00:00Baggies fans, welcome to ExpressAndStarter.com, my name is Johnny Drury, I'm here at the
00:11Hawthorns after a frustrating afternoon for Ryan Mason's Baggies, two wins to start the
00:18season against Blackburn and Wrexham, looking to make it three wins for the first time since
00:221997, didn't get over the line today on what was a, like we say, a frustrating afternoon,
00:29probably, you could argue from start to finish, Albion didn't really get into a rhythm throughout
00:35the game, like they have done at times in the wins over Blackburn and over Wrexham, and
00:41a lot of it, from my point of view, was largely down to how Portsmouth sat up, set up to really
00:46stifle Albion, but also held quite an attacking threat, they certainly looked dangerous when
00:51they got into the final third of the field, probably on balance of the game, there weren't
00:56an awful lot of clear cut chances, I would say a point is arguably a fair result, if
01:00any side is going to stake a claim to have deserved to win the game, it was arguably Albion, but
01:07in the first half, unlike we've seen in the first couple of games, conceded possession,
01:12conceded possession an awful lot in that first period, and that was Portsmouth kind of putting
01:15the squeeze on them, but Albion were just a little bit careless, and I don't think we saw
01:19Albion at their best today, if I'm honest, not as good as they've been against Blackburn and
01:24Wrexham, and obviously we know they can probably go up a couple of gears, but there were some
01:27key points as to why they weren't fantastic today, one was that they give the ball away
01:32an awful lot, two was that Isaac Price was really snuffed out of the game today, really
01:38snuffed out of the game, Portsmouth marked him very, very, very tight, and he didn't kind
01:43of get a sniff, and unfortunately for Albion, he's been the dictator in recent weeks, and they
01:48struggled without him having a real influence on the game, they were the ones pushing late on,
01:51they arguably could have nicked it at the death, but as it stands, they had to settle
01:56for a draw, but the kind of the bigger talking point, you would say, is the sending off of
02:00Ryan Mason, no red card for Portsmouth Regan Paul, and a very big penalty shout, it was all
02:06kind of in the space of ten second half minutes, Albion thought she'd have had a penalty, I've
02:10watched the footage back, the defender gets the tiniest bit of a touch on the ball, how the
02:15referee's seen it, though I don't really know, you see them given kind of eight times out of
02:18ten, obviously Ryan Mason has then been booked, and then Una Hegebo, who was absolutely fantastic,
02:24but I'm going to be waxing lyrical about it in my analysis of the game, held off Regan
02:29Paul, spun him, was pulled back, already on a yellow, should have been sent off, because
02:32Hegebo was honing in on goal, not given, Ryan Mason, apoplectic down in the technical area,
02:39we kind of haven't seen him show an awful lot of emotion in the first few games on the touchline,
02:44but he certainly did today, and it cost him his place in the bench, because he was then
02:47shown a straight red card, and sent off as he started, but held to a 1-1 draw, Mason wasn't
02:53allowed to come to his press conference, so we just spoke to Nigel Gibbs, he's an experienced
02:56assistant manager, who was kind of spoken on that, a bit of confusion at the moment, as
03:01to whether Mason was shown a yellow, sorry he was shown a yellow, if he was shown two yellows
03:07or a straight red, my hunch is that he was shown a straight red card, which may potentially
03:10mean a three-match touchline ban, I'm not too sure, 100% how it works, I know Albion
03:14are looking into it at the moment, and we'll hear more of it in the next couple of hours,
03:20I imagine, or certainly in the next couple of days, but yeah, frustrating, Albion probably
03:25think they should have been walking away with three points here, didn't do enough as they
03:30have done in the opening two games, would be my overall feeling, but you've got to say,
03:34two wins and a draw from the first three games, when you've had a new manager and a new
03:39style, for me, it's a pretty good start, so, you know, looking at it collectively, decent
03:43start, but leave today a tad frustrated, you would say, so yeah, final score here, Albion
03:49one puts with one, rest of your reaction, you know where to go, expressandstar.com.
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