Dean Ashton slams ‘flaky’ West Brom for lacklustre performance in 2-2 draw v QPR in Championship
Dean Ashton believes West Brom had too many “flaky” players who didn’t show enough passion in their 2-2 Championship draw against QPR on Monday (10 April).
Despite going two goals up within 15 minutes at The Hawthorns through Brandon Thomas-Asante and Semi Ajayi, Carlos Corberan’s side blew their lead and picked up just a single point in their fight for Premier League promotion.
The draw left the Baggies on the back foot in their fight for a top-six spot, currently sitting five points off Blackburn Rovers in sixth place with just six games of their season remaining.
Speaking on the English Football League Highlights show, ITV pundit Ashton slammed the collective lack of desire by the Baggies.
“They [West Brom] got off to a good start, albeit that is a handball from Thomas-Asante,” he said (10 April, 5:50).
“You see it clearly there, it strikes his hand before going in, so they’re fortunate in that sense, but then they go on and get the second goal, they were very good to start with.
“But I’m sorry, there’s too many of the West Brom players who are too flaky, not enough passion and desire.
“You’ve got a club like QPR who are obviously fighting down there, you’ve got a chance to get in the playoffs and it just didn’t feel like there was that passion in the second half from the West Brom players.”
Timid
After such a promising run around the turn of the year, Corberan’s Baggies have bowed out of the Championship playoff race with a whimper.
The past month has been extremely disappointing to see because Corberan’s side were at one point one of the bookies’ favourites to gain promotion to the Premier League.
Yes, the Spaniard’s side have been struck with injury after injury in recent times, including the likes of Dara O’Shea, Jayson Molumby and Kyle Bartley, but that shouldn’t excuse a lacklustre performance such as the one at The Hawthorns on Monday afternoon.
In a potentially season-defining game, in which you take a 2-0 lead against a QPR side low on confidence, the last thing you expected was for the Baggies to roll over and let their opponents back into the game in such soft circumstances.
Corberan was clearly not pleased in his post-match interview, and rightly so, because the performance simply wasn’t good enough.
In other West Brom news, the Baggies have sent scouts to track an in-demand defender who’s set to leave as they begin planning for the summer transfer window.