West Brom's James Morrison bemoans 'silly' goals but refuses to criticise officials in Middlesbrough reverse
Albion fell to a first league defeat with the lunchtime clash in the north east.
James Morrison wants to see Albion cut out conceding “silly” goals - but refused to blame officials in the 3-1 defeat at Middlesbrough.
A first Championship defeat of the season for Morrison’s men came with mixed emotions for the visiting head coach at his former club, after Albion impressed for large spells of the first half.
The fancied hosts bagged a controversial offside opener through big-money signing Will Lankshear but Albion netted a well-worked equaliser through Jimmy-Jay Morgan.
Lankshear bagged his second from another rebound before substitute Alfie Jones turned in a late third - with another that replays showed was offside in the build-up.
Morrison, whose side benefited from a Aune Heggebo handball at Norwich before the striker was controversially banned, did not get drawn into blaming the official, but was irritated by the goals shipped.
“Well, obviously the second half is timing of the goals,” Morrison reflected. “We talk a lot about managing momentum and starts to halves, even though there are a couple of goals that were offside - but I'm not going to complain too much.
“Hopefully we get a few (decisions) this year.
“But obviously we got back into the game again, I thought in spells we were really comfortable. How many times have you seen Middlesbrough get outplayed?
“I thought with the ball we would have to suffer, with Middlesbrough being good in possession, but we were the ones who looked comfortable.
“But, again, I don't want to be that team where we couldn't see silly goals.”
Asked specifically about the offside calls, he added: “Yes, both are. The one, he (assistant) is clearly looking across and I think he was admiring how good the strike was!
“I'm not going to be one here to complain, really. I will if it keeps happening.”
Morrison was disappointed with the manner of Boro’s important second goal, where Kyle Joseph was played in and his strike was parried into the path of Lankshear.
“I think it's just probably part of our learning curve, we'll get stronger as the time goes on, we won't get those mistakes,” he added.
“I think obviously we control them without the ball, in terms of our shape when we're low, it was just that one moment where we tried to ‘jump out’.
“We were a bit low, and they played through us, and then they got through the sides, so we'll talk a lot about when we're in our defending half.”