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Corberán: We Knew We Would Have to Defend a Lot and Protect Our Lead - Ipswich Town News

West Brom boss Carlos Corberán was disappointed to concede Omari Hutchinson’s injury-time leveller as the Blues and Baggies drew 2-2 at Portman Road but knew his team would have to defend a lot in order to protect their lead.

Hutchinson’s fourth goal of the season claimed a deserved point for Town, who remain fourth in the division, 11 points ahead of the Baggies in fifth.

"Unfortunately we didn’t achieve the result we wanted to achieve. We came here with a target to win it,” he told his club’s official website.

"We managed the game well in some moments and maybe in others, we didn’t create enough or attack enough. We were defending for too long against one team which has a lot of quality in attack.

"I value the effort and the commitment the players put into the game. We had a couple of difficult moments with the two injuries.

"[Kyle] Bartley first, who was a key a player today in terms of set-pieces and defending in their key areas.

"After we lost Bartley, we lost our striker Daryl Dike in the second half. The team put a lot of effort in to compensate these difficulties.

"Against Ipswich, the more that you defend, the less of a chance you have of winning the game.

"Only one team have beaten them here in the league and that was Leeds back in the summer.

"We were very close to winning, even though in some moments they were better than us. It’s a pity that we’ve conceded two goals in the second phase of a set piece. The first one at the start of the second period and the second right at the end.

"We scored our second goal but there were still lots of things to do. We knew that we would have to defend a lot and protect our lead.

"For me, the key was to try and attack more, but unfortunately we couldn’t and it was a pity that they scored in added time.

"If the players hadn’t put that much energy into the game, it would have been really difficult to leave with a point.”

Albion lost defender Bartley and sub Daryl Dike to injury at half-time and in the second half, which he felt affected his team’s performance.

"Kyle was feeling a tightness in his calf,” he said. "From about the 30th minute, he was trying to manage this. When we got to half-time, we decided that he couldn’t keep playing.

"It’s different with Daryl Dike because that one looks more like a serious injury. Something similar to the previous one, but we still don’t know.

"We are going to have to wait for the scan. We need to see if the scans show any type of serious injury. It looks like a serious one.”


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