West Bromwich Albion 1 - Bristol City 2

Date:	Friday 26th December 2025
Competition:	Sky Bet Championship
WBA: 3.3	(4-2-3-1) Wildsmith 1.8, Campbell 3.7, Phillips 3.8, Mepham 3.4, Taylor 2.4 (Mowatt, 57 4.3), Diakité 5.9, Styles 5.8 (Dike, 77 4.3), Johnston 5.5, Price 2.7 (Iling-Junior, 65 3.2), Grant 5.2, Heggebø 4.9 Unused subs: Griffiths, Maja, Diomande, Bostock Manager: Ryan Mason 1.9
Bristol C: 4.4
Scorers:	Diakité (85)
Referee:	Will Finnie 2.9
Attendance:	25,050 Home Fans 4.5 Away Fans 4.6

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Ratings submitted so far: 20

Brendan Clegg:

Another absolutely terrible result after the quietest Boxing Day crowd I can remember.

Off the back of our president’s address, I couldn’t even be bothered to check the starting 11 on the drive up to the ground. There were plenty of fair points in there on the financial situation but the messaging on the coaching staff - effectively a vote of confidence - was as disturbing as it was naïve. A free pass for mediocrity, for writing the season off; I honestly felt like ‘why bother’. It is so painfully clear to most fans that Mason is utterly out of his depth that the reality does not match Nestor’s words. There is no ‘game model’. Nobody knows what our plan or style is. I think fans would be patient and forgiving if there was any promise - if we were playing great stuff and dominating games but being undone through a soft underbelly or youthful mistakes then the team would be being roared on. If we were a bit horrible but tight at the back, workmanlike and a bunch of guys giving everything then there would be no grumbles.

But we are nothing - a total mess that cannot defend or attack, that plays a load of clever sideways and backwards football before aimlessly lumping it.

As it was the team pretty much picked itself and our bench was basically Maja, Dike, SIJ and a bunch of kids.

Styles started brightly on the middle again and a driving run gave us a chance in the opening minutes, with his skipping in of MJ resulting in a shot to the side netting.

But the first time Bristol passed the ball 3 times they got to the edge of our box before a low and weak shot was hurdled by their striker in an offside position and it trickled in without Wildsmith trying to stop it.

It was an absolute pathetic goal to concede by a keeper who we know switches off and isn’t good enough - offside or not you can’t let those in.

Bristol, high up in the league, were all sorts of terrible and Styles and Diakite dominated the middle easily as we looked to get back in it.

Price was played in and from about 10 yards he shot tamely at the keeper when he needed to score or just slide the ball across to MJ for a tap in. Just awful decision-making. Diakite also headed at the keeper from point blank when it looked harder not to score.

But for all that, Bristol went up the other end, made 4 passes and got an uncontested shot off that beat Wildsmith at his near post.

2-0 down at home… the boos started ringing out and we huffed and puffed for the rest of the half but quality or composure were both lacking.

No changes at the break were a surprise given how bad we’d been and then we started slowly and Bristol had their best spell of the game and came close to getting a third.

The bore-fest was enough even for Mason and Price was hooked for SIJ in what looked like a 4-4-2 with Grant going up top with Heggebø.

Nothing changed so next it was Mowatt for Taylor - 2 subs at 2-0 down and neither a striker was certainly a head scratcher.

Styles went to left back for a bit before SIJ went there and everyone just started to play wherever they wanted to.

With nothing happening for us Dike came on. I don’t think he touched the ball and we didn’t get crosses in but late on Diakite forced a header home and then we had a little rally where most of our momentum was killed by stupid fouls or sloppy play.

I’d given up and exited the ground for the trudge down Halfords Lane by the time Grant hit the bar.

Overall, just a load of rubbish that shouldn’t really be a surprise to anyone who watches us; it has always been more likely that our home form would falter than our away form would pick up.

For overseas readers or those who can’t make it - I can’t tell you how bad this league is, how truly dreadful Bristol were or how utterly inept the guy we have in charge is. It is a massively missed opportunity for which there is no excuse. Coaching matters and I’m sorry to say we have one of, if not the worst in the league. I look at other teams, the journeymen managers they have, and they’d be getting this team into the top 8. As bad as we are, as ridiculous as it is, if we’d just kept 5 more clean sheets this season we’d be in and around the playoffs.

Mason has to go. If he stays we could go down. It’s a real risk. The most important data-led metric of all - results - is where we are chronically under-achieving. Desperate times.

Wildsmith - 3 first goal was a joke, 2nd very poor, kicking long but inaccurate. Has to be dropped.
Campbell - 5 has some raw ingredients but is miles away and needs a good coach
Phillips - 5 Absolutely wallops it sometimes for no reason… then it comes back at us and the opposition score
Mepham - 4 Stupid flicks, losing headers. Needs a massive kick up the backside
Taylor - 4 Shouldn’t play again. Hopelessly slow.
Styles - 7 looked decent and got about
Diakite - 6 patchy… some great tackles but got rattled by a few poor passes. Far from the worst out there.
MJ - 5 couldn’t get him into it and nothing came off
Price - 4 headless running just creates gaps for opponents to play in. Decision-making woeful.
Grant - 6 Had a go. They read him quite well but tried at least.
Heggebø - 5 the service was terrible. He tried.

SIJ - 3 had a mare on the right … better at left back.
Mowatt - 5 I don’t really get the point. styles was doing fine.
Dike - 5 rubbish but has had such little time. Occupied them at least.

Do it. Exit Mason now. Take the pressure off!