West Bromwich Albion slipped to their second pre-season defeat following a poor defensive show at Swindon Town.
Gordon Greer scored the only goal just after the half-hour mark but only poor finishing and Dean Kiely prevented a heavier defeat for an Albion side which was without its main spine of Scott Carson, Jonas Olsson, Jonathan Greening and Luke Moore.
Yet Albion could have been ahead inside the opening half-a-minute when ex-Swindon man Simon Cox found Robert Koren, who played in Craig Beattie. The Scotland international ran towards goal but was denied by David Lucas.
Five minutes later Albion again found themselves free of markers in Swindon’s opening third. Beattie found Teixeira, making his first start of pre-season, who drilled his shot the wrong side of Lucas’ left-hand post.
Dwayne Samuels came to the visitors’ rescue a few minutes later. Sean Morrison failed to get any power behind his header but it would have crossed the line, had Samuels not stretched across to clear the danger.
Billy Paynter went close for Swindon. Youssouf Mulumbu was dispossessed, allowing the giant Swindon striker to collect the ball some 20-yards from goal. Spotting Dean Kiely off his line, Paynter curled his shot but if flew just wide of the left-hand post.
They hit the target on 33 minutes. Gordon Greer made a mockery of Albion’s marking to steer an excellent header past Dean Kiely from Anthony McNamee’s corner. Although Greer’s header would have taken some stopping, Albion’s marking was simply woeful.
Berlin Ndebe-Nlome made it six unchallenged first-half headers for the home side but, luckily for Albion, the ball sailed over Kiely’s goal.
Albion made changes at half-time with Borja Valero, the only non-starter of pre-season so far, replacing Koren and Luke Barnett coming on for Samuels. But Albion’s deficiencies at the back remained with Morrison rising about Meite for another goalbound header on 57 minutes. Kiely reacting quickly to prevent the goal.
The hosts could have grabbed a second through Lloyd Macklin. His 73rd minute strike whistled just over Kiely’s goal.
Cox had his first real opportunity to score, some five minutes later, when he pounced onto Jonathan Douglas’ weak backpass but his lob drift just wide.
SWINDON (4-4-2): Lucas, Amankwaah, Greer, , Morrison, Jean-Francois, O’Brien, Douglas, Timlin, McNamee, Paynter, Ndebe-Nlome. Substitutes: Smith (gk), Kennedy, Ifil, McGovern, Thompson, Macklin, Easton, Marshall, Cuthbert.
ALBION (4-4-2): Kiely, Zuiverloon, Meite, Martis, Samuels, Koren, Dorrans, Mulumbu, Teixeira, Beattie, Cox. Substitutes: Carson (gk), Brunt, Barnett, Greening, Olsson, Valero, Moore, Cech.
