Tony Brown fumes at ‘disaster’ in West Brom v Ipswich after what happened to Kyle Bartley
Tony Brown was left fuming with the “absolute disaster” of West Brom conceding shortly after half-time when Kyle Bartley had been replaced at the break.
Albion led 1-0 at the break at Portman Road thanks to Tom Fellows’ effort but lost centre-back Bartley to injury at the break.
Within a minute of the restart, Nathan Broadhead equalised for the Tractor Boys, something that Brown – speaking as a summariser on BBC West Midlands (10 February) – felt coincided with Bartley going off.
“It’s an absolute disaster for Albion,” he said.
“We were just talking about losing the height of Kyle Bartley for the second half and then straight away from the kick-off Ipswich knock the ball in and the second ball is finished in the back of the net.
“It’s going to be a little bit of an onslaught now in the early stages of this second half from Ipswich.”
John Swift restored the visitors’ lead but West Brom hearts were broken by an injury-time leveller from Omari Hutchinson as the game finished 2-2.
Kyle Bartley importance on display as West Brom fall short
Bartley has not always been the most popular of players among the Albion faithful and his reported bumper salary probably doesn’t always help endear him to the Albion faithful.
But the truth of the matter is that Bartley is a very canny operator still at this level and when he brings a calm and a poise to West Brom’s backline that just simply is not there when he’s not around.
It was not exactly ideal to lose the experienced defender after such a good first half from the visitors and you just get the sense that had he been on the pitch the poor start to the second period doesn’t happen.
The good news is the Baggies will soon have another Semi Ajayi back to boost their centre-back options but Carlos Corberan will be hoping that Bartley is not out for an extended period because he will be crucial over the next few months.
In other West Brom news, Don Goodman reacted to an unimaginable Daryl Dike incident.
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