WHITES BLITZED BY BRILLIANT BAGGIES
One-way traffic at Albion...
WEST BROM tore into promotion favourites Leeds and blew apart their bid to get back to the top of the Championship.
“We went head to head with Leeds,” said Baggies manager Darren Moore.
“In lots of ways that was our best all-round performance of the season.”
The Baggies had taken only one point out of the previous 12, and after being top themselves, were outside the promotion places prior to kick-off.
But they dominated Leeds, who had lost only one away game all season.
It took a while for Albion to get their goals, but when they came they destroyed Leeds.
A win would have taken Leeds top again-but they never looked like getting it.
Goalkeeper Bailey PeacockFarrell didn’t help being at fault for two goals.
He could have done better with Hal Robson-Kanu’s opener for West Brom in the 51st minute and got his hands to Matty Phillips 67th minute long ranger but couldn’t stop the ball going in.
Peacock-Farrell lay on the ground and headed the turf in disappointment as he saw the ball go in.
Harvey Barnes ran away and got a third in the 81st minute but the pick of West Brom’s foursome was sub Dwight Gayle’s back heal two minutes later after Jay Rodriguez’s shot had been blocked.
“It was important that the players dug in,” said Moore.
The Baggies are now back to fifth in the table, having leaped five places, and Moore added:
win has given us a platform again now for the rest of the season.
“We played very well today. The plan was to try and take the game to Leeds and that’s what I thought we did.”
Leeds got a goal back with Pabio Hernandez’s late looping header but it was too little too late.
Moore shook up his team as the answer to Albion’s poor spell, scrapping a three man defence that has been punished recently and adding an extra defender.
But no-one has scored more in the Championship this season than West Brom and the emphasis was still on attack as they looked to return to form.
Albion started at a frantic pace and Robson-Kanu was inches away from giving them a ninth-minute lead when he sent a curling drive narrowly over the bar.
Tosin Adarabioyo then flashed a 13th-minute shot just wide after Craig Dawson had headed back a corner from Phillips, and 60 seconds later Jay Rodriguez forced goal“This keeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell into a save after he lashed in a drive following a through ball from Barnes.
Barnes also put one in the side netting and Rodriguez crashed a shot against the crossbar in the bright start West Brom needed after their damaging dull spell.
But the Baggies were just warming up and in the second half Leeds had no answers and fell to a damaging defeat even though manager Marcelo Bielsa said: “I thought the score was exaggerated”.