Not the fairytale start to welcome Shilan Patel to The Hawthorns after the Baggies announced the takeover we’ve all been waiting for 24 hours prior to our Friday night clash against our promotion rivals Southampton.
I say it was another game where we found ourselves with poor officials after just 8 minutes, Carlos Corberan gets shown a red for kicking the ball that was in play but looked like it was out.
After 14 minutes on the clock, Saints winger, Ryan Fraser put them ahead, following a corner.
The Baggies had a decent moment towards the end of the first half when John Swift took a right foot shot, which was better for us.
There was also a penalty shout where it was a definite penalty when Jack Stephens arm was above his shoulder, another case of poor referee decision against us by Sam Allison.
I didn’t agree with the subs in the 2nd half, where I believe Tom Fellows should have started this game. I would have put Weimann on to swap with Brandon Thomas Asante, who didn’t get a run at all despite scoring 2 goals for us since joining Bristol City on loan last month.
Then, 73 minutes David Brooks on loan from Bournemouth doubles the lead for the Saints, then the game looked over but we had a great chance when Okay Yokuslu’s header was denied by Gavin Bazunu.
Towards the end, Saints passed the ball well, and we looked out of sorts. It wasn’t our night at all, but we must now move on from this game and hopefully start a new dawn with our new ownership.
Southampton deserved the 3 points out there on the night, and I do think they will get automatic promotion with Leicester City and say they are the strongest team we played so far this season.
The next game for the Baggies is Plymouth Away on Tuesday, and for Southampton, they face our play off rivals Hull City on the same night.
West Brom: Palmer, Furlong, Kipre, Pieters, Townsend, Swift (Marshall 64), Johnston (Reach 64), Mowatt, Wallace (captain) (Diangana 64), Yokuslu (Chalobah 81), Thomas-Asante (Fellows 46).
Goalscorers:
Southampton: Bazunu, Stephens (captain), Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Walker-Peters, Charles (Aribo 58), Smallbone, Stuart Armstrong (Rothwell 81), Fraser (Edozie 58), Adam Armstrong (Brooks 68), Mara (Kamaldeen 81).
Goalscorers: Fraser (13), Brooks (71)