With West Bromwich Albion seeing three late arrivals in January’s transfer deadline day, fans also had the chance to welcome back former manager Tony Pulis earlier today as he brought his Middlesbrough side to The Hawthorns.
Jacob Murphy and Jefferson Montero came instantly into the thoughts of head coach Darren Moore as they took up positions on the substitutes bench but Stefan Johansen did miss out.
The game proved to be lively as we went into the halftime break tied at 1-1 with Jay Rodriguez levelling matters up in the 42nd minute after the visitors had taken a 17th minute lead, and just after the hour mark Dwight Gayle gave us an advantage of our own.
Middlesbrough hit back twice though inside of the final 15 minutes and unfortunately for us, that was where the scoring on the day ended and they secured a 3-2 victory and Pulis left with a smile on his face.
Speaking to the BBC following the game, Moore said of the match.
“Obviously to be 2-1 up with about 15 minutes to go, we are disappointed to lose the game having got our noses in front but that’s football and you have to be switched-on to every situation. They changed their system and threw players on and the gamble paid off for them. It feels raw now but it can’t stop us in terms of what we have built so far and it’s important that we learn from it. I won’t look at individuals because we score as a team and concede as a team. We have to stay together and make sure we don’t let it repeat itself. Teams come here, get players behind the ball and frustrate us; we aren’t going to be given anything on a plate. It’s up to us to find ways to win.”
"That cannot, and will not, stop us from building on what we have done here so far."
Darren assesses our defeat to @Boro at The Hawthorns… 💬
Watch the gaffer's full interview at https://t.co/CZ5IBrutPq#WBA pic.twitter.com/KnpWlTpWwN
— West Bromwich Albion (@WBA) February 2, 2019