West Brom frustrated as lack of 'Plan B' ends with 1-1 draw against Millwall

Published date12 September 2021
Publication titleBirmingham Mail: Web Edition Articles (England)
West Brom were made to rue missed chances as they settled for a point from a 1-1 draw with Millwall at the Hawthorns.

The Baggies have enjoyed a positive start to the Championship campaign following four back-to-back league wins and displayed promising signs of continuing that run early on in the game.

Grady Diangana came close with two strikes going narrowly past the post, but the home side's best chance came from the penalty spot; Bartosz Bialkowski denied the Baggies' Karlan Grant on the brink of half-time as the two sides went into the break level.

Valerien Ismael's side had to wait until four minutes after the interval to break the deadlock when Kyle Bartley sent a looping header over Millwall's Polish shot-stopper.

But the home side were pegged back six minutes later when Daniel Ballard nodded Jed Wallace 's cross beyond Sam Johnstone.

Neither side could find a late winner and the Baggies were forced to accept a point from a frustrating afternoon at the Hawthorns.

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What Ismael said:

Valerien Ismael has urged his West Bromwich Albion players to rediscover their intensity and supreme energy levels in time for their meeting with Derby County at The Hawthorns on Tuesday night.

Speaking after the game, he told BirminghamLive : "We need to learn from this and adapt, from when the opponent does not want to take any risk and wants to take the intensity out of the game.

"The game plan from the opponent was another way we have to deal with and Millwall made it difficult for us.

"We always want more, we always want to win the game, but today is exactly what we will face in the next months.

"Nevertheless, we had the possibility to score from the penalty and after that we came back very strongly, scoring the goal just after half-time, but the big difference was we made a mistake with the backpass to the goalkeeper and we put ourselves in danger and gave the opponent the feeling they could get back into the game.

"We made too many mistakes in our back line and were punished for it. We need to have another desire and another attitude and make sure we are always on the front foot."

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