West Bromwich Albion headed to Swindon Town and the County Ground on Saturday and travelling fans were in store for something a little different than they probably expected. Both clubs had agreed to play two 60-minute matches on the day, or hour-long halves if you wish so that Darren Moore and Phil Brown could feature two entirely different sides, should they wish to, in order to get good match minutes into players at this early stage of pre-season preparations.
Matchday ????????#WBA pic.twitter.com/qEhzRYtnHY
— West Bromwich Albion (@WBA) July 14, 2018
West Brom took a 3-1 victory across the two-hour period with goals coming from Jay Rodriguez, Kyle Edwards and Kyle Jameson and our gaffer took full advantage of the arrangement with 22 players taking to the pitch.
James Morrison also got a solid 50 minutes under his belt as he continues his return to fitness following last season’s injury troubles.
Rodriguez opened the scoring after half an hour but our hosts were back on level terms 15 minutes later as Elijah Adebayo tapped home. Six minutes into the second half, we retook the lead with Edwards rounding the goalkeeper to make his mark. Jameson secured the win in the 83nd minute as he stuck a header into the top corner of the goal.
Swindon First half:
Vigouroux, Knoyle, Taylor, Smith, Robertson, Romanski, McGlashan, Alzate, Adebayo, Iandolo, Anderson.
Subs:
Henry, Conroy, Cheshire, Dugan, Bancroft.
Swindon Second half:
McCormick, Dunne, Stanley, Haines, Romanski (Anthony Cheshire 90), Robertson (Ralph Graham 90), Edwards, Young, Sam, Pryce, Twine.
Goals – Adebayo (43).
West Brom First half:
Palmer, Wilson, Fitzwater, Cranie, Richardson, Edwards, Livermore, Brunt, Leko, Morrison (Harper 50), Rodriguez.
West Brom Second half:
Palmer (House 91), Wilson (Dyce 77), Fitzwater (O’Shea 77), Cranie (Jameson 77), Melbourne, Edwards (Burke 77), Barry, Reo-Coker, Tulloch, Harper, Phillips.
Goals – Rodriguez (30), Edwards (66), Jameson (83).
"We wanted to get the group of players more time on the pitch and a lot of them got between 60-75 minutes in."
The gaffer's thoughts on Saturday's friendly with @Official_STFC… đź’¬#WBAhttps://t.co/uG9Sn867gR
— West Bromwich Albion (@WBA) July 15, 2018
Speaking to wba.co.uk following the full time whistle, Moore explained that the result was the ‘icing on the cake’ as he was simply delighted with elements of our play and being able to get so many extra minutes into people.
“It was a great work-out. We wanted to get the group of players more time on the pitch and a lot of them got between 60-75 minutes in. I felt like the players needed a bigger hit than just having 45 minutes and then having to change it. I thank Phil Brown and Swindon’s staff for providing us with this fixture and I hope that it has proved beneficial for both teams.”
Two in two for @KyleEdwardo…
Full highlights ➡️ https://t.co/aUwDygWJ8M#WBA pic.twitter.com/ZbJXWakdqV
— West Bromwich Albion (@WBA) July 15, 2018
Well done boys
— Shaun baggott (@sbag_wba) July 14, 2018
Sign more kyles must be a lesson from today
— Nick B (@nikolaibollokov) July 14, 2018
@KyleEdwardo is on ????????. Good luck for the season ahead. ????
— Sim (@SimmyR28) July 14, 2018
@KyleEdwardo pick of the bunch, looked very lively ????????
— Paul Harris (@Hero_Taylor9) July 14, 2018
Well done lads ????????????????
— Daniel ashe (@Danielashe12) July 14, 2018
Give this kid a chance this season ????????
— Daniel ashe (@Danielashe12) July 14, 2018
Boys on fire ???? miss you both!!
— Exeter City Polls (@ExeterCityPolls) July 14, 2018
Rakeem harper???? i really like this lad
— Daniel ashe (@Danielashe12) July 14, 2018
Great player no chance of getting him back now after tisdale never played him what a bloody joke that was
— Ade ley (@adrianley12) July 14, 2018
Play these exciting young technically good players when the season starts. We are now completely over the Pulis & Pardew era of dinosaur players.
— Shaun Wyer (@SPWyer) July 14, 2018