West Bromwich Albion 2 - Oxford United 1

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Ratings submitted so far: 15

Brendan Clegg:

Certainly eyebrows raised at the lineup. I’m all for trying different things but with Bielik and Mepham on the bench and an international break coming up, Taylor was an interesting choice over them both.

I thought it might be 3 at the back and maybe a 3-4-3 but we were definitely in a back 4 from the off and during the half.

We were pretty dominant. Oxford had very little and we bossed it but for all our superiority the only real attacking idea was to give it to Mikey Johnston and hope.

He did plenty… shots that went close, crosses that were blocked or not read by our attackers. Everything else was hopeful or speculative rather than creative against an Oxford team set up like a typical one of Gary Rowett’s.

We attacked as we are… short on confidence and belief but the effort was there. However, once again despite our dominance their keeper had not really made a save and Griffiths was arguably busier. After 20-30 minutes we sort of ran out of gas.

There were some boos at HT that I felt were a bit harsh given how on top we’d been, but clearly a well under-capacity and underwhelmed crowd reflecting their feelings on the part few games as much as this.

Second half it looked like we did change shape a bit with Styles pushing into midfield and a back 3. We continued to push but on a rare break Oxford broke down our left, and Mowatt was totally done for pace in an area Styles might previously have been in. They crossed and Lankshear finished but it was oh so easy… no defence to be seen!

Whether we finally got some luck or not, the boos and negative chants will still ringing out as MJ got on the ball and fed Styles who whipped in a cross that was turned into their own net by Oxford. Celebrations and signs of life!

It felt like Mason went for subs earlier than usual with Maja, who had been a passenger really, and the more decent Diakite swapped for Heggebø and Molumby.

We kept up the aggression and tempo without really working much but before too long Grant slipped in Price who crossed for Heggebø to head really well home.

I thought from then on it was a bit of a struggle as Molumby didn’t really get up to speed and Gilchrist again looked to be struggling past 70 mins… he got done a few times and eventually Collyer and SIJ came on to give us some energy.

It didn’t regain control for us but it did give us legs on the break and they helped us engineer a few situations where we should really have put the game to bed - SIJ especially.

Oxford clearly were under instruction to pepper Griffiths with shots from distance and they did, but he made a few decent if routine stops and we saw it out.

You obviously want Albion to win and we did play okay but also we can’t ignore how close this was to being another terrible result against a really poor opposition team as bad as anything in the league.

It changes nothing for me. I still hope to be proved wrong on Mason though.

• Griffiths - 6 Routine saves but he made them.
• Gilchrist - 6 promise, had got a right wanger of a throw on him, gassed and cramped on 70
• Phillips - 6 throws himself at everything. I have never seen a defender so confidently and effortlessly pass the ball to the opposition with such aplomb. And his range of passing the ball to the opposition is particularly impressive; long, short, around the corner, he can even stride out and give everyone the eyes before then reverse passing it inside to the opposition. Majestic.
• Taylor - 6 mostly solid, where was he for the goal?
• Grant - 6 Ran hard, put himself about, looked after the ball quite well. Fair play.
• Mowatt - 6 Had loads of it and decent but got destroyed for their goal
• Price - 6 loads of effort and running, also showed dribbling and passing skills.
• Diakite - 7 I thought he looked confident again and was a bit unlucky to be hooked.
• Styles - 6 mostly positive, usual energy and effort
• Maja - 5 just not sharp, quick or confident
• MJ - 7 we were a bit of a one man team, did some brilliant things and never stopped trying

• Molumby - 5 a bit rusty and not with the pace
• Heggebø - 6 brilliant goal and looked better after it
• Collyer - 6 thought he looked bright, carried it really well
• SUJ - 6 positive impact, really should have scored
• Bielik - 6 solid