Baggies look to bounce back against Boro

Brummie Road Ender

·30 September 2024

Baggies look to bounce back against Boro

West Bromwich Albion v Middlesbrough; The Hawthorns, Wednesday 1st October 2024, 8pm

For the first time this season, Albion are looking to bounce back from a league defeat as they welcome Michael Carrick’s Middlesbrough to the Hawthorns for the first midweek fixture of the campaign. While the loss of the unbeaten record in the Championship was disappointing, it pales into insignificance alongside the tragic death of one of the club’s supporters after he collapsed in the stadium. There will be a tribute to him before Tuesday evening’s game.

Looking back at the football from the weekend, Corberán was forced into a change in midfield with Alex Mowatt having missed much of the previous week’s training with a minor injury. Diakité was given his first league start and looked a little bit off the pace in the first half, so much so that Corberán opted to risk Mowatt for the second half and he repaid the gaffer with the equalising goal. All in all, Albion were not at their best but it was particularly disappointing to lose the game having come back from two down.

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That is in the past and, with Sunderland also losing, Albion remain top of the table ahead of the midweek round of fixtures. Their opponents on Tuesday night, Middlesbrough, have had a mixed start to the season but are currently only just outside the top six with eleven points from the opening seven fixtures. Their most impressive result of the season was in the Carabao Cup when they won 3-0 at Elland Road, but their worst was in the following round when they were trounced 5-0 at home by Stoke City.

Boro’s only victory on the road in the Championship came at struggling Cardiff City at the end of August with their other two away league games ending in 1-0 defeats at Derby County and Sunderland. Despite those defeats, Carrick’s team have dominated possession in the majority of their games, claiming in excess of 70% of the ball in their defeat at Pride Park, although it was 50-50 in their most recent game, Saturday’s 2-0 win over Stoke City. It will be interesting to see who dominates the ball in this match with Corberán’s team also keen on controlling the ball – having said that, Albion have actually had less of the ball in their last three victories, albeit marginally.

Alex Mowatt is reportedly available for the fixture so I would expect him to return to the starting line up, and potentially Jayson Molumby coming back in for Uroš Račić. I also wonder whether we might see a first start of the campaign for Mikey Johnston who has come off the bench in each of the last three games since his deadline day arrival, while skipper Jed Wallace has also been used as a substitute in all but the first Championship game when he was unavailable through injury. Grant and Fellows have both performed well but Corberán may be looking to give some players a rest in a three-game week.

The three games at the Hawthorns this season have produced just two goals, both from the hosts, and I’m sure Corberán will be keen to keep the goals against column empty once again. Albion’s performances against both Swansea and Plymouth deserved more goals but they have had to settle for just one – I’m sure most Baggies fans will take another 1-0 win, but it would be nice to see the hosts score a few goals in front of their home fans.

Saturday’s result was an apt demonstration of the competitive nature of the Championship and Albion’s excellent start to the season is just that, a start. They have had a little good fortune on occasion, and were subject to a little bad luck at the weekend with the late penalty call for handball denied at Hillsborough, but they have deserved their results on the whole. They do, however, need to continue to be at their best if they are to realise what now seems like a realistic hope of automatic promotion. Bouncing back from their first defeat would be a definite reinforcement of that hope.

History

Albion have won only three of the last twelve meetings with Middlesbrough but have won the last two home encounters scoring six goals – two of them were scored by Daryl Dike who is still on the road back from injury, while three of the four goalscorers in last season’ 4-2 victory are no longer with the club.

Three members of the current Middlesbrough squad were academy players at the Hawthorns but none of them made a senior appearance for the Baggies. Before moving to Teesside, Finn Azaz had played all his senior football on loan from his first two professional clubs, with Aston Villa being the second, but moved to Boro’ in January after a successful loan spell with Plymouth Argyle. Finnish forward Forss eventually came through at Brentford after moving to west London in 2017 at the age of 18. Alex Gilbert made a similar move to the Finn from the Albion academy to Brentford in 2020 but failed to break through at the Bees and moved to the Riverside in the summer of 2023. Morgan Rogers is another who started at Albion, making just one senior appearance as a substitute in the FA Cup before he was sold to Manchester City as a 16-year-old – he moved to Boro’ for last season before making a move to Aston Villa earlier this year.

The only member of the current Boro’ squad to have actually played for Albion at senior level is defender, Matt Clarke – he spent a season on loan at the Hawthorns from Brighton and Hove Albion before making a permanent switch to the Riverside in the summer of 2022.

Paddy McNair is the one of two members of the current Baggies squad to have played for the Smoggies having been released from the Riverside in the summer. The other is Alex Mowatt who had a successful loan spell on Teesside last season.

A few names who have come up in my previews in recent weeks also have Middlesbrough on their footballing CV. David Mills started his career at Ayresome Park before becoming the UK’s first half-million pound footballer when he moved to the Hawthorns in January 1979 while Middlesbrough was one of the many clubs that Nathaniel Chalobah had a loan spell with from Chelsea. Adam Reach started his career on Teesside, as did the legendary midfield pair of Chris Brunt and James Morrison.

Jonathan Greening moved to Albion in 2004 from Middlesbrough, as did Andy Townsend five years earlier, while goalkeepers Alan Miller, Luke Daniels and Andy Dibble all played for both clubs.

The late Ugo Ehiogu, who made two appearances for the Baggies off the bench in the 1990/91 season before moving to Aston Villa, proved to be a very important player for Albion when he moved to Teesside from Villa a decade later for £8 million – in a rare piece of excellent business for the club at that time, they had included a 50% sell-on clause when he was transferred to Villa Park and, while that was ultimately negotiated down, it proved to be a much-needed cash injection for the club at the turn of the millennium.

Probably the most famous player to have played for both clubs is Bryan Robson who guided Middlesbrough to promotion as player-manager in 1995 before they reached both cup finals, but were relegated, in 1997.