Newcastle boss Matthias Jaissle's 'I will follow him' pledge after James Morrison's West Brom impress
The new home boss reserved some very kind words for Albion and boss James Morrison.
Newcastle United boss Matthias Jaissle revealed he will follow James Morrison’s Albion with interest after a rollercoaster EFL Cup tie went the way of the north east hosts.
The Magpies saw off the Baggies 3-2 at a sold-out St James’ Park with former Baggies loan favourite Harvey Barnes the two-goal hero after the visitors’ Isaac Price fired a brace of his own.
Morrison’s men tested the Premier League hosts for large parts of the second round tie and found a second wind late on to equalise from the penalty spot before Barnes’ winner.
German former Red Bull Salzburg and Al Ahli boss Jaissle, appointed in the summer to succeed Eddie Howe, admitted he was intrigued by Albion’s “brave” possession style under Morrison and tipped the Baggies to be in the mix in the Championship this season.
Jaissle said: “They are doing really well, they will play a great role in the Championship this season.
“But we also responded good to all the (team) rotations. It was important we saw character on pitch after their second equaliser. Straight away we scored and it helped is.
“We're happy, it was an entertaining match for the fans. I would've had less headache if we didn't concede the penalty for the second one!”
Price opened the scoring with ingenuity from a free-kick after 18 minutes as Albion found a foothold following a bright start from the home side.
“I was really happy already in the pre-match analysis to see a team playing that brave from the break in a structure, you don’t see it that often,” added Jaissle.
“I told him that I will follow him! And I will follow how they will do because I am convinced they will have a really good role in the Championship.”
The two head coaches had a chat down the tunnel after the full-time whistle of a pulsating second round tie at St James’ Park, where 2,000 travelling Baggies fans were left heartened by the display.
Morrison said: “Yeah, he was impressed with how we played and how we did things. We caused him a lot of problems, so we were discussing that.
“So he was very complimentary of us, which is a nice feeling after the game.
“He can see how competitive it (the pyramid) is and you can see the quality in his team and what he's trying to get to.”