Brown’s purple patch rolls on as Pulis’s reinvigorated Baggies batter Hammers
THE scout who recruited Brown Ideye and then left West Brom ‘by mutual consent’ last month amid concerns that the club’s record signing had proved something of a flop, was feeling more than a little vindicated yesterday.
‘Ahem,’ tweeted Stuart White − and understandably so, seeing as the Nigerian has now scored four goals in three games.
Clearly, all Ideye needed was a manager capable of utilising the talent that persuaded West Brom to pay £10million for him in the first place. And while Tony Pulis admits a decent enough offer might well have led to Ideye’s departure in the last transfer window, the fact that he is now performing so effectively is a triumph for both player and manager.
Compared to a stunning first-half goal from James Morrison, not to mention a fine finish from Saido Berahino after the break, Ideye’s 20th-minute strike was not much to look at. It was a poacher’s goal that owed far more to the quality of Craig Dawson’s cross.
Indeed, Ideye might have been a fraction offside when he diverted Dawson’s delivery past Adrian from close range. The assistant referee saw nothing wrong with it but Sam Allardyce did − and complained.
In fairness to a side now boasting just one defeat in nine since Pulis took charge, it was no less than West Brom deserved. Set up to be aggressive by their manager, they attacked West Ham with real vigour to produce arguably their finest performance of the season. The travelling fans would probably rate this as West Ham’s worst.
They booed their captain Kevin Nolan and hurled abuse at Allardyce, not for the first time telling him to ‘**** off’.
Exactly why they display such animosity towards a manager who, for the most part, has done a good job at Upton Park is baffling.
It was a rough afternoon for Allardyce, made all the more uncomfortable by the dismissal of Morgan Amalfitano and the reaction of West Ham’s owners. While David Sullivan is said to have left early, David Gold took to Twitter to express his sympathy for the fans.
Further weakened by the loss of Andy Carroll to injury, Allardyce’s side offered little in response to West Brom’s ambition; not a single effort on target in an opening half and not much of note in the second other than the dismissal.
Amalfitano had been on the pitch as a replacement for Nolan for less than 10 minutes when a nasty challenge on Chris Brunt invited Martin Atkinson to show him a yellow card, before a shove in the face
of the West Brom captain prompted a straight red. Allardyce said: ‘It’s unprofessional, isn’t it?
‘The punishment is laid down in our code of conduct in terms of hands and getting sent off for something like that. That will be dealt with, as always, internally and we move on. But we’re so short of bodies it’s the last thing we need.’
West Brom, by contrast, were both composed and excellent. Well organised, obviously. This is a Pulis team, after all. But they were dynamic, determined, desperate to secure a place in the quarter-finals. They too were playing their third game in six days but there were no heavy legs there.