Albion get to buck a trend but goals still huge issue
ALBION ended their Championship season with an emphatic 4-0 win to pile even more misery on relegated Barnsley.
The Baggies, with one of the biggest wage budgets in the division, had been expected to push for an instant return to the Premier League following relegation last year.
But having started the season under head coach Valerien Ismael, his successor, Steve Bruce, was only able to steer them to a 10th-placed finish.
However, the Baggies did give their supporters some reason for optimism on the final day, with a brace from Karlan Grant as well as strikes from Adam Reach and Matt Clarke seeing them to victory at The Hawthorns. Here are the talking points.
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Clarke caps spell in style
It was something of a surprise to see the defender recalled to the starting XI.
With the Brighton loanee set to return to the south coast this summer, and having been benched for the first time in almost two months against Reading the previous week, Clarke appeared to have played his final game for West Brom.
That was until a combination of injury and absence afflicting Kyle Bartley and Conor Townsend left the door ajar for Darnell Furlong and Clarke to return on either side of the back four.
Despite having played in the position just four times previously and not since November 2017 for Portsmouth, the 25-year-old did not look out of place on the left.
In advanced areas, the makeshift full-back was effective on the ball and combined with Reach by being a natural left-footer to offer a threat on the overlap when the winger ventured inside.
Their endeavours were rewarded in the second half when, after overlapping Grady Diangana as the forward drove inside, Clarke continued to run into the penalty area and was duly found by Grant.
Clarke defied the defender tag as, one-on-one with Jack Walton, he finished coolly, low and just past the goalkeeper’s outstretched leg at the near post.
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Championship calling for Caleb
It was quite a week for 19-year-old Caleb Taylor.
Starting last Tuesday night with the opener against Fulham to put Albion’s Under-23s on course for a Premier League Cup final date with Wolves on Friday, he almost had a fairytale ending to the story by finding the back of the net again at The Hawthorns but this time in front of more than 20,000 fans.
The centre-back made the step up from skippering Richard Beale’s academy side to sitting on the first-team bench one more time this season for the final Championship fixture.
After ten matchdays as an unused substitute, mainly under Ismael, it was 11th time lucky as Bruce brought him in in a straight switch for Semi Ajayi at the back.
A rousing roar welcomed a longawaited league introduction for Taylor before chants of “he’s one of our own” rang around the stadium.
That instant faith was almost immediately repaid towards the end of that half-hour league bow.
The youngster connected cleanly with a corner minutes before the final whistle, only to see his effort blocked on the goal line.
Taylor reacted quickest on the
rebound too, but could only head over from close range.
Goals galore
Albion left their joint-biggest win of the season for the very last day.
A 4-0 scoreline was also recorded against Sheffield United and at Cardiff during the first two months of the season,
but there has been plenty of change since then.
Ismael’s side topped the table after the latter of those in late September but fast-forward seven months and Albion finished eight points outside the play-off places.
Despite the flurry of goals against already-relegated Barnsley, the Baggies finished with 52 from 46 matches, the lowest in the Championship’s top half.
The difference between themselves and those who secured a play-off place is even starker, with 11 goals separating the Baggies from Luton and Sheffield United (12 from Huddersfield and 21 from Nottingham Forest).
Albion are in dire need of goals from someone other than Grant, who was directly responsible for more than a third of them.
Just four other players – Callum Robinson (eight), Alex Mowatt (four) and Matt Phillips (three) – scored more than twice, the other of whom, Andy Carroll, is already confirmed to be off this summer.