Middlesbrough 2 - West Bromwich Albion 1

Date:	Friday 19th September 2025
Competition:	Sky Bet Championship
Middlesbrough: 6.3	(3-4-2-1) Brynn, Ayling, Edmundson (Silvera, 42), Jones, Brittain, Morris, Hackney (Kanté, 80), Targett, Nypan (Whittaker, 80), Conway (Browne, 63), Strelec (Sène, 46) Unused subs: McLaughlin, Burgzorg, Bangura, Hansen
WBA: 5.1	(4-2-3-1) Griffiths 5.6, Campbell 5.1, Phillips 6.0, Mepham 6.1, Styles 4.9, Molumby 4.4, Mowatt 4.9 (Collyer, 62 5.9), Wallace 4.3 (Johnston, 63 6.9), Price 5.0, Diakité 4.3 (Maja, 76 5.8), Heggebø 5.5 Unused subs: Wildsmith, Bielik, Gilchrist, Iling-Junior, Taylor, Bostock Manager: Ryan Mason 3.9
Scorers:	Strelec (26), Sène (61); Heggebø (90)
Referee:	Andrew Kitchen 7.0
Attendance:	27,803 Home Fans 5.2 Away Fans 6.7

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Ratings submitted so far: 15

Brendan Clegg:

Our second loss on the bounce in a tough run.

Whilst plenty of people were annoyed with the lineup, you could at least see the logic in it. Go up there, spoil the game, be solid and then possibly try and go for it and nick a goal. There are times for me when this approach makes sense… midweek away games with a quick turnaround… but it felt a bit unambitious here.

Still, I was fine with it and resolved that ultimately what happened in the game would be the fairest judge.

I thought we were okay in the opening period. We were solid enough, had plenty of the ball, created some half chance moments. We were narrow on the left which left Styles with no out ball. On the right we had the same issue as against Derby… Campbell never going to overlap, Wallace unable to go past anyone so coming backwards and sideways; the result of their combo being either that crosses were totally speculative and hit an early defender or required such quick and elaborate build up play to release one of them in enough space that we simply didn’t have the creativity to do it.

Molumby in the 10 was a pretty obvious error - no attacking instinct, gets around but the choices made are poor. Price gives you energy and height in there anyway and isn’t a slacker defensively.

Despite all of these things it was going alright but the gameplan went out of the window after half an hour when we conceded a cheap goal from a long throw. For whatever reason, Campbell, Phillips and Mepham all went charging to win the first header when at least 1 needed to hold. It left our 6 yard line totally open and their attacker had the easiest tap-in.

Really Mason then had 15 minutes for the ‘what now’ at half time. What frustrates me is that very clever football coaches with all the qualifications in the world and even loads of playing/managing experience often come to the same conclusion in these situations and in this division; do nothing and see how it goes. Football fans who have watched Championship football for decades know that this almost never works. It is not the Premier League where huge disparities in wealth and quality mean you are better off keeping it at 1 and then going for broke in the last 5 minutes.

If it’s not working… change it. If the very understandable plan has failed… try something else. Inaction is the worst thing. No team at this level is so much better that what you do is irrelevant. Every team will concede under pressure.

The same Albion team came out. As Eustace did last week, Edwards made a positive attacking tweak.

We had a go for 15 minutes and were on top but the quality wasn’t there. Price’s header was as good a chance as anything created in the game but it was difficult between 2 defenders and he was fractions away from getting it right. Diakite had a swing inside the box and struck it well but it was straight at the keeper and not in either corner.

We had a couple of other moments where both Mowatt and Wallace lacked any sort of composure in quite dangerous situations, both wildly shooting early when there were options on to create better chances.

It was so clear we needed players like Maja and Johnston on the pitch and we needed them at HT.

As our subs were being readied Borough killed the game… their HT attacker clinically finishing off a good move although our midfield was too easy to play through and didn’t track runners.

That was it really… subs came on, MJ looked busy and creative, Maja still didn’t arrive until very late, we huffed and puffed and another MJ assist gave Heggebø his first league goal.

In summary, the result is bad, annoying and we probably got what we deserved but we shouldn’t get carried away. We were not miles off it, it was close, we had similar half chances and hopefully Mason has learned some lessons- that’s the key bit; that he learns fast from this and understands that with our players still out, our squad isn’t good enough to try and be clever and leave our best creative players out of the first 11, or to have players in attacking roles out of their natural positions.

There were better options available to go there tonight, still be solid but still have more going forward - start Taylor and push Styles up to the wing, play Price on the right or where Molumby was, start Johnston and/or Maja and/or Collyer.

Big game against Leicester now and a result is needed.

Griffiths - 6 Did okay, routine stops. Goals not on him.
Campbell - 6 Fine, but needs more in front of otherwise the needs on the ball are just beyond him.
Phillips - 7 Really the 1st goal was his only error all night.
Mepham - 7 As above.
Styles - 6 Had nothing ahead of him as Price came inside. Kept going.
Mowatt - 6 got caught a few times and some choices not the best but sound enough.
Diakite - 5 Started poorly and looked very rusty but improved in the role he did, just wasn’t the role the game needed. Will do a job if needed.
Wallace - 5 honest but ineffective apart from 1 good cross.
Molumby - 5 total fish out of water. Worked hard but lost.
Price - 5 Couldn’t influence it.
Heggebø - 5 isolated and little service, goal from nothing will hopefully help him.

Collyer - 6 Did okay.
MJ - 7 was just instantly miles better than anything else we had, another assist.

The others didn’t have long enough.

Kev Buckley:

R E S P E C T - Shouldn't mean a midfield three.

(with apologies to Aretha)

Can't help thinking that we just showed Boro way too much respect for way too long in this one.

Despite the fact that we had two good chances at the start of each half, the change of shape and personnel pretty much robbed us of any creativity, with an approach, and line-up, that wasn't changed until after we'd gone two down.

Mason, in bringing in Diakite for Johnston, went with three, all too similar, keep it ticking over, players, who never looked likely to affect the game, in midfield, whilst ahead of them, Price, who's the closest thing to a Number 10 we have, got moved out wide left, where he never looked likely to affect the game, whilst Wallace and Heggebø just didn't look on it for most of the game, with Campbell often looking more likely to create from the right.

Perhaps, as if to set the scene for an inability to affect the game via the midfield and forwards, it would be a centre-back, Phillips, to whom the really early chance fell, although a defender just got enough on his shot

Five minutes later, Boro worked a shooting chance from our left but shot wide, and fifteen minutes after that, we gave the ball away twice, with poor passing out from the back attempts, which forced Griffiths into saving at his near post as Boro got in around the back, on our right.

Heggebø, for whom very little had been "sticking" up front, not that most, if any, of the balls played towards him had given him much to work with, then got muscled off the ball as a long throw was flicked on, just before the half-hour, and left the player he was marking with a tap-in from inside our six-yard box.

Mason had clearly seen enough signs of creativity to leave things exactly as they had been after the break and perhaps, unlike me, he had actually seen something, given that Price would fail to turn a glorious cross from Wallace into an on-target statistic, with a header from inside the six-yard box and dead centre - a gilt-edged chance.

As fifty passed, Molumby would fail to fashion a chance from a decent position inside the box, before another of the midfield three, who offered so little offensively all game, would at least pull a save out of the Boro keeper, on the hour, Diakite getting off a snap shot, following a bit of pin-ball in the box.

Shortly after that though, I think I counted Boro putting seven quick passes together, all of which that saw the ball moving forwards (as opposed to Albion's typical forward; back; forward; back; forward; sideways moves) that ended up with a shot from the penalty spot curling around the defender's diving block, and going in off the inside of the post.

If Mason had thought that his starting XI had shown that they had enough in them to come back from a goal down, then he was clearly less certain about their ability to fashion, let alone score two, and so finally made some immediate changes, although Johnston for Wallace, and Collyer for Mowatt didn't really change the formation nor the approach, leaving, as it did, Price out wide.

At least Maja for Diakite with fifteen to go, finally dispensed with that overly reverential 4-3-3, but we still wouldn't really create all that much until the very last minute of normal time, when Johnston, now over on the left, slung one in that Heggebø jumped, in contest with a defender and the keeper, for and got a glance on it that took it over both of them and into the net.

The five minutes of stoppage time didn't see us going for broke against a surely slightly nervous home side though, and so they saw the game out, and took all three points: two more than I think our original game plan was supposed to see them take.

Given that it is quite some time before we play another side yet to lose, we can only hope that Mason won't be starting all three of Mowatt, Molumby and Diakite, any time soon.