West Bromwich Albion 1 - Birmingham City 1

Date:	Wednesday 26th November 2025
Competition:	Sky Bet Championship
WBA: 5.7	(4-2-3-1) Griffiths 7.0, Campbell 5.7, Phillips 5.9, Mepham 5.9, Styles 7.1, Collyer 4.7 (Diakité, 11 6.8 (Bielik, 79 5.1)), Mowatt 6.4, Price 4.7, Johnston 6.8, Grant 5.2 (Iling-Junior, 79 4.6), Heggebø 5.9 (Maja, 84 4.3) Unused subs: Wildsmith, Dike, Gilchrist, Bany, Taylor Manager: Ryan Mason 4.1
Birmingham: 5.1	(4-2-3-1) Beadle, Iwata, Neumann, Klarer, Cochrane, Doyle, Seung-Ho, Roberts, Stansfield (Leonard, 93), Gray (Anderson, 83), Ducksch (Furuhashi, 83) Unused subs: Allsop, Robinson, Dykes, Osayi-Samuel, Koumas, Cashin
Scorers:	Mowatt (12); Ducksch (78)
Referee:	Thomas Kirk 4.3
Attendance:	24,282 Home Fans 6.6 Away Fans 4.9

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Ratings submitted so far: 18

Brendan Clegg:

It’s late… I’m tired… so a super brief one.

Summary - another 2 points chucked away against a bang-average side on the night and following that pattern of starting games well but not reacting or knowing what to do within them.

Lineup was as good as it could’ve been with Collyer getting the nod in midfield and Styles replacing Taylor after the latter’s awful showing.

We had a great break in the first 5 mins with a MJ darting through the middle and feeding Price who shot wildly over from an angle when the option to cross was definitely on… as it happens a sign of things to come.

On 10 mins after another good break Collyer went down and then limped off -Diakite the only viable option really to replace him.

We kept going, Blues were pretty useless and we definitely played at a tempo and deliberately got shots off.

We got our rewards for that when Mowatt smashed our goal in from the edge of the box - a good effort that earned its luck, taking a nick off the defender.

We stayed in control and didn’t come under much pressure to see the half out.

After the break we started okay but as Blues pushed on to put us under pressure we began giving the ball away cheaply and easily, at times not even trying to keep it and set so so deep.

Blues were very cavalier and left big gaps - gaps we criminally wasted… I can think of 3 situations where we were in on goal with the odds stacked in our our favour and we screwed it up -

Price’s awful final ball when we were 3 on 2.

Price’s awful shot when we were again a man over in their box and all he needed to do was pass it through.

Grant’s trampoline feet when he was played in wide and all it needed was a decent touch and pass into the middle.

You felt these would cost us.

As we looked more gassed, had no control of the ball whatsoever and our chances dried up you looked to the bench… nothing doing.

We gave away a cheap foul and I remember looking at the clock and thinking… 77 minutes. We can still lose this.

The cross came in and was flicked home for a soft equaliser.

Then came the defensive subs straight after including Bielik for the impressive Diakite! And finally Maja with 5 to go.

We had a go but could muster a big chance and at least we didn’t lose.

You couldn’t fault the effort of the players. Their quality and decision making let them down and on 60 minutes they really needed clear guidance to calm it down and keep the ball… maybe even a system or substitution there.

But that 5-10% of direction/leadership/coaching wasn’t there and we still sit in an awful league position, not because of individual mistakes or a lack of quality in specific matches, but because overall we have someone in charge who is out of his depth and he can’t learn quick enough to salvage our season.

The empty seats for a derby like this would have been unthinkable not so long ago. The lack of atmosphere or anticipation before kickoff tells you those who were there were low confidence, inspiration or any feeling that they’d be entertained.

He still has to go… as quickly as possible.

Griffiths - 7 Pretty solid, let down for the goal
Campbell - 6 Defensively okay
Phillips - 7 mostly sound
Megan - 7 as above, how we have so few clean sheets with this pair points to coaching
Styles - 8 played like he wanted his place. Energy, aggression and tried to keep the ball.
Mowatt - 7 good goal, good passing, flat footed for their goal
Collyer - 5 started okay… a shame
Price - 4 Headless chicken. Loads of energy and running but so so careless and selfish
MJ - 7 Thought he swapped with Grant and Price well and looked a threat
Grant - 6 Gave it everything again. Can’t fault that. Some absolutely shocking touches.
Heggebø - 6 Fought for it. Should be hopping mad at Price for not playing him in. Might’ve got a penalty but you have to get a shot off there.

Diakite - 7 Really good. Got stuck in.

I don’t think the other subs contributed much, not that they had time to.

Make it stop. One result isn’t going to change things. We’re going nowhere.

Kev Buckley:

As derbies go, this most certainly wasn't a "blood and guts" one, although perhaps the suspension of Molumby, replaced by Collyer, might have lowered the intensity somewhat. One other change saw Styles in for Taylor, at left back.

Once again, Albion seemed to start brightly, Price firing over and Styles shooting straight at the keeper before 10 had passed. As ten passed though, Collyer went down injured and was replaced by Diakite.

A minute later, and Mowatt's shot into a crowd of bodies took a big deflection that saw it end up in the back of the net, although taking the lead also saw us taking our foot off the gas and the Blooze started to - or maybe were allowed to - get a lot more of the ball.

Just after twenty passed, they delivered a free-kick that went all the way across our goal without anyone, defender or attacker, getting anything on it and, five muinutes later, a flicked header by Ducksch was perhaps a sign of things to come.

With about five to go, Johnston had a drive from long range, but that was about it for the first half.

The second half saw us trying to contain and play on the break, and it could have worked, but for awful choices at the end of couple, including a three-on-one in our favour that saw Price shoot off-target rather than pass.

With 15 to go, Heggebo, who had had a header saved earlier, broke through the middle, although never really seemed to be steady enough to get a shot off before he was crowded out, though replays suggested he might have been given a penalty as his arm was being pulled back.

The Blues finally got something from all of their possession shortly after that when a free-kick from a long way out was flicked over the crowd awaiting it and levelled things up.

If Iling-Junior for Grant was understandable, Bielik for Diakite was much less so, if anything, making us more defensively set up. Similarly, the like for like swap of Maja for Heggebo, with five to go, hardly smacked of a side "going for it".

Having said that, Brum could have won it, first, on the break but then firing over, and then again, right at the death, Griffiths making a double save to ensure we at least came away with a point.