West Brom: We were naive says Eddie Newton

Oct 21 2009 by Chris Lepkowski

West Brom's senior players have been urged to rid the team of its 'naive' streak.

The call has come from No2 Eddie Newton, who believes Albion's lack of experience is harming their promotion prospects.

The Baggies had an ideal chance to pull away at the top of the table but their defeat, along with Newcastle's loss, has drawn other teams into the promotion mix.

Newton believes Albion's more experienced members need to bring the team, and younger players, back on track, not least as, once again, Albion conceded first.

“We got hit by a sucker punch," said Newton last night, speaking on behalf of Roberto Di Matteo who was suffering with flu.

“We showed a little bit of naivety and got punished for it.

“We are talking about giving team’s goal starts here.

“We are trying to tackle it and sort it out – but it takes time.

“We’ve got a young squad and we there is some naive play at times.

“When you’ve got a cuter, older professional like they had in their skipper Alan Tate - but we didn’t have that sort of player doing that for us.