Pulis: Draw at Boro was a wasted opportunity
ALBION gaffer Tony Pulis felt his team had done enough to take all three points at the Riverside on Tuesday night.
The visitors fashioned 16 shots, five of them on target, in an open and entertaining contest in the north-east.
Though Boro had opportunities of their own to steal the three points, enjoying 62 per cent of the possession and 11 shots, a frustrated Pulis was upset at leaving the Riverside with just a solitary point.
“We started well and got a nice early goal that settled us down,” he said.
“In the second half I thought we were the team that was going to eventually win the game. We had two great opportunities.
“Matty heads the ball against the post and then it comes to Salomon and he hits the other post.
“So we had the opportunities and the chances.”
Pulis felt referee Stuart Atwell made a mistake in awarding the penalty that pegged his team back. Atwell pointed to the spot after Alvaro Negredo went down inside the box under a clumsy challenge from Gareth McAuley.
The Spaniard stepped up to dispatch the spot kick and level the game after James Morrison’s sixth minute opener.
And while Pulis thought the penalty was incorrectly awarded, he did think McAuley had made his own mistake by going to ground too easily.
“I don’t think it’s a penalty,” Pulis said. “Looking at it in slow motion, Gareth does touch the ball. But he shouldn’t have slid in anyway.
“The kid was going away from the goal and that changed it a little bit for us and knocked us back first half.
“They came game then.”
Meanwhile, versatility was the driving force behind Pulis’ decision to sign Marc Wilson on loan from Bournemouth until the end of the season.
The Irishman was Albion’s second and final signing of the window, and Pulis believes his ability to play in a range of positions could be a real asset.
“Marc can play anywhere across the backline and in midfield,” said the Albion boss. “I had him at Stoke for a while. He can play in any of those positions and will give us that cover that I hope to God we don’t need, but we might need.
“We’ve been after players and they’ve not dropped for us and the market is very difficult.
“You look at some of the prices clubs have paid for players, it’s just extraordinary.
“When you look at it, we’ve got 16 or 17 senior players now. It’s a good group, a tight group and they’re very close together.
“So we’ve got to get that group through 15 games and we needed someone who was versatile enough. If we’d have lost a centre-half, we wouldn’t have another one to come in.” more into the