West Bromwich Albion 1 - Leicester City 1

Date:	Friday 26th September 2025
Competition:	Sky Bet Championship
WBA: 6.6	(4-2-3-1) Griffiths 6.1, Campbell 6.3, Phillips 7.0, Mepham 6.8, Taylor 5.7, Molumby 6.3, Mowatt 6.4 (Collyer, 89 5.4), Iling-Junior 6.6 (Styles, 72 5.0), Price 6.2, Johnston 7.3 (Wallace, 86 4.9), Heggebø 6.2 (Maja, 72 5.1) Unused subs: Wildsmith, Bielik, Gilchrist, Diakité, Bostock Manager: Ryan Mason 6.4
Leicester: 5.9
Scorers:	Iling-Junior (10); Phillips (93 og)
Referee:	Stephen Martin 6.2
Attendance:	24,235 Home Fans 7.0 Away Fans 5.9

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Ratings submitted so far: 21

Brendan Clegg:

What can you say about that? Cruel. Frustrating. Careless. Very Albion? A point which felt like a loss.

Driving to the ground was a nightmare of roadworks and traffic but I was pleased with the more positive selections and going with 2 proper attacking wingers. It felt like whilst you could easily make the case for more changes and certain individuals, limiting it to three swaps from your last starting 11 is understandable from a continuity viewpoint.

The first half went like this - Leicester were well on top and had a big early chance but then, for all their territorial dominance and physical superiority, they didn’t hurt us. Both wingers were really good but they played a bit like 11 quality players who were not a cohesive unit.

We were together, grafting, covering ground and hustling but I thought they were the better team. The difference was we scored an outstanding goal… Heggebø deftly flicking Iling-Junior in on the run and he ran most of a half through the middle, twisting and turning before superbly finishing. It was a goal of a kind we haven’t seen for a while.

After that we dug in, managed it well and got to half time without danger.

Second half our wingers switched and we actually competed better, had more of it and it was far more even as a contest. We had to concede fouls and they remained dangerous but didn’t work our keeper.

In terms of impact our subs, late as they were, had an impact and, as any report of the match will confirm, we created the big chances. Campbell wildly swinging one wide, Maja’s incomprehensible miss, Collyer’s nearly moment as he shot close when a pass would’ve given Maja a tap-in.

We didn’t look like conceding but in the 93rd minute after some erratic play we did - a deep cross, no challenge on the ball and a deflected own goal threw the points away. You could argue it was a fair point based on control of the game.

Overall despite it being a kick in the teeth it was positive. We looked to create, we had attackers on, the usual good defending and commitment in 50/50s was there. I’m sure if we play like that each week we’ll be decent with nobody to fear. It’s obvious we’re missing goals and Fellows but the chances were there tonight and if we create in that way they’ll start going in.

Griffiths - 6 calm, no chance with goal
Campbell - 6 pretty reliable defensively
Phillips - 7 solid for most of the game
Mepham - 7 same, a quality pairing
Taylor - 6 rusty but kept at it
Mowatt - 6 did well once he got to grips with it
Molumby - 7 blood and thunder, much more convincing in the deeper role
Iling-junior - 5 incredible goal but otherwise a bit ropey and control was poor… but raw and will get better
Price - 7 got through so much running. Not picked out when he’d taken good positions
MJ - 7 lively all game
Heggebø - 6 big part in the goal but never a threat, battled

Maja - 5 a threat and football intelligence obvious but he had to score
Styles - 4 carelessness on the ball cost us
Collyer - 5 decent energy and kept it well but had to either score his chance or find Maja for a tap in
Wallace - 5 did okay

I felt for the players and coaches. They were so close to what would have been a really impressive win against a stronger squad of players that arguably has the best 2 or 3 players in the league in it. Early days still but we could easily have got points out of our previous two matches as well and our performances have merited a higher points return than we have. We’re not far off being really strong but we’ve got to find a way to have players on the pitch who will create and score.

Kev Buckley:

Villa finally loan us a good'un: Albion 1 Leicester City 1

Given the recent showings, of both loanees from the Villa, and of players with Serie A pedigree, one could have been forgiven for thinking that an ex-Juventus, and now Villa, loanee might not exactly be someone to get too many hopes up about, but, if the first showing by their latest "hand-me-down" is anything to go by, we might, finally, have something to thank our greatest rivals for.

At least, in welcoming the, recently relegated from the top flight, Foxes to B71, manager Mason dispensed with the three holding midfielders, and brought Johnston back in for Diakite, whilst also introducing a couple of the "new boys", replacing Styles with Taylor, and Wallace with Iling Jnr, however, those changes didn't see a return to the 4231, as it soon became clear that Price was being asked to play up alongside Heggebø, rather than anywhere in behind him.

The immediate shortcoming from that was that although we had two players pressing the Leicester back four, a big gap back to the midfield four allowed easy-outs through the press, and the away side soon started to impose their passing game, with a third minute chance, as Ayew got played in down our left, just dragged across the face of our goal.

As ten minutes approached though, Heggebø dropped into the centre circle to offer a back-to-goal target for ball out from the back, but made a sublime flick around the corner that left Iling Jnr a bit of space into which to run at the Leicester defence, and run at them he did, slaloming through three players and into the area before stretching to guide the ball into the side netting.

If that cam against the run of play, play soon returned to the way that it had been running, with Leicester camped outside our box as they tried to fashion a chance: a decent one coming as 23 mins passed, with a shot from the edge of the box that flew over.

They came even closer in the 36th minute, Albion losing the ball in out right-back area and then watching as it was moved all the way across to the left before a cross-field ball saw it back on the right side of our box, from where a little dinked cross to the back post found Taylor flat-footed as the attacker behind him tried to steal in, although Taylor did recover just enough to see the attempt steered wide of the near post.

From the resulting goal-kick, a long ball into the left wing area was cushioned back for Heggebø, and he drove forwards into the inside-left area before getting off a shot that did require the keeper to make a save.

Albion would go into the break with a lead that the possession stats might not have suggested.

Not clear why the swapping sides, of the wingers at half time, would have required Iling Jnr to change from a bright orange first half pair to a white pair so as to then play on the left but those were the only changes, Price continuing to play up alongside Heggebø, and Leicester continuing to dominate the possession.

As the hour passed, and with the pace of the game picking up, Molumby's run earned the Albion a free-kick in left-centre-mid, and the knock-back, from the ball Mowatt swung to the back post, was allowed to bounce right in front of it, where Campbell, of all people, reacted first but could only fire into the side netting.

It would be Campbell's high pressing that earned Albion another free kick within two minutes, and this time the far-post knock back served up another gilt-edged chance for Price, but his side footed contact, with just the keeper to beat, went a-begging as he miss-kicked it softly to the keeper.

Maja and Styles were on for Heggebø and Iling Jnr with twenty to go, Styles going into the left side of the four, ahead of Taylor, and so leaving Johnston over on the right, from where, ten minutes later, he would pull one back for Maja, but Faas, without knowing much about it, got in a block.

Molumby's backpass to no-one presented Leicester with a shooting chance, which they once again blazed over from the edge of the box before Wallace replaced Johnston and, shortly after that Collyer replaced Mowatt, which all had a bit of a Ramsey-esque shut-up-shop feel about it.

Having said that, Wallace's free-kick, as the game moved into stoppage time, dipped enough to see the keeper only able to parry it into space inside his six-yard-box, from where Maja, following up, had the simplest of chances to steer in what would have been the goal to sew the game up, but somehow, from five yards out, he managed to send it way up and over into the Brummie.

Price's back-heel into space then played Collyer into the left side of the box, but he could curl it enough to find the far side of the goal.

Almost straight away, back up at the other end, a Leicester corner wasn't really cleared and, with Albion's defensive line strung across the edge of the box, they allowed a cross to the back post to reach an unmarked player, and his volley sent it back into the crowd where it hit Phillips and cannoned into the net for the equaliser.

Can't help feeling that for all Leicester's possession, and for the two great chances Price and Maja had to put the game to bed, Mason's substitutions, overall, ceded up yet more of the ball to the opposition, rather than leaving us with the ability to create even more.

Conceding that late, after missing the two chances will probably take some of the gloss of Iling Jnr's fabulous goal, on debut, but it shouldn't, not least as an attacking three of Johnston, Price and the best Villa loanee we've had in ages, suggests we'll be able to create enough chances to trouble lesser sides than Leicester: if only we can finish off more than one of them.