West Bromwich Albion 2 - Middlesbrough 3

Date:	Friday 16th January 2026
Competition:	Sky Bet Championship
WBA: 5.2	(5-4-1) Griffiths 4.9, Johnston 5.3, Mepham 3.9 (Campbell, 76 4.8), Phillips 4.8 (Dike, 92 4.6), Taylor 3.0, Iling-Junior 5.5, Price 5.4, Bielik 4.9 (Wallace, 64 6.7), Styles 6.1, Grant 6.1, Heggebø 5.1 (Maja, 64 5.8) Unused subs: Wildsmith, Gilchrist, Deeming, Whitwell, Bostock Manager: Eric Ramsay 5.1
Middlesbrough: 6.5	(4-4-2) Brynn, Browne, Malanda, Ayling, Targett, Silvera, Hackney, Morris, Gilbert (Burgzorg, 65), Whittaker (Fry, 82), Conway (Castledine, 92) Unused subs: McLaughlin, Munroe, Nypan, Hansen, McCabe, Kanté
Scorers:	Price (75), Wallace (80); Taylor (42 og), Silvera (58), Burgzorg (90)
Referee:	Josh Smith 5.5

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Ratings submitted so far: 20

Brendan Clegg:

The beginning of a new era sadly ended with a similar result - chucking points away we shouldn’t do late in the game.

I think when the lineup was revealed and we saw our lack of availability in central midfield, it felt like this was a bit of a free pass of a game and we’d do well to get a point. We were all interested to see the shape.

From the off we were deep - with SIJ and Mikey J effectively playing as fullbacks in a back 5, and a 4 man midfield ahead of it with Heggebø ahead of the others.

In the opening 20 minutes it did feel like we looked properly coached for the first time this season - whether it is the style many of us would like is another thing - but we looked organised, hard to get through and we broke quickly with intent… there was no messing about to get the ball forward and into areas of danger.

We should’ve taken the lead either through Heggebø robbing the defender but then taking too many touches, or Mepham putting a decent chance over. Other teams finish these.

For the rest of the half I felt we struggled- long spells without the ball, not looking after it as well, hoofs to Heggebø who won plenty of flick ons to no support. But we still looked solid enough.

Bad habits though… close to half time and a few players switched off/didn't track properly and a few passes enabled a clear shot on our goal from the edge of the box which hit the post before Taylor got his feet in a mess and spooned it into the top corner.

The crowd had been quiet anyway - the deep defensive style will inevitably lead to this - but there were groans.

We ended the half with a decent attack and SIJ sending a drive wide.

No changes after the break, and we struggled a bit. It was becoming clearer that MJ was getting the ball too deep and, physically, is not a powerful player who can do the job that was being asked of him.

We conceded a 2nd goal which seemed far too easy… backing off without pressing the ball and it was rifled in across goal from 22 yards or so.

Some credit to Ramsay who then made changes- Maja for Heggebø and Wallace for Bielik - and shuffled the system with Wallace to wing back on the right, Price alongside Styles, Grant up top and Maja and MJ in sort of wide 10 roles.

Our hustling and unorthodox shape gave them problems. We won a free kick which looked like a penalty, but no matter as a good routine shifted the ball a yard and Price curled it home superbly.

The crowd woke up, we lifted again and after another spell our shape and system created another opening - SIJ’s cross deflecting into the path of the open Wallace who finished it superbly.

You know what happens next. I’d like to say we went hard… pushed for the win and got suckered, but we didn’t.

We didn’t get the ball again much, lost too many challenges, allowed pressure to build and then got caught unbelievably square, slow and narrow to enable Borough a winner in the 90th minute… undoing all that energy and positivity.

The summary - encouraging in that there was a purpose and plan to what we were doing and there were changes that worked. We need results now so I doubt anyone will care about the style of play as long as results come, but I can’t see the crowds flooding back or the atmosphere building if that’s the long term approach though.

I think Ramsay has got to be pretty brutal pretty quickly with the poor performers and weed them out. We need to find a way to do some transfer business.

A word finally for the interim coaches who got a result at Swansea last week. I agree with many that Myhill looks too unfit to coach, but there were lots of calls for a full clear out of coaches. All successful organisations need continuity to manage change and in senior football coaching regular change is inevitable. I felt Mozza did a solid job last week, got a result and spoke with a humility and genuine care for the club. You need to keep those types around provided they are willing to take different roles for different regimes and implement their ideas faithfully.

Griffiths - 6 Okay. Is his starting position right? For a big guy he got nowhere near the shots for all 3 goals. Does he need to be 3-4 yards further forward to narrow angles?
Mepham - 6 Still looks like he doesn’t really care to me
Phillips - 6 Was okay enough but needed to read their 3rd much better
Taylor - 3 Can’t play again can he? Legs are toast. All 3 goals on him… the first was not unlucky it came a fair distance, 2nd and 3rd were really poor.
MJ - 5 Felt he struggled understandably. Did a job. Better when moved.
Bielik - 5 passed it quite well. Did seem to tire.
Styles - 6 Decent, got about.
SIJ - 7 Probably his best game in his best position… one he’s built for. Looked far more natural.
Price - 5 good goal, lots of running but little product
Heggebø - 6 worked hard, had to score that chance
Grant - 6 Ran and stretched them. Had a go.

Maja - 5 some decent touches but not aggressive enough
Wallace - 6 top finish
Campbell - 5 didn’t have much to do

Have to win Tuesday. Have to find a way.

Kev Buckley:

Not so much Ramsey's wing-less wonders as Ramsay's full-back-less wonders, as the new manager, deprived of a first choice midfield three (Molumby, Mowatt, and Diakite all unavailable) switched to a 3-4-3, with Bielik and Styles flanked by Johnston and Iling-Junior. Ahead of them, Price, Heggebø and Grant, with Phillips and Mepham joined by Taylor at the back.

Within two minutes, Heggebø nicked the ball on the edge of the Boro box but couldn't finish from inside it, before Iling-Junior had a break that came to nothing, and Heggebø and Grant combined, via a couple of nice flicks to win a corner, which only resulted in Mepham failing to hit the target, and this all in the first ten.

The next ten saw Iling-Junior have another run that led to a corner and Grant set free down the middle but ending up drifting wide and having to stop and come back, a petering out of an opportunity that he'd reprise on thirty-three.

Boro then started to find space through the middle of our defence, firstly with a free shot from the edge of the box that was too weak to trouble Griffiths, but then taking the lead with another free shot that came back off the post, hit Taylor to send the ball goalwards again, but this time going in off the same post.

There'd still be time for Iling-Junior to play a one-two with Styles before dragging a shot across the goal, before the whistle blew for half-time.

Albion had already wasted one free-kick well up the field before Boro went two up, once again carving us open through the middle, first as Phillips tried to step up but failed to make the tackle, only to then get back goal-side of an attacker, but, along with Taylor, failing to prevent that attacker from getting off a scoring shot from the edge of the box, shortly before the hour.

Wallace had been ready to come on, on the hour, but by the time there was a break in play to allow that substitution to be made, it'd turned into a double one: Maja coming on for Heggebø, who hadn't really done anything wrong, other than failing to get onto the end of some awful long hoofs out from the back.

With Wallace replacing Bielik though, even Maja for Heggebø wasn't the like for like it might have seemed, as wholesale positional changes saw Price dropping back alongside Styles, Grant moving central, and Johnston moving up and over to the left of the forward three, allowing Wallace to "slot in" at right wing-back.

Broo should have put the game to bed on seventy, when the tallest player on the pitch had a free header some ten yards out but, in heading it downwards, saw it bounce up and over the bar rather than up into the roof of the net.

Grant, not someone who's ever looked much cop in the central striker role, somehow seemed to have learnt how to play there, firstly with a one-two with Maja, albeit resulting in a poor shot, but then winning a free-kick on the edge of the box and dead central, although replays suggested it should have been a penalty, as he was fouled about a yard inside, something which the linesman, who had a clear view of things, failed to bring to the attention of the referee - they never do these days, do they?

No matter though, as a two-tap wobble of the ball allowed Price - who up to then had failed to affect the game at all, other than to give away numerous silly little fouls - to caress a shot around the wall and into the side netting - keeper: no chance - with a quarter of the game left. Price's execution of the shot makes you wonder why he blazes so many high and wide whenever he hits one all angles, in open play.

Campbell came on to remove the, by then, yellow-card carrying Mepham, before Price reverted to form and shot off target, only for Iling-Junior - man of the match, and at left-wing-back too, for me - drove forwards again and pulled back a cross, possibly a bit too deep, but which a defender could only help on into the path of Wallace, arriving on the right side of the box and he drove a shot back across goal and into the far side netting.

Sadly, with about a minute of normal time left, more awful defending through our central area saw three passes tear us apart, and Boro scored what would turn out to be the winner: the "hail-Mary" swap of Dike for Phillips notwithstanding.

Really hard to know what to take from Ramsay's first outing that wasn't already well known from Mason's tenure - although conceding that goal at the end would have been a cruel reminder of the manner of the result that saw the latter getting the boot - in that we have little to no creativity through the centre of the park, are very short of central striking options, and that we can also look criminally vulnerable through the centre when defending.

Just how Ramsay will be able to do anything, without some new faces at the spine of the side, is exactly the same question, that could have been equally have been posed, of the board, in respect of them deciding to show Mason the door: are you able to back your manager, at this point in the financial rebuild?

Probably worth noting that, following this result, the three sides between us and our fourth-round FA Cup opponents, who currently occupy a drop-zone spot, have two, and in one case three, games in hand, although they are currently below us for a reason, so winning their games in hand clearly isn't a given.