Tue 20th Feb
Kick-off 19:45

PLY Argyle

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WBA West Brom

Mickel miller v west Bromwich albion

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The Game 
Argyle v West Bromwich Albion. Home Park. Tuesday, 20 February. 7.45pm. Sky Bet Championship.

The Opposition
West Brom are fifth in the league table, with 52 points from 32 games. They have won 15, lost 10 and drawn seven. In their seven league games of 2024, Albion have won three, lost three and drawn one. 

They began the year with a 1-0 defeat at Swansea City, then bounced back with a 4-1 win at home to Blackburn Rovers. Another loss on the road followed - 2-0 at Norwich City - before the Baggies' home form paid off again, as they beat local rivals Birmingham City. In their last three games, Albion drew 2-2 at Ipswich Town, beat Cardiff City 2-0 at home, then, last Friday, lost 2-0 at home to Southampton. 

The Gaffer
Carlos Corberan took over at the Hawthorns with Albion in the relegation spots in October 2022. As evidenced above, the 40-year-old Spaniard has steadied the ship, taking West Brom up the league last season and has a current win percentage of 46.67%. 

As a player, Corberan only played at semi-professional level, having failed to make the grade at Valencia. He started his coaching career as a fitness coach at Villarreal and at several teams in Saudi Arabia, including at Al-Nassr, Cristiano Ronaldo's current side, where he rose to the role assistant manager. 

Corberan left in November 2016, bound for Cyprus, where he managed Doxa and Ermis. In 2017, he moved to England to be Leeds United's Under-23 coach, and he duties would soon include first-team coaching duties too, under Marcelo Bielsa. 

Carlos Corberan

He left Leeds in the summer of 2020, but stayed in Yorkshire, heading to manage Huddersfield Town. After finishing 20th in his first season, he took Huddersfield to third in his second, losing in the play-offs. He resigned soon after, then joined Olympiacos but was sacked after 11 games. 

The Squad
Brandon Thomas-Asante leads the Albion goalscoring charts this season, with nine goals. The forward came through the Academy of his hometown club Milton Keynes Dons, left at the expiry of his contract to sign for Ebbsfleet, but almost immediately on to Salford City. He scored 30 goals in 126 games for Salford before moving to West Brom on deadline day in August 2022. 

The only player to have taken part in every West Brom league game this season, Darnell Furlong began his career at Queens Park Rangers, one of the teams for whom his father, Paul Furlong, played during his time as a footballer. Unlike centre-forward Paul, Darnell is a full-back who played 72 times for QPR, as well as having loan spells at Northampton Town, Cambridge United and Swindon Town. Furlong left Loftus Road for West Brom in the summer of 2019, and has now racked up 161 games for the Baggies.

Okay Yokuslu (below) first played for West Brom in the 2020/21 season, in a 16-game loan spell in the Premier League, having been borrowed from Spanish side Celta Vigo. After a loan with Getafe the season after, he returned to Albion in the summer of 2022, and has been a fixture in the midfield ever since. Yokuslu has played 39 times for Turkey, and prior to his stint at Celta, played for Turkish sides Altay, Kayserispor and Trabzonspor. 

Okay Yokuslu

Earlier This Season 
The sides met in Argyle's 13th game of the season, at the Hawthorns. The game finished 0-0. 

 

Tickets
If you have a season ticket and cannot attend, you can make your ticket available via the Ticket Exchange and receive face value credit if your ticket is resold. Find out more about the Ticket Exchange.

Argyle TV
Commentary for the game will be provided by Charlie Price and Ian Stonebridge.

Argyle TV’s pre-match show, hosted by Erin Black and Aaron Cusack, will begin at 6.45pm, and is available to watch for free on YouTube.

Match passes to watch this game, wherever you are in the world, can be purchased here.

sing a long cinema

Lino Sousa crosses the ball against WBA

Argyle 0

West Bromwich Albion 3
Kipre 61
Johnston 76
Fellows 90+1

A powerful second-half display was enough for West Bromwich Albion to take maximum points at Home Park.

The Greens matched their visitors throughout the first period but without really stretching the Baggies at the back, and the pattern swung fully in favour of West Brom after the break.

Cedric Kipre grabbed a crucial opener from close-range after a corner fizzed across the danger area and the Pilgrims had to accept defeat when Mickey Johnston doubled the lead with a sublime curling strike into the roof of the net. Tom Fellows added a late third to underline the victory.

Argyle boss Ian Foster made five changes from the weekend defeat to Leeds United, restoring Bali Mumba, Lino Sousa, Ryan Hardie, Darko Gyabi and Brendan Galloway in place of Julio Pleguezuelo, Jordan Houghton, Ben Waine, Matty Sorinola and Mickel Miller.

The Baggies arrived at Home Park in a play-off position and they demonstrated some early menace with Alex Mowatt ploughing through the midfield and fizzing a deflected shot on to the outside of the post for an early reprieve.

A superb recovery challenge from Galloway repelled the next foray forward by Jed Wallace and the Greens then settled into a more controlled period, moving the ball nicely across the park and a dart forward from Gyabi prompted a scruffy challenge by Nathaniel Chalobah and a polite penalty enquiry.

There was a pleasing tempo to the game but a lack of clear opportunities between two evenly-matches sides. Wallace had a volley charged down and a fierce drive from Andreas Weimann warmed the hands of Conor Hazard before a super surge down the left from Sousa resulted in an effort steered wide of the target.

Argyle entered half-time deservedly on level terms but the second-half objective was to test the skills of former Pilgrim loanee Alex Palmer in the West Brom goal, although the first opening fell to Weimann sneaking in behind the Pilgrim defence but he thankfully dragged the shot wide with Hazard narrowing the angles.  

Albion were cranking up the pressure and the Greens had a major let-off when a strike from Wallace was deflected on to the inside of the post and rolled across the goal-line. The follow-up cross was superbly cleared under pressure by Ashley Phillips.

Hazard then produced a top save to turn over a header from Chalobah but the subsequent corner led to a breakthrough, as the ball flashed across the six-yard box for Kipre to slot home with relative ease.

The goal arrived just a minute after Miller and Sorinola had replaced Mumba and Sousa, with the new men now looking to penetrate a notoriously thrifty West Brom defence in the final half-hour.

Argyle toiled in search of a leveller but there was no argument with West Brom’s second goal, as Johnston chopped inside from the right and the winger on loan from Celtic planted a fine finish into the top corner, giving Hazard no chance with the strike.

A triple change for the Greens saw the introduction of Houghton, Joe Edwards and Mustapha Bundu for Gyabi, Alfie Devine and Adam Randell but, in fairness to the Baggies, they were looking fairly impregnable as a defensive unit.

As the Greens threw men forward in search of a catalyst, West Brom broke forward and a clever cutback by Conor Townsend picked out Grady Diangana, who fired over the bar from a great position.

Six minutes of stoppage offered a crumb of hope for Argyle but this was a Home Park night that belonged to the visitors, as Fellows added a third from close range.

Argyle: 21 Conor Hazard, 2 Bali Mumba (29 Matty Sorinola 59), 3 Lina Sousa (14 Mickel Miller 59), 9 Ryan Hardie, 10 Morgan Whittaker (capt), 16 Alfie Devine (4 Jordan Houghton 79), 17 Lewis Gibson, 18 Darko Gyabi (8 Joe Edwards 79), 20 Adam Randell (15 Mustapha Bundu 79), 22 Brendan Galloway, 26 Ashley Phillips. Substitutes: 25 Callum Burton (gk), 5 Julio Pleguezuelo, 23 Ben Waine, 35 Freddie Issaka.

Booked: Mumba 57

West Bromwich Albion: 24 Alex Palmer; 2 Darnell Furlong (6 Semi Ajayi 82), 3 Conor Townsend, 4 Cedric Kipre, 7 Jed Wallace (capt), 14 Nathaniel Chalobah (35 Okay Yokuslu 65), 15 Erik Pieters, 17 Andreas Weimann (23 Michael Johnston 70), 19 John Swift (11 Grady Diangana 65), 27 Alex Mowatt (20 Adam Reach 82), 31 Tom Fellows. Substitutes: 33 Josh Griffiths (gk), 25 Callum Marshall, 26 Pipa.

Booked:

Referee: Tom Nield

Attendance: 16,310 (1,201 away)