Mowbray puts on positive spin
29 Oct 2008 - 08:59:40
West Bromwich Albion boss Tony Mowbray tried to take the positives from his side's 2-1 defeat at Newcastle United.
The Baggies have now lost three games in a row, but Mowbray felt that his side had at least shown some spirit at St James' Park, having fallen two goals behind by half-time.
He told the club's official website: "It was the proverbial game of two halves.
"We were playing a Newcastle team not thriving on confidence and, with the way we asked the team to play, it was an opportunity to go there and put more pressure on them.
"But we didn't cope defensively in the first half and gave ourselves a mountain to climb.
"The secret was not to go behind early because if we had stayed in the game and played like we did second half in the first half, I think their supporters may have got on Newcastle's back.
"But we gave them a dream start and generally our defending in the first half was woeful.
"We had a few words at half-time, we needed to improve. We tightened up and created enough chances to get something and it was a huge improvement on the first half.
"That's got to be the standard for us week in, week out. Our second-half performance should give the players the belief they can cause teams problems in this league."