West Bromwich Albion 0 - Sheffield Wednesday 0

Date:	Saturday 1st November 2025
Competition:	Sky Bet Championship
WBA: 4.0	(4-2-3-1) Griffiths 5.4, Gilchrist 5.2 (Bielik, 70 4.6), Phillips 5.3, Mepham 5.3 (Dike, 92 4.0), Styles 4.6 (Taylor, 71 4.3), Diakité 6.0, Mowatt 4.5, Iling-Junior 3.0 (Grant, 60 3.6), Price 3.6 (Heggebø, 71 3.4), Johnston 6.5, Maja 4.3 Unused subs: Wildsmith, Bany, Deeming, Bostock Manager: Ryan Mason 2.7
Sheff W: 4.4	(3-4-2-1) Horvath, Palmer, Iorfa, Lowe, Fusire, Valery, Lowe (Fernandes, 93), Bannan, Amass, Ingelsson (McNeill, 80), Ugbo (Cadamarteri, 80) Unused subs: Stretch, Otegbayo, Johnson, Emery, Alao, Thornton
Referee:	Ben Toner 4.4
Attendance:	23,622 Home Fans 4.6 Away Fans 6.7

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Ratings submitted so far: 25

Brendan Clegg:

Oh dear. Purely as a result, given the state of the opposition, that was one of the worst in 20 odd years. Wednesday had spirit and a couple of okay players but that was it… they were absolutely there for a routine victory but we couldn’t do it.

The lineup I thought was okay given availability and we began at a high tempo, creating some openings. It was all us but our final passes, shots and crosses were rushed or poor in the opening period and then, after Wednesday survived our initial period of pressure, they managed to get Bannon on the ball to slow things down.

But… it has to be said, they were poor and offered nothing. Our biggest problem for the rest of the half was our tempo and urgency. We won it back loads but every time we did our first pass was backwards or sideways. We didn’t gamble enough on getting it forward straight on the transition.

I think a lot of our problems were tactical/via instructions;

MJ and SIJ both came narrow too often but our fullbacks did not push on so it was pointless… and it meant we needed 8 passes to build an attack.

Our set plays were poor and, despite seeing Gilchrist has a monster throw, we didn’t use it.

We also need our defenders and fullbacks to be braver in carrying the ball forward themselves to commit the opponent rather than always stopping dead on the halfway line. Gilchrist did this once, driving forward to beat a man and it opened up our best move of the half only for Maja’s control to let him down when he’d have been in on goal.

The longer it went on the more boring and frustrating it got and there were some grumbles as the ref blew for HT.

No changes at the break was just about understandable but also reflected a lack of urgency. Many would have expected two up top or something. And within 10 minutes there was nothing to show that we’d look any more threatening other than really hoping MJ would do something spectacular.

The changes then were a bit frustrating… Grant for SIJ, who was poor, but keeping the same system and a lone striker didn’t yield any greater threat.

With 20 to go Heggeboe, Taylor and Bielik came on. We did, sort of, go a mixture of 4-4-2 and 3-5-2 but it just looked a mess and you’d have to ask why, with Wednesday so poor, we went for 2 defensive fullbacks and didn’t get Bostock, Dike or Bany on.

I thought there was a shameful period where Wednesday looked more likely to score before we regained control but there was no clear cut chance or nearly moment and with minutes to go we chucked on Dike.

Just because it demonstrates our approach… there was a moment when we won a free kick in our own half late in the game and Phillips took it, passing it back to Griffiths who then nearly hit their player clearing it and you have to ask-

Why didn’t Griffiths take the free kick himself and put it up there for our then two strikers?

Why did Phillips pass it backwards if he was taking it… why not go forward quickly?

Why did Griffiths take so long when it came to him?

All things point to lacking a plan or lacking urgency.

I felt this was must win. It didn’t ever feel like we were that close to it which is pretty damning.

There was a period under Ismael where the results he managed to get early doors and which really belied the performances under him began to dry up, and it almost felt like we needed the bad results to come together quickly in succession to exit him early but we held on too long.

I fear we’re at that point, but it’s pretty sad, and I’m not sure of the other options out there right now.

Griffiths - 6 Not a lot to do. A bit slow on kicking but fine.
Gilchrist - 6 there were some encouraging signs but we need him to finish a game.
Phillips - 6 won’t have an easier day
Mepham - 6 ditto
Styles - 5 he wasn’t great but taking him off for a more defensive option at 0-0 seemed a bit daft
Mowatt - 6 fine but everything went through him at his pace and it slowed us down
Diakite - 7 a lot to like, winning it well and covering ground, and the games will be helping him BUT I’d have taken him off with 25 to go for more attacking options
SIJ - 4 had a bad one. Lack of concentration but also never given it quick enough and too narrow too often.
Price - 5 ran about but is not a schemer and so if he doesn’t score he contributes little
MJ - 6 at least had a go but we needed him to hug the touchline and often he was deep and narrow
Maja - 5 glimpses of class but little service and looked rusty. We’ve got to persevere with him

Grant - 5 I mean he tried but there was nothing there.
Heggeboe - 4 did he touch it?
Taylor - 5 everything backwards
Bielik - 7 looked decent and passed it really well
Dike - what was the point?

There is such a quick turn around that you wonder will Charlton be any different, other than they are way better than Wednesday…