West Bromwich Albion 0 - Coventry City 2

Date:	Saturday 21st February 2026
Competition:	Sky Bet Championship
WBA: 3.1	(4-2-3-1) O'Leary 5.1, Gilchrist 2.1 (Campbell, 40 4.7), Bielik 4.6, Taylor 3.9, Styles 5.7, Molumby 4.6, Mowatt 4.5 (Bostock, 85 4.8), Wallace 5.5 (Maja, 61 4.3), Price 3.9, Jimoh-Aloba 2.9 (Johnston, 61 4.5), Heggebø 3.7 (Dike, 61 4.2) Unused subs: Wallis, Phillips, Diakité, Imray Manager: Eric Ramsay 1.6
Coventry: 6.1	(4-2-3-1) Rushworth, van Ewijk, Thomas, Latibeaudiere, Dasilva, Onyeka (Torp, 86), Grimes, Sakamoto (Esse, 78), Rudoni (Eccles, 72), Mason-Clark (Thomas-Asante, 78), Wright (Simms, 71) Unused subs: Wilson, Kitching, Bidwell, Woolfenden
Scorers:	Rudoni (32), Mason-Clark (5)
Referee:	James Linington (Isle of Wight) 6.2

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Ratings submitted so far: 15

Brendan Clegg:

It’s bad. Very bad.

After, rightly or wrongly (rightly in my view) going with loads of changes for Norwich we entered our biggest week of the season.

And I really felt that before the game we somehow needed to take 7 points from the next 9 for any hope of survival. Anything less should be curtains for Ramsay immediately and a lady Hail Mary change from us… with whatever we can afford or Mozza if we can’t afford anything.

As soon as I saw the lineup I was worried. No pace in the back 4 or the team at all really against a side full of it. I was hoping to see Campbell and Phillips back in and MJ starting too.

But as we were I felt the best we could hope for was an ugly draw and then to go for it in the next two games. I hoped. I didn’t really believe.

The prematch didn’t leave me feeling better. Loads of empty seats and some weird new music instead of the Liquidator that I couldn’t even hear on our notoriously terrible PA system.

The opening minutes were positive. Wallace on receiving the ball could have done our usual sideways backwards stuff but he just had a go, went for it and forced some early momentum.

But it was all undone on 5 minutes when we conceded a park goal via an up under ball behind our slow back line. O’Leary came and seemed to take the sting out of the lob of the player who raced through as we slept and from the back of the Smethwick it looked like Gilchrist would get back to clear but he seemed to let it bounce and then be utterly deceived by the height of the bounce and in it went.

Absolutely abysmal and game plan out of the window then.

There then followed a period where we did okay, gave as good as we got. Coventry were no great shakes and made plenty of errors but our quality time and again was poor.

As it went in it became more obvious that we had 3 major problems to sort - our entire left was abandoned again by Jamma leaving Styles and us with no options there but also not covering back; at right back on the ball Gilchrist was having an absolute nightmare with the absolute basics of receiving the ball with an open body… Mattock-esque; and finally Price was once again all running but zero quality or contribution.

Another low quality foray into their half saw us cough up the ball with Mowatt and Molumby pressed high. Nobody got back, our defence retreated due to its lack of pace and their player put it in our top corner having galloped 30 yards without a tackle.

There was still time for Gilchrist to commit what looked like a foul for a penalty before he was put out of his misery before halftime for Campbell, who should’ve started anyway.

Second half we had spells of pressure and some really dangerous situations but we were crap to the point where I don’t recall their keeper making a save. Coventry looked more likely to get a 3rd.

Overall it is fair to say we limited them and got into as many dangerous situations as they did and yet we were comfortably beaten. We don’t look like we’ve done any passing or attacking drills in training for months. Our movement off the ball quickly to provide options for teammates is really poor… hence we lose it a lot really cheaply. Sometimes with our positional play it is baffling why we make it so hard for ourselves but that lack of effort to sprint 5 yards in order to give a teammate an easy ball is deeply worrying.

It is a ludicrous thing to do but Ramsay needs to go now - he cannot salvage this situation as a coach who is miles off being experienced enough to handle this. We needed a draw today and it never looked likely. His record is atrocious. We have nothing to lose at this point.

O’Leary - 6 was fine, didn’t think he was at fault
Gilchrist - 3 really bad. First touch put us under pressure and culpable for both goals
Bielik - 5 too slow and every game physically looks like climbing Everest for him
Taylor - 5 I know he’s done okay but his lack of pace means we’re always in trouble. Shouldn’t have started as harsh as that is.
Styles - 7 effort, aggression, tried to keep it, had zero help in front of him
Mowatt - 6 on the ball fine enough but has to play the game at his own pace
Molumby - 6 got about… we were not overwhelmed in the middle
Wallace - 6 direct and tried to make things happen.
Price - 5 Another game where you cannot fault his running or effort but, in his position and in the worst championship ever, his numbers for goals and assists is woeful. No end product for more than half a season.
Jamma - 4 clearly got talent but it’s been obvious from the first game he isn’t a left winger. Not surprising that this was exposed even more against the team top of the league. Also doesn’t look fit enough.
Heggebø - 5 Some okay moments but often isolated and there doesn’t seem to be any attacking plan. Made some cheap errors too.

Campbell - 6 not brilliant and the dive was embarrassing but has to start and gave us a bit of athleticism and fight
MJ - 5 nothing really came off
Maja - 5 ran as much as he can, it was pretty pointless
Dike - 5 is leaner but the harsh reality is it makes him less effective as a bully. He’s not impacting games or looking like a threat at all.
Bostock - 6 looked after the ball… I’d have given him a lot longer

It looks like Ramsay is going to be given longer which feels like the same mistake we made with Mason. It would be different if we saw signs that we might win a game but they are not there… even a win on Tuesday wouldn’t be enough for me.

A cheeky plug - I'm running the Manchester Full Marathon for Refuge on April 19th... if you can sponsor me the price of a pint that'd be amazing. I will be giving a hearty BAGGIIIIIEEEES shout as I run past Old Trafford. Thanks!

Link: Brendan's fundraiser for Refuge

Kev Buckley:

Bottom four side in loss to table toppers shock

Since when was the prospect of a side, just above the bottom three, losing to a side, top of the table and seeming nailed on for promotion, been reason enough to claim that such a result might signal the end for a manager, and yet that seemed to have been the narrative, in both the local and national media, ahead of Coventry's visit to The Hawthorns: really?

Two changes from the last league game's starting XI saw specialist full-back Gilchrist replacing specialist wing-back Imray at right back, whilst Bieliek had recovered enough, from his first half injury in the Cup loss, to partner Taylor in the back four.

Albion had started brightly with Price, if not getting on the ball much, certainly putting in a shift harrying the Coventry backline, but then, after just five minutes, it all started to look a bit familiar.

Jimoh-Aloba, once again trying to do a bit too much when coming inside, lost the ball whilst dribbling just inside the centre circle on Coventry's side of halfway, and a quick lookup to asses the space resulted in a lovely pass being floated over the top of all the Albion players between the ball and edge of our box, into which space their left-sided attacker ran, unchallenged by Gilchrist, to lob O'Leary from the edge of our area. Even though the keeper got a touch on it, it didn't take enough pace off it to allow Gilchrist to recover and clear it off the line.

Just after the half hour and Albion, developing an opportunity upfield on our left, gave the ball away once again, only to then back off as a Coventry player ran all the way across from inside his own half into the right-back area at the top of our box, from where he accepted the invite to smash it home.

Gilchrist wouldn't even see the half out, with Campbell replacing him some ten minutes later, although Bielik had been equally guilty in the backing off.

Just before the forty-five passed, Heggebø, yet again having had absolutely nothing by way of creative service from those behind him, gave up on a fine cross from Styles, thinking the defender in front off him would cut it out, and was then on his heels when the ball did run into the space that would have allowed him to try to finish from the penalty spot.

The on-the-hours subs saw the number nine pulled, without having had any more decent service, along with Wallace and Jimoh-Aloba, for Maja, Dike and Johnston: Price moving out wide right to give us a shape with two nominal strikers.

I thought we'd had our first on-target shot as 67 passed, after a pull-back from Price, which had seemingly gone behind both strikers, ended up with Styles, but apparently, his blocked goalbound effort didn't count.

With about ten left, the ball dropped for Price at the back post but the Sky Blues keeper got his angles correct and blocked what the official stats did consider to be our first, and would turn out to be our only, effort on goal.

Bostock would get on for a fifth-sub run-out with five left, but by then Coventry were coasting home, and quite a few of the home fans were already heading for theirs, not that the volume of the boos of those remaining would have left the manager or the players with any doubts as to their thoughts on the performance, even if the result was probably what many would had expected.

But for a late Stoke equaliser against Leicester, the Albion would have slipped into the bottom three, and with Charlton on Tuesday, slated as the next "make or break" game, seeing our opponents arrive in B71 six points ahead of us, by virtue of one win and three draws more, we may well be relying on Stoke to do us another favour, by beating Oxford before we play the latter in what could well be a "basement battle" at the weekend.

I'm not really seeing what Ramsay is giving us that Mason wouldn't have, other than that brief flirtation with a back-three that saw the club bring in the seemingly now surplus to requirements Imray, to help the man from Minnesota play the way he wanted: something which he isn't even doing now?