West Brom boss defend Jay Simpson

May 14 2009 By Chris Lepkowski

“You pick players to try and win football matches.

“If I think Jay Simpson coming off the bench is the best option for the shape of the team at the given time in the match then that’s the change I’ll make.

“I heard the fans singing Roman’s name but it wasn’t right to put a giant centre forward on.

“You don’t do things to try and appease - you do it to try and win the game and Jay almost scored.”

Mowbray conceded that Simpson’s honesty had back-fired.

He feels that, with hindsight, the youngster should have been more diplomatic.

“Jay was being honest,” added Mowbray.

“He’s a young boy and if he’d been a bit cuter he might have said more positive things about the club and then had his intentions to do what he was going to do without put it on paper.”