Moore hails West Brom ‘character’ in Carabao Cup victory over Mansfield

Posted Wednesday, August 29, 2018 by PA

West Brom manager Darren Moore admitted he was relieved to get past Mansfield in the Carabao Cup after seeing his side battle their way to a 2-1 win at the Hawthorns.

Albion had to withstand a late onslaught before finally seeing off the League Two side.

Academy graduate Jonathan Leko’s first goal for Albion in the 26th minute looked set to make it a comfortable night for Moore’s side.

But Neal Bishop hauled Mansfield level in the 69th minute before another player to come through West Brom’s academy, Kyle Edwards, regained the lead for Albion six minutes later.

Danny Rose, Jordan Graham and Krystian Pearce then came close to grabbing an equaliser in a frantic end to the game.

Moore, who began with four academy graduates in his side, said: “I thought that we started the game really well and dominated for the first hour and should have put the game to bed really in terms of the chances that we created.

“I always felt with it being the first game in a long time for some of them we could run out of steam in the second half and it proved that way and in the end we hung on.

“The way that Mansfield pegged us back and got the goal I thought the boys, for a young group of players, showed a great deal of resilience and character to go up the other end and get the winning goal.

“But not only that, to hold on and put their bodies on the line to defend their goal in the latter stages. It was a bit frantic.

“I can’t ask any more. The only thing we didn’t do was we weren’t ruthless enough in front of goal.”

Mansfield boss David Flitcroft was proud of his side’s display and felt they were unlucky to lose.

Flitcroft said: “You might use the words ‘valiant’ and ‘hard working’ but it was more than that. For a League Two team, we not only went toe to toe from a hard work and commitment sort of way. Some of the quality we showed and some of our passing and movement was excellent.

“We caused them problems, certainly in the second half.

“How we haven’t scored two, three, four goals is beyond me.

“We have deconstructed at times a very good West Brom team with some really good play.

“Just that last little bit (in the box) has just let us down tonight.

“Going away from home, we have attacked teams all season. It doesn’t matter who it is. We have put risk into our game.

“Now it is just about making sure we see teams off and turn draws into wins. We have come to West Brom and created a hatful of chances.”