Under-pressure Bruce won’t quit

THIS time it was not just manager Steve Bruce who got it in the neck. Angry Albion fans turned on the manager when he substituted crowd favourite Brandon Thomas-Asante with 10 minutes to go.

But the chants for ‘We want Brucie out’ were almost immediately replaced by calls to ‘Sack the board’.

The flashpoint to a toxic finish was the decision to replace Thomas-Asante and Grady Diangana.

“You don’t know what you’re doing,” rang round The Hawthorns.

Bruce has one win in 13 and has repeatedly insisted he will not quit.

He said: “I have been going 25 years and it’s not great, let’s be brutally honest. ‘You don’t know what you’re doing,’ when you have been doing it 25 years. But they pay the money and are entitled to their opinion.

“But I’m never going to walk because that means quitting and I never quit. If I said I would walk away, what would that look like?

“Brandon is carrying a knock, and I am delighted he is a cult hero by the way.

I’m delighted I brought him to the club, they associate with him. He plays with his heart on his sleeve, and he’s done great, the kid.

“Grady has got a knock, he has seen the doctor.”

Thomas-Asante thoroughly deserved all the plaudits coming his way. He jinked, weaved, ran and even came close to scoring.

He also turned provider to put in Conor Townsend after a surging run only for Luton keeper Ethan

Horvath to deny him.

Hatters boss Nathan Jones said: “I’m relatively pleased but I would have liked to have scored today.”

WEST BROM: Palmer 7; O’Shea 7, Kelly 7, Pieters 7; Phillips 6 (Gardner-Hickman (86) 6), Livermore 6, Yokuslu 6, Townsend 6; Wallace 7, Thomas-Asante 8 (Grant (81) 6), Diangana 6 (Swift (81) 6) LUTON: Horvath 7; Bradley 7, Lockyer 7, Potts 7; Bree 6, Clark 6, Lansbury 6 (Mpanzu (84) 6), Bell 6; Campbell 6; Adebayo 7 (Onyedinma (90) 5), Morris 6 (Cornick (70) 5)

STAR MAN: Brandon Thomas-Asante. Deserved a goal as reward for his role of entertainer during this stalemate at The Hawthorns.

REF: David Webb 7