Beale: Albion players ‘gutted’ after defeat
MANY West Bromwich Albion supporters and outsiders not privy to the workings of the club’s dressing room might consider that the current apathy which has engulfed the fanbase to have spilt over the advertising hoardings and onto the pitch.
Not so, says Richard Beale, after he watched Albion brushed aside worryingly easily by out of form Bristol City at The Hawthorns on Tuesday. After the small relief of Reading on Saturday, this was a harrowing reminder that all is far from well and that Albion remain in the mire.
It’s the third time they’ve lost in front of their own fans this season, and their fifth defeat in all, and it’s left the entire fanbase exasperated, and with many fans wondering if the players truly care enough about the ongoing plight to reverse their own fortunes.
Beale, who has overseen training since last Monday, has seen enough in this existing group who, while they’re downbeat for now, have enough about them to turn things around.
“Yes. They’re gutted,” Beale admitted. “It’s the first time I’ve shared a changing room with them after a defeat and whatever the right things to do or say after a defeat, that’s what I just saw – they’re gutted.
“That doesn’t mean anything, the only thing that matters is Saturday afternoon on the pitch. I know after a week and a half of working with them and being in the building with them that there are certainly enough characters in there to go again.
“They are hurting, I know sometimes the fans and people not involved will think they aren’t, but that isn’t this group. They’re all pulling in the right direction.”
How does one galvanise such a downtrodden group?
“The only way I know how to do that is to be really, really positive,” Beale continued. “We’ve been really positive with them, and it was fantastic we could win on Saturday. I’m absolutely devastated that that hasn’t transpired to two on the bounce – I’d have loved to have made that happen, and it hasn’t.
“I know it’s a cliche, but we brush ourselves down and we fight and fight again on Saturday to get that win again. While I’m taking the team, we won’t be playing for anything other than a win. A new guy with new ideas will be able to get this group firing on all cylinders.”
Albion were desperately toothless on Tuesday. Brandon ThomasAsante hit the post and John Swift curled a shot against the bar, but they didn’t manage a single shot on target over the course of the piece.
That was despite decent openings for Matt Phillips and Dara O’Shea,
who instead found the Smethwick End and Brummie Road respectively when well placed.
“I can’t defend that,” Beale conceded. “We’ve hit the bar, we’ve hit the post, we’ve had a couple blaze over the top, but we’ve had none on target. That’s certainly not the intention, that’s the way it’s panned out tonight, which is disappointing.
“We’ve got to move on. As I say, there were no players out there missing the target on purpose. The lads worked reasonably hard and tried their best, it just wasn’t to be in the key moments.”