West Bromwich Albion 0 - Blackburn Rovers 2

Date:	Wednesday 12th February 2025
Competition:	Sky Bet Championship
WBA: 3.8	Wildsmith 3.6, Furlong 4.4, Holgate 4.5, Heggem 6.0, Styles 4.6, Molumby 4.7, Mowatt 4.2 (Swift, 70 3.9), Fellows 4.3 (Diangana, 56 3.8), Price 6.1 (Wallace, 70 5.1), Johnston 5.4 (Lankshear, 56 5.4), Armstrong 5.6 Unused subs: Griffiths, Ajayi, Diakité, Frabotta, Cole Manager: Tony Mowbray 3.5
Blackburn: 6.4	(4-2-3-1) Pears, Ribeiro, Batth (Sanderson, 42), Hyam, Brittain, Hedges (Cozier-Duberry, 64), Buckley (Forshaw, 88), Weimann (Cantwell, 64), Travis, Dolan (Kargbo, 88), Gueye Unused subs: Tóth, Rankin-Costello, Dennis, Woodrow
Scorers:	Gueye (47, 63)
Referee:	David Webb 3.4
Attendance:	23,305 Home Fans 4.9 Away Fans 5.8

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Ratings submitted so far: 17

Brendan Clegg:

That was quite bad again.

I didn’t think the starting 11 was too bad and felt optimistic.

And I don’t think the first half was awful. Our passing was off and Blackburn were tough and organised. We didn’t move it quickly enough but they didn’t trouble us.

We even hit the post with a half chance. With hindsight you could say Mowatt looked leggy and our wingers came inside too often but it was a nothing half although we were on top.

We came out flat and they upped the energy. They were more aggressive and won every first, second and third ball.

It felt to me like we needed steel and legs. I’d have got Lankshear on up top in a 4-4-2 and either dropped Price back into Mowatt position or got Diakite on.

I thought we got lucky with what looked like a pen to them before the corner. And then our defending and goalkeeping for that was really poor.

And after that we just lost the plot with tippy tappy rubbish, little defensive discipline and they were just miles better. Their second was embarrassing.

I thought our subs were awful. We took our best wingers off way too early, moved our best forward out wide and played a target guy with players who don’t cross it. We were just all over the place like a dogs dinner and the Wallace Swift intros finished us off.

Blackburn could’ve scored more. We had two goals that on another day might’ve been given but you can’t defend like this and expect anything.

So a real poor showing by the players and coaching staff. This was just far too easy for Blackburn

Wildsmith - 5 not great for either goal
Furlong - 6 the pick of our back 4 but sloppy
Holgate - 5 Just not strong enough and passing/carrying was slow or poor
Heggem - 6 Battled away but looks like he needs a rest we can’t afford him to have.
Styles - 5 The pressed and bullied him well. Struggled.
Fellows - 6 Came inside too much but the promise is always there and wasn’t terrible
Mowatt - 5 couldn’t get his legs going
Molumby - 5 Trying to do way too much on the ball. Needs to play like a man, not his ‘inner child’.
Price - 6 quality was poor in open play but set plays were good and the effort and energy were there. Didn’t stop running.
MJ - 6 Crowded out but had some joy and looked like he might open them up to shoot. Taken off way too soon.
Armstrong - 6 Quality shown but needed support tonight and it was wrong to put him wide left when we were chasing it.

Grady - 5 offered little but did tackle back
Lankshear - 6 Another decent cameo and a great poachers goal even though he was off.
Wallace - 6 Not a sub I’d have made but couldn’t fault his effort, just made us worse
Swift - 5 Can’t recall any impact.

Mowbray has got to sort this out quickly and get the balance right. Diakite, Semi and Lankshear should all come in for Millwall to give us a proper spine.

Ancient Baggie:

"It's the hope that kills you". After the joy of a last minute winner to a performance like that. We just didn't turn up, other than Price who looked decent again, although even he was a bit sloppy early on.

You almost knew when their centre forward wasn't even booked for what was a very dodgy elbow (that would have certainly been red if we were using VAR) that he would probably end up scoring. That wasn't why we lost though - we were just flat all over the pitch and they wanted it more than us. The service to the front players was dire and when they did get it they produced nothing. Wildsmith is getting a lot of stick but I'm not sure he was solely at fault, the defensive as a whole was shocking.

Anyway we soldier on, I think if Mowbray is given time he will improve us but I'm not sure we're anywhere near good enough for getting promoted and if we do fluke it through the playoffs then it would be a tough watch next season. COYB prove me wrong!