West Brom debrief: Un-Mowbray like as Hawthorns unites and big Burnley calls
The Championship's relentless nature comes into full focus this week as Albion travel to a Burnley side eyeing automatic promotion for a midweek clash.
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Tony Mowbray's men will still be weary and feeling the effects of Saturday's big effort to see three home points over the line against QPR despite a man disadvantage.
Here are some topics of discussion in the latest debrief.
Un-Mowbray like
Darnell Furlong's red card on the stroke of half-time meant the second period was always going to play out with the visitors dominant in possession. Albion had not been great for 35 minutes but the dismissal took away any likelihood of a bounce from Adam Armstrong's penalty.
As a result the second half became a very unfamiliar performance under Mowbray. It involved many of the Baggies' qualities from Carlos Corberan's tenure - indeed it was no surprise to hear Mowbray reference his predecessor afterwards.
"Listen I'm comfortable watching my team not have a fair share of the ball and try to play in spaces available," Mowbray said. "I felt we had to defend our lead. We had a lead to protect and that's why it felt like the right thing to do, to deep block behind the ball as most teams come here to do against us."
Leeds the week before, and likely Burnley on Tuesday, will show the Baggies trading punches with high-flyers. This showed Mowbray is more than capable and willing to drill a side into a fine rearguard action display. Albion were defensively fantastic.
