West Brom 0 Middlesbrough 2 - Report and pictures

The Baggies’ 14-game sequence, their longest since the 1901/02 season, was ended thanks to Daniel Ayala’s first half header and a spectacular strike from Ashley Fletcher in added time.

Leeds’ incredible 5-4 win just down the road at Birmingham City also knocked Albion off top spot in the Championship, but, with both sides now on 51 points, all is set up perfectly for the New Year’s Day showdown between the two at The Hawthorns.

Whilst Albion will undoubtedly feel disappointed to see their lengthy unbeaten run come to an end, and while they weren’t at their best, there was no shortage of effort and determination as they sought in vain for what turned out to be an elusive equaliser, especially in the second half.

The best chance came with Charlie Austin’s late header from a Matheus Pereira cross, which was well saved by a diving Aynsley Pears in the Middlesbrough goal.

Report

Albion made four changes to the team which were denied all three points by a late Barnsley equaliser at Oakwell on Boxing Day.

And that included Gareth Barry coming in for his first start since rejoining the Baggies in November, Romaine Sawyers dropping to the bench.

Nathan Ferguson, Matt Phillips and Kyle Edwards also returned to the starting line-up, with Austin and Filip Krovinovic dropping to the bench and Kieran Gibbs, who limped off in the closing stages at Barnsley, not making the 18.

Kyle Bartley, who missed out on Boxing Day through the injury picked up in Albion’s last home game against Brentford, was named among the substitutes with Ahmed Hegazi continuing as centre back.

Middlesbrough made just one change to the line-up following their Boxing Day victory against Huddersfield, Adam Clayton coming in for Marvin Johnson.

After a cagey opening first five minutes the visitors won successive corners which Albion managed to clear comfortably.

The Baggies launched their first attack of purpose 12 minutes in with an excellent pass from Semi Ajayi finding Darnell Furlong on the right whose driven cross was diverted behind.

The corner was swung in but was headed away by Middlesbrough captain Ayala.

As the action broke quickly to the other end it required some excellent covering from Jake Livermore to snuff out a dangerous low centre from Fletcher.

It was Middlesbrough who had started the better and a well-worked move just after the quarter of an hour mark earned a corner from which they broke the deadlock.

Wing sent in a superb in-swinging delivery met perfectly by the head of Ayala who got to the ball first to put his team in front.

Albion tried to mount an immediate response with Pereira working some space down the left and sending over a cross but it just had too much on it and cleared the danger zone.

But the visitors were looking a real threat, and almost extended their advantage shortly afterwards.

It needed a fine block from Barry to get in the way of Wing’s initial shot and then a decent save from Johnstone as George Saville hit the follow-up first time.

Marcus Tavernier’s cross from wide left then bounced off the crossbar much to the surprise of Johnstone.

It needed the Baggies to click into gear and they did just that on the 25thminute going close to levelling the score.

Pereira got on the end of Edwards’ deep cross and pulled it back for the arriving Furlong whose header was just over the bar.

With the home fans now right behind their team in the hope of inspiring a response, Pereira found space again down the left but his low cross was cleared.

And it was that man Pereira again firing in a first time shot from an acute angle from a Matt Phillips cross which Pears did well to save.

Phillips was proving a lively presence in trying to get Albion moving and his teasing centre was turned behind a Middlesbrough defender just in front of Hal Robson-Kanu.

But the visitors were still threatening in attack, with Saville cutting inside before hitting a low shot which was saved by Johnstone.

Edwards was mirroring Phillips going forward in trying to create and was heavily involved in one promising move which finished with his curling shot not quite coming back enough to hit the target.

It was end-to-end all of a sudden with Jonny Howson advancing from deep to take on a dipping half volley which Johnstone gathered comfortably.

And the Albion keeper needed to be on his guard again to palm away an audacious effort from Wing from almost out on the left touchline.

A couple of loose passes from Albion perhaps summed up their very mixed first half performance as they went in at the break a goal down.

Slaven Bilic felt he had seen enough during the first half to need to make changes, two of them, as Conor Townsend and Charlie Austin came on for Edwards and Nathan Ferguson at the interval.

With Austin operating up front, Robson-Kanu dropped back into the number ten role, with Pereira switching to the right and Phillips to the left.

Phillips sent in a dangerous free kick a few minutes into the half but Ayala was on hand to head clear.

Albion were certainly more on the front foot during the opening exchanges of the second period, and when Pereira’s cross was cleared Barry tried his luck with a first time shot which skewed wide of the target.

Livermore then connected superbly with a first time shot from Pereira’s clever pass which took a touch off a Middlesbrough defender before just clearing the bar.

The Albion captain was booked shortly afterwards following a flashpoint thanks to some bizarre refereeing from Geoff Eltringham.

The official had already made some strange calls during the afternoon and stopped play with Albion on the attack, seemingly thinking that Hayden Coulson, who had stayed down, had suffered a head injury.

Coulson however quickly got to his feet and the Albion players, led by Livermore, were rightly livid that the game had been stopped as they were breaking forward.

A fired up Hawthorns now tried to drive their team forward, Austin having a header gathered by Pears, and the Middlesbrough keeper then doing well to gather under pressure as Townsend’s cross took a deflection off Ayala.

Robson-Kanu then led vociferous Albion appeals for handball after his shot struck Howson at close quarters but referee Eltringham was unmoved.

Johnstone then came out to try and meet Hegazi’s back-header but was beaten to it by Wing but quickly atoned by tipping Tavernier’s powerful shot over the crossbar.

There was some added spice to the game by this stage and still chances at both ends, Johnstone needing to be alert to claw away Fletcher’s effort from an acute angle.

It was also descending into a very stop-start contest with the visitors working the clock at every opportunity and making the most of every Albion foul to deny the Baggies the chance to build up any head of steam.

Austin headed Johnstone’s deflected centre back across goal but it was cleared, yet again by Ayala, before a Baggies head could get on the end of it.

As the game headed into the last ten minutes, Albion were still pressing but the visitors were still threatening on the counter, winning a free kick from which Wing fired narrowly wide.

Probably Albion’s closest chance of the afternoon arrived seven minutes from time.

A delicious cross from Pereira was met emphatically by Austin but his powerful header was saved well by Pears.

Almost immediately Middlesbrough then broke and Johnstone showed all his reflexes to deny substitute Marvin Johnson.

Any hopes Albion had of getting back into the game were then dashed three minutes into added time when a sensational long-range strike from Fletcher caught Johnstone off his line to provide a spectacular seal on the Middlesbrough win.

Amid understandable disappointment among the Baggies faithful, they will still head into 2020 alongside Leeds at the Championship summit and with a nine point cushion over Fulham in third.

And there would be nowhere better to try and return to winning ways than with the arrival of Leeds at the Hawthorns on Wednesday evening.

Teams

Albion (4-2-3-1): Johnstone, Furlong, Ajayi, Hegazi, Ferguson (Townsend 45); Livermore, Barry (Krovinovic 59); Phillips, Pereira, Edwards (Austin 45); Robson-Kanu.

Subs not used: Bond, Bartley, Brunt, Sawyers.

Middlesbrough (4-2-3-1): Pears; Howson, Ayala, Fry, Coulson; Clayton, Saville; Spence (Johnson 78), Wing (Gestede 87), Tavernier; Fletcher.

Subs not used: Mejias, Wood, Bola, O’Neill, Liddle.

Referee: Geoff Eltringham