Looking for positives, feeling a little better now, Eze had a poor game, so nobody will want to buy him
I know. You'd think the world had caved in all of a sudden.Way too negative on here. West Brom have a really strong squad and pushed us all over the pitch but until Lumley's mistake we were holding our own. Had that not happened we may well have got a draw against a team who are probably going up. The lack of chances was a worry however.
We were playing really well against Luton until Lumley threw the ball to one of theirs, we stuttered rest of that game, did much the same against a poor Millwall team who gave us 3 points via their Keeper, and never got going today against admittedly a much better team. Think we need to get back to that start against Luton somehow.Reality check today....WBA are a good side, and will probably go up. We've been beaten by three teams this season, all of whom we'd expect to be in the play-off mix come May. If we continue to play the way we have (until today) then I reckon we'll be somewhere between 8th and 12th which is an improvement, especially considering how much the squad has changed. Cardiff up next, another test, hopefully Warburton can get them fired up against Colin.....
Totally agree i had WBA as automatic especially under Bilic. Keep beating the average teams in this league and we will be top 8, sadly we are not top notch which the game today clearly showedBeaten by the better team. Not a disaster. Not hard to see why they are unbeaten and can see them doing the business this year - especially when Charlie gets going.
I just think we were beaten by a better teamThe Sky curse strikes again!
Only 3 points off the top of the table
How many on here honestly could say they expected that after 9 games?
Today was always going to be tough but I am still feeling positive about the squad, manager and the general level of performances thus far
West Brom are a better side than us, but the disappointing thing about today was that we performed so much worse than we are capable of.
Didn't get to see much of the game - you say we peformed poorly, was that due to us not turning up or West Brom nullifying our play?
Didn't get to see much of the game - you say we peformed poorly, was that due to us not turning up or West Brom nullifying our play?
Too much doom and gloom on here. The truth is that we played as well as West Brom let us play and they are a good, good side. Sure, we had too many misplaced passes, lacked the control and the intensity of previous weeks and too often we didn't offer enough options to our man with the ball. But we limited their chances for an hour and, with a bit of luck, might have held on. We did well to keep the game tight until well into the second half but they deserved to win, no question. I counted us having two shots on goal, both more of a threat to the crowd than to the back of the net.
For their first goal, we allowed their man far too much room and time (see "lack of intensity", above) and, of course, Lumley looked like a startled deer in the headlights when the shot came. I thought their second came after what should have been a yellow card rather than a red (he wasn't really in control of the ball and had moved away from goal a bit). Plus, they took the resulting free kick quite centrally when, in fact, the foul was much close to the corner of the penalty area (directly below me in C block). But what's 10 yards between friends?
I thought we had some good performances: Leistner was our MOTM and Manning and Chair looked mostly capable. Eze was decent, albeit not at his best. Lumley at least partly redeemed himself with a handful of good to very good saves late on when we were chasing the game and starting to leave gaps. Neither Hugill and, especially, Wells were at their best but West Brom were limiting the creative opportunities that came their way. We gave a lot of ball to Kane and he was not at his best; I'm not convinced that he's going to offer us enough going forward for the rest of the season. I would have liked to see Bright come off the bench earlier but I'm not sure his style really fits into a 3-5-2 and we seemed to persevere with that formation after he came on, although things were getting a bit frantic by then so it was difficult to draw too many conclusions.
It's a reality check: on the basis of this game, we're not yet one of the top 6 teams in the division but we've come on a long, long way from last season and, with this squad and manager, we will improve. Let's keep the expectations in check. Onwards and upwards.
Too much doom and gloom on here. The truth is that we played as well as West Brom let us play and they are a good, good side. Sure, we had too many misplaced passes, lacked the control and the intensity of previous weeks and too often we didn't offer enough options to our man with the ball. But we limited their chances for an hour and, with a bit of luck, might have held on. We did well to keep the game tight until well into the second half but they deserved to win, no question. I counted us having two shots on goal, both more of a threat to the crowd than to the back of the net.
For their first goal, we allowed their man far too much room and time (see "lack of intensity", above) and, of course, Lumley looked like a startled deer in the headlights when the shot came. I thought their second came after what should have been a yellow card rather than a red (he wasn't really in control of the ball and had moved away from goal a bit). Plus, they took the resulting free kick quite centrally when, in fact, the foul was much close to the corner of the penalty area (directly below me in C block). But what's 10 yards between friends?
I thought we had some good performances: Leistner was our MOTM and Manning and Chair looked mostly capable. Eze was decent, albeit not at his best. Lumley at least partly redeemed himself with a handful of good to very good saves late on when we were chasing the game and starting to leave gaps. Neither Hugill and, especially, Wells were terribly effective but West Brom were limiting the creative opportunities that came their way. We gave a lot of ball to Kane and he didn't do too much with it of any note; I'm not convinced that he's going to offer us enough going forward for the rest of the season. I would have liked to see Bright come off the bench earlier but I'm not sure his style really fits into a 3-5-2 and we seemed to persevere with that formation after he came on, although things were getting a bit frantic by then so it was difficult to draw too many conclusions.
It's a reality check: on the basis of this game, we're not yet one of the top 6 teams in the division but we've come on a long, long way from last season and, with this squad and manager, we will improve. Let's keep the expectations in check. Onwards and upwards.
I saw on the Official he only has to miss 1 game and will be available for Blackburn, which surprised me because I thought you got a 3 game ban for a straight red? I never saw the Ref show a yellow before the Red, but you are right he was booked earlier, so suppose he was sent off for 2 yellows, and only the 1 game out?Good post Rodney.....
The only thing is that Barbet would have been off anyway with a yellow as he'd already been booked in first half.....