Ferguson impresses in FA Cup victory

Evan Ferguson delivered an impressive performance from the bench during Albion’s 2-1 FA Cup third round triumph at West Brom.

Ferguson, 17, made his second first team appearance for Albion when he was introduced in the 76th minute to replace Joel Veltman.

The Ireland youth international striker received a rousing welcome to the pitch from the travelling support and went close to scoring and had a goal disallowed. Ferguson looked confident on the pitch and was desperately unlucky not to score the winner when his clever and instinctive effort with the outside of his boot dropped narrowly over the bar.

The teenage striker thought he had scored and started celebrating before realising the ball had dipped on to the roof of the net.

“The fans travel in numbers to every away game and give us the support that we need,” said Ferguson.

“It was good hearing your name – it gives you even more motivation to try and win the game.

“I thought I’d scored the winner in front of them. I couldn’t see the ball because it was behind the goalkeeper, so I was already running over to the fans to celebrate and I was devastated when it landed on the roof of the net!”

The striker from Dublin joined the Albion academy in January 2021 and has quicly impressed the management. He made his first team debut in the Carabao at Cardiff earlier this term and said he is learning so much from training with the first team - particularly Danny Welbeck.

“I grew up a Manchester United fan, so I used to watch Danny every week and now he’s a teammate. It’s weird playing and training with him every day.

“There’s a few guys who look out for me in the group. Obviously there’s the Irish connection with Shane [Duffy], he looks after you. But even in training, if you have good movement or you could have better movement they’ll tell you.

“They are used to it every week in the Premier League. With strikers like Neal Maupay, Danny Welbeck and Leandro Trossard, you get to see different types of movement and learn from it.

“I feel good when I am training with the boys, it’s helping build my confidence and my game up.”