West Brom fans proud of derby display but slam disgraceful scenes
Jonny Drury caught up with Albion fans after their 2-0 Black Country derby defeat against Wolves.
Albion were the side on top in the first half but fell behind to a Pedro Neto breakaway goal.
Matheus Cunha made it 2-0 12 minutes from time but it was the ugly scenes that grabbed the headlines - with crowd trouble in the ground leading to a 35 minute delay in the game.
Albion were the side on top in the first half but fell behind to a Pedro Neto breakaway goal.
Matheus Cunha made it 2-0 12 minutes from time but it was the ugly scenes that grabbed the headlines - with crowd trouble in the ground leading to a 35 minute delay in the game.
Transcript
00:00 Mark, not the result we wanted from an Albion perspective but what did you make of the display?
00:12 Proud of the fight Albion put up on the pitch?
00:14 Yeah, I was proud of them to be honest. I think obviously really disappointed but I
00:19 thought Wolves had two breakaway goals and I thought we had most of the pressure.
00:23 I didn't think there was that much between the two sides to be honest. Wolves are very
00:28 solid, they're obviously in the Premier League, good side. We had some good chances but we
00:33 didn't take them. They took their chances but at the end of the day, in my opinion,
00:36 that was the difference between the two sides.
00:38 Yeah, I mean the first goal, one mistake from us and they go down and show their quality.
00:44 They are the Premier League side at the end of the day and it was the quality that showed
00:50 at the end of the day, one mistake done. I think the second goal was offside and that's
00:54 probably what caused the trouble. But yeah, I mean 2-0. At least now we can focus on the
01:01 play-offs. It's disappointing to go 2-0 down against Wolves but it is what it is.
01:10 In terms of what we saw off the pitch today and that's what everyone will talk about,
01:14 what did you make of it? I know it's a rivalry, a derby that we haven't seen for a long time
01:18 but not the scenes you want to see?
01:19 I'm very sad, I'm really sad. There were people around me who I've seen before and they were
01:24 throwing plastic bottles. But I don't know, there's so many rumours going around. Apparently
01:30 there were some Wolves fans in Halfords Lane round by where the players' families were
01:35 and that's why all the players ran towards the trouble which you wouldn't see normally
01:40 so there's got to be something in that I guess. It's very disappointing.
01:43 It's very disappointing to you really, pretty disgraceful to you.
01:45 Absolutely not. I totally condemn anybody that was involved in that. And the worst thing
01:49 was we've had three players substituted because I suspect they were impacted by that. I don't
01:56 know if you saw Karl Barclay was walking back from that corner with his kids. That is totally
02:00 unacceptable that he should not be able to finish the game because he was upset by that.
02:04 I'm assuming that's happened. So, you know, who do you blame for that?
02:09 Yeah, it was basically, I've seen all the police presence right from the high street
02:14 to be honest. There was a massive police operation so credit to West Midlands Police for trying
02:20 to control it. But yeah, it was expected. I don't condone the scenes at the end there.
02:26 I thought the game would be abandoned to be honest with how much trouble there was. But
02:32 you know, we managed to play out the last 10 minutes or so and yeah, it was really disappointing
02:38 to see. I know there's going to be like sanctions for both clubs really for that.
02:42 It seems like Albion's display after, you know, they came back. We didn't think they'd
02:45 come back out, but they came back out. Started a little bit slowly, but had a few chants
02:48 at the end and it looked like they might be able to do, maybe able to nick something.
02:51 It did, yeah, it did. And I'm guessing that they made so many changes because I'm sure
02:56 Barclay was, well we saw Barclay carrying his children off. So, you know, I'm assuming
03:01 some of the players are very upset. So that's why he made the changes.
03:04 It would be interesting if we'd have got a couple of goals and equalised, but I wouldn't.
03:09 I go all the time with the Albion, but I probably wouldn't have gone for the replay for my
03:14 own personal sake.
03:15 Yeah, yeah, we had a few at the end. I mean, we looked more likely to score in the last
03:19 10 minutes, but yeah, you know, like I said, the Premier League quality awards shone through.
03:25 First time they beat us here in like 26 years. So yeah, it's a tough one to take, but we'll
03:32 move on. We got Birmingham on Saturday, so two derbies in seven days, you know, but we've
03:38 just got to focus on the league now.
03:39 And in terms of the display from Albion today, obviously at toe-to-toe with, you know, an
03:42 arrival by the Premier League side, bodes well now for the rest of the season?
03:46 I think it does, but you know, it just shows that all the way through the season we don't
03:51 have the options to bring on up front. And, you know, although I thought Thomas Assante
03:58 was fantastic again today, the amount of effort he puts in, you know, we should be very proud.