GAYLE FUELS ALBION REVIVAL
Loan star hits two to see off Royals
DWIGHT Gayle had to fight off an attempt by teammate Kyle Bartley to nick a goal off him.
Gayle is in red-hot form, taking his total so far this season to eight. But Bartley reckons it should be seven.
Gayle’s latest two fired up West Brom’s comeback after struggling Reading had taken a surprise first-half lead.
But Baggies boss Darren Moore said: “If Kyle Bartley was here he’d like to say that he’s a goal threat as well.
“He’s trying to claim two goals, one he scored and one that’s gone to Gayle.”
Central defender Bartley definitely got his first West Brom goal in the 80th minute with a header from Chris Brunt’s corner. The question is, did he get one before that?
He got up to another corner in the 65th minute, but Gayle says he put a foot to it right on the line.
Moore is not bothered, either way. “I’m pleased that there are goals in all areas of the team,” he said.
“That is the biggest thing. Gayle will get the accolades and rightly so because he’s a striker with that prowess. But the team are scoring goals and being effective in all areas.”
That Gayle swap for Salomon Rondon going to Newcastle for the season is looking like a great bit of business by Moore.
Gayle, Championship player of the season for September to go with Moore’s manager of the month, got two goals to start off October. Rondon is struggling
to make an impact at Newcastle. Leandro Bacuna put Reading into the lead with a superb sixth minute goal, angled in from the left after a short corner routine with John Swift.
But the Baggies crushed Reading in the second half.
“At half-time I said we would have to find a way to break down a stubborn rear guard,” added Moore.
“If we were to win the game then we’d have to go and take it.”
And that’s what West Brom did. They climbed to second in the table, a point behind Sheffield United and have banged in 31 goals so far. Gayle’s influence is immense. In his last 10 League starts, Gayle has scored eight and won four penalties, all of them put away, and been on the winning side seven times.
“It was Gayle’s first goal from Tyrone Mears’ cross that knocked the wind out of their sails,” added Moore, who is now on an unbeaten seven-game league run.
“That gave us fresh impetus to go on and win. We were clinical with our chances again. We finished very strongly. Reading tired and the gaps opened up. We finished Reading off.”
After Gayle’s goals after 49 and 65 minutes, Barnes, with another impressive display, got his and Bartley, with no question, the fourth. Bacuna’s goal was the pick, though. A few miles down the road from The Hawthorns at Aston Villa, Bacuna’s career never really got going, but there was no flattering to deceive here.
Albion keeper Sam Johnstone was beaten as the ball kissed a post and went in.
Johnstone looked at his defenders as if to say ‘where were you?’ and he would be right.
It wasn’t exactly NASA science to work out what Reading were doing at the corner and closing down Bacuna should have been obvious.
West Brom can play Russian roulette football, poor defending and outstanding attacking. But Reading finished battered despite their good first half. Boss Paul Clement said: “We played well in the first half, possibly the best we have played this season.
“In the end it’s become our heaviest defeat of the season.
“West Brom are good with Premier League players that they have.”
Reading are now just outside the bottom three and, with this battering, Clement has clearly got problems.
“We did well in the first half, but we didn’t have enough to contain them in the second half,” he added.
“Now we have to make a bigger step when we come back after the international break.”