West Brom v Coventry City: Tony Brown hails ‘immense’ Cedric Kipre despite major error
Tony Brown was delighted by Cedric Kipre’s performance as West Brom held on to beat Coventry City despite the defending conceding a penalty.
The Baggies legend reacted live on BBC Radio WM after the final whistle to praise the defender’s performance, which had been excellent up until the point he fouled Casey Palmer with the score at 2-0 to let the visitors back into the game.
Brown was pleased that the Albion saw out a 2-1 win, calling it “job done” even though the closing stages proved uncomfortable, highlighting the importance of Kipre and fellow centre-back Kyle Bartley.
He said (10.06pm): “I thought, except for giving the penalty away, Kipre was immense again at the back.
“He kind of won everything there and he’d be a big miss if he wasn’t in the side. Fortunately the manager has got Bartley to come on in these situations, the big lad at the back.
“He won a couple of important headers defensively, so at the end of the day it’s job done.”
Bomber Brown delighted by Cedric Kipre despite West Brom penalty concession vs Coventry
Kipre was easily the pick of the defenders for well over an hour as an oddly-subdued Sky Blues side largely sat off West Brom, who went ahead early through a Mikey Johnston stunner and saw Grady Diangana double the lead before the break.
The little threat that the visitors provided looked likely to come through Ellis Simms, but despite ceding plenty of pace to the former Everton striker Kipre kept him under control.
At 2-0 up and cruising it looked like a comfortable evening for Carlos Corberan and a much-needed three points in the bag.
But for as composed as he had looked up until then his definite foul on Palmer, allowing Haji Wright to half the lead from the spot, could have been disastrous.
Erik Pieters was looking shaky next to him but there didn’t look an obvious need to make the challenge, so the 27-year-old Kipre will have been kicking himself to change the game against his own side.
Thankfully it was his one mistake on the night, and Bartley’s late introduction off the bench as a third centre-back helped see out the win.
In other West Brom news, Shilen Patel has revealed some grand plans for his new era at The Hawthorns.
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