'We had them on the ropes': Tom McIntyre rues Portsmouth not capitalising on first-half West Brom display
Tom McIntyre believes Pompey had West Brom ‘on the ropes’ - yet failed to capitalise on that position of strength.
The Blues responded admirably to falling behind to Josh Maja’s opener after 54 seconds, producing their best 45 minutes of the season so far.
Indeed, the table-topping Baggies looked uncomfortable for large periods of the first half, yet, crucially, John Mousinho’s men failed to make that pressure count in terms of goals.
They were made to pay in the 51st minute when Alex Mowatt curled in West Brom’s second to make it 2-0, before adding his second in stoppage time with a delightful free-kick in the visitors’ 3-0 victory.
It was another Championship lesson for the Blues and afterwards McIntyre rued not taking advantage of their purple period in the first half.
He told The News: ‘There wasn’t much in it really, that’s why it’s so frustrating.
‘We heard some whispers from their bench that they were panicking a little and were really struggling to get out of our press and that’s what we had worked on and prepared for.
‘It’s pleasing in that sense that we caused them those problems, but it’s about really capitalising on it and making them count.
‘It was a great strike by Mowatt for the second goal and obviously the free-kick at the end - and we feel maybe a tad hard-done by.
‘When I was out there I felt we were on top in that first half, it felt like we had them on the ropes midway through, we just needed to capitalise on it a bit more. The difference is those little things at either end of the pitch.
‘On another day we take those. We had a few good chances and it’s a different game, they might have panicked a little, but we didn’t unfortunately.’
For McIntyre, it was a return to competitive action after being sidelined by injury since making his debut in February.
Although his central-defensive partnership with Jordan Williams was broken after just 54 seconds when Maja netted from Tom Fellows’ pull-back.
He added: ‘For that goal they caught us on a long throw and the manager had mentioned it before, but you give chances and they obviously gave us a few as well.
‘We have belief in the group, we work really hard in training and are well prepared. When you prepare as well as we do, we’ll get results.’