New West Brom signing's 'silver lining' from debut gaffe as boss outlines feelings
Boss Eric Ramsay has backed Albion goalkeeper Max O'Leary to recover from his debut error having used it to grow a connection with team-mates.
O'Leary, who moved to The Hawthorns on a six-month contract from boyhood club Bristol City on Thursday, was handed an immediate Baggies bow by Ramsay at Derby on Friday night.
The 29-year-old goalkeeper, signed in the wake of Albion errors between the sticks this term, made a gaffe at the end of the first period to hand the Rams the lead, which they held on to until Chris Mepham's dramatic stoppage-time header to earn a point.
Ramsay, for whom it was a first point in charge, admitted Mepham's intervention got the new keeper "out of some trouble", but laid no blame at O'Leary's door and said the former Robins man shared his gratitude with colleagues at full-time.
"I know what Max brings from the brief interactions I had with him at Shrewsbury and he's confident, he's got personality, he is experienced now at this level with a number of games in a good team, certainly last year," Ramsay said.
"So I wanted to make sure we had something tangible, fresh, that we could really pull on. In spite of the incident that leads to the goal, he offered a lot and distribution was very good and we caused some real problems from those moments."
