Albion U21s suffered their first defeat since early December at the hands of Leicester City on Monday afternoon.
The Baggies were two goals down by half-time in the Premier League 2 contest and looked to have mounted a late comeback as Eseosa Sule scored on his return to injury – only to see the visitors cap off a 3-1 win with Michael Golding’s late strike, with Kevin Mfuamba seeing red for the hosts late on.
Leigh Downing’s side went a goal behind as Logan Briggs took advantage of a lapse in concentration before firing past the returning Ben Cisse in the Albion goal.
The in-form Souleyman Mandey looked to be the man to turn things around for the hosts, only to see his powerful effort halted by Harry French.
It wasn’t long before the Foxes made it two. Darren Motsi, in similar fashion to Briggs’ opener, pounced upon a loose pass, leaving him to calmly slot beyond Cisse.
At half-time, Downing brought off Alex Williams and Cisse, who were both making their first appearances since spells on the sidelines, but the pattern of the game remained largely the same.
Substitute goalkeeper Maxwell Moses pulled off a fine stop to deny Alfie Fisken at the near post, just prior to Kevin Mfuamba testing Moses’ opposite number with a low strike.
A raft of dangerous set-piece deliveries from Cole Deeming caused the Foxes’ defence plenty of problems. Midfielder Mandey headed a deflected effort over, before the resulting corner saw Donte-German Ranger nod above the upright from point-blank range.
Downing looked to turn the game further in his side’s favour, as he brought on attackers Sule (playing his first competitive minutes since returning from injury) and Rio Parmar. Their extra creativity in attack almost paid off as some quick combination play saw Adam Letlat shoot into the legs of French.
The Baggies couldn’t capitalise from a goal-mouth scramble, prior to Mfuamba being shown his marching orders for a second yellow card.
Despite going a man down, Albion managed their first of the afternoon. Sule buried a strike into the bottom corner, leaving the hosts to believe in a comeback.
Those hopes were soon quashed though as Golding hit a speculative effort from range, leaving the hosts with nothing to show for their efforts.
Albion: Cisse (Moses HT); Diomande (Iddrisa HT), Mohammed, Humphries; Williams (Nelson HT), Mfuamba, Deeming, Letlat; Mandey, Francis-Caesar, Ranger.
