West Bromwich Albion 1-2 Bristol City: Pressure for Ryan Mason as Baggies beaten at home
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between West Bromwich Albion and Bristol City at The Hawthorns on Boxing Day; Anis Mehmeti and Ross McCrorie score early as Gerhard Struber's Robins seal victory.
Friday 26 December 2025 19:06, UK
First-half goals from Anis Mehmeti and Ross McCrorie helped Bristol City climb into the Sky Bet Championship play-off zone with a 2-1 victory over West Brom at The Hawthorns.
Ousmane Diakite pulled one back in the 85th minute but Albion struggled to create chances once City had taken the lead.
Back-to-back wins for City saw Albion suffer a first Hawthorns defeat in eight matches and successive losses.
City opened the scoring in the fourth minute after Albion winger Mikey Johnston's deflected drive went into the side-netting.
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Mehmeti rolled a shot on the turn into the bottom corner from 20 yards after Neto Borges' short pass for his seventh goal of the season.
But it will spark fresh criticism of goalkeeper Joe Wildsmith, who looked as if he thought the Albania international's effort was drifting wide.
There was an element of fortune around the goal as a City forward standing offside jumped over the ball but was deemed to be not interfering with play.
Albion head coach Ryan Mason appealed in vain to the fourth official.
Isaac Price missed the perfect chance to equalise in the 11th minute.
The attacking midfielder's shot hit goalkeeper Max O'Leary's chest in a one-against-one after Karlan Grant put him through.
O'Leary was again perfectly placed soon after to block Diakite's point-blank header from Callum Styles' corner.
There was a flashpoint when Mehmeti was only booked after appearing to elbow Styles in the face as he upended him.
The challenge left Albion down to 10 men while Styles was briefly forced off for treatment clutching his nose.
McCrorie doubled City's lead in the 22nd minute, crashing a fierce, rising angled drive past Wildsmith at his near post after Scott Twine found him unmarked.
Grant had the first effort after the restart but O'Leary was again in the right place to smother his low drive from the edge of the box.
Grant had another chance but his fierce, angled effort was deflected high over the bar.
Albion fans were getting restless and made their feelings known just after the hour.
Aune Heggebo wasted a glorious chance to reduce the deficit in the 68th minute when he glanced wide from five yards from substitute Sammy Iling-Junior's cross.
Heggebo looped over another header but by this time thousands of Albion fans had seen enough and had exited the ground.
Diakite gave the hosts a lifeline with a header from point-blank range from Johnston's corner but the visitors saw out the game.
The managers
West Brom's Ryan Mason:
"I am not going to sit here and ask for patience. It's normal. That's football. I understand the emotion and the passion.
"If we score three of our five opportunities then the feeling, the momentum and the energy is different.
"We've lost too many games and with that comes frustration. I have played for one of the biggest teams in Europe in Tottenham and the only way to turn it around is to win games.
"I have managed Tottenham when there were protests against the ownership, talk of the Super League, there was a lot of discontent.
"There were two massive mistakes by the referee. The first goal was clearly offside in my opinion. Joe (Wildsmith) would have saved it if their striker hadn't been there - you only had to look at the foot pattern of our goalkeeper."
"[On Mehmeti's challenge] Five yards from the referee, an opposition player has produced a really dangerous, reckless challenge with his elbow which caused a lot of damage and there's no consequence."
Bristol City's Gerhard Struber:
"I have not seen a clip, but if it is offside, then I feel sorry. But a video assistant would help.
"It was a really efficient performance in the first half and Anis' strike was really clean. This is the quality of him.
"I expect this from him. He has everything - he has the talent and the quality to do it at a high level.
"We showed a really good mindset from the kick-off to win this game and a confidence, which was the difference."
