Brown Ideye’s pre-season preparations started on a woeful note, as West Bromwich Albion lost 3-1 in their opening pre-season match against Red Bull Salzburg as they concluded their training camp in Austria. Ideye’s fired blank in the match.
Tony Pulis is repeating the pre-season schedule that he took with former club Crystal Palace last summer as he seeks to put his players through a rigorous fitness regime before the new season.
They went behind after 33 minutes as 22-year-old striker Marco Djuricin fired home with an effort from from 20 yards.
Salzburg had the better of the opening stages, going close on several occasions before finding the net.
It got worse for the Baggies when Christoph Leitgeb played a superb through ball to Jonathan Soriano, who beat the offside trap and slotted a second past Boaz Myhill after 39 minutes.
They came back into it with late pressure from Callum McManaman whose long range drive was saved by Cican Stankovic, before Craig Gardner burst into the area but fired just wide.
The first half came to an end with the Austrian champions taking a deserved two goal lead.
Salzburg replaced all 11 players at the break, while the visitors introducing some of their highly rated youngsters five minutes into the second half.
West Brom Academy Player of the Year Jack Fitzwater was among those to enter the fray, while 16-year-old striker Jonathan Leko – who was named in the squad for the 4-1 final day defeat by Arsenal in May – also came on.
Another youngster included in the squad for that match, Tyler Roberts, was also brought on by Pulis. The 16-year-old striker was part of Wales’ 23-man senior training squad in May.
Jack Rose, Brown Ideye, Sebastien Pocognoli, Adil Nabi, Shaun Donnellan, Joe Ward and Tavhon Campbell were the others to be given a chance to catch the eye, with only Stephen Sessegnon remaining from the starting line-up.