Roberto Di Matteo admitted he was disappointed to draw his first game in charge of the Baggies – but admitted Newcastle’s sub ‘keeper, Tim Krul, had ‘one hell of an afternoon’!
After a mixed start Shelton Martis opened the scoring for Albion with his first goal for the club in the 39th minute. The incident saw Newcastle stopper Steve Harper receive a nasty blow to the head which forced him off at half-time.
The Geordies rallied after the break with Damien Duff levelling the scores ten minutes into the second-half however it was substitute Krul who stole the show. The 21-year-old Dutchman made four fantastic saves to keep Newcastle in the game with Di Matteo frustrated Albion couldn’t find a second goal.
“We wanted to get off to a good start and get three points under our belts," said the former MK Dons boss.
"Unfortunately, they equalised and we didn't manage to score the second goal.
"Even before they equalised, we had a great chance.
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"I think we did enough to win the game. "We had plenty of chances but as you saw the keeper made some very fine saves to keep them in the game. "You hope that the substitute won't be good, but he had a hell of an afternoon! "Yes, of course, we need to take those chances. "If you get into those positions then you need to score - that's how you win games. "But their goalkeeper did very well. "I thought we were solid and we didn't concede too much to a very good Newcastle side. "On their goal, Robert Koren was just half a yard late and Duff took it well with his experience. "Apart from that, I think they had a shot from outside the box and that was about it for efforts on target. "Going forward we created enough chances but we need to be more clinical when we get them." |