Don Goodman heaps praise on Martin Kelly during West Brom defeat v Preston North End
Don Goodman brandished Martin Kelly’s tackle on Preston North End striker Emil Riis “outstanding” as West Brom fell to a fourth Championship defeat of the season.
The Danish striker’s first-half strike was enough for Ryan Lowe’s side to pick up all three points and plunge the Baggies into the relegation zone.
However, Kelly’s last-ditch tackle in the 57th minute helped keep the deficit to one and Goodman was full of praise for the veteran defender.
Talking on Sky Sports coverage of the fixture [21:15, 5 October], Goodman said: “That is good resilience from Martin Kelly, he had to get the timing of the challenge right and he was at full stretch. That’s outstanding defending.”
Small consolation
Goodman’s praise of Kelly will come as little consolation to Baggies fans who are yet again calling for Steve Bruce’s time at The Hawthorns to abruptly come to an end. What was frustrating for Bruce last night is the Baggies did get into good positions and did threaten the Preston goal.
Ultimately a moment of quality in the first half from the home side made it an uphill battle, with far too many players going through the motions towards the end of the fixture. Jed Wallace and Grady Diangana can probably go home with their reputations intact.
However, the rest of the side really do need to take a long look at themselves. Bruce has to take a lot of the blame, but his cause isn’t helped when he has five to six players just going through the motions as passengers.
A change is probably now required to kickstart the Baggies’ season. All is not lost, with the playoffs still only eight points away, despite West Brom occupying one of the division’s three relegation spots. If a change is made soon and the players stand up to the challenge, there is a chance this season can still be revived.
In other West Brom news, a finance expert says Albion have cleared debts with new documents emerging on Companies House.