fans will care if we keep playing like this. My MOM was Styles. He was everywhere. Also interesting that we've all moaned about the lack of goals from midfield (Adrian and Chris rightly saying this on the Liquidator podcast), well we got 5 from midfield today (maybe Jed and Grady were inside forwards?).