Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
TOP FLIGHT IN THE BAG FOR ALBION
Bilic and his boys do it the hard way
West Brom 2 QPR 2
WEST BROM clinched promotion in dramatic style but, boy, did they make hard work of it.
The sight of Baggies boss Slaven Bilic screaming to his players that Brentford were losing was a sight to behold.
Bilic (below) was going wild on the touchline yelling at his men that Barnsley had taken the lead and not to all pile forward.
When the referee blew his final whistle, players waited out on the Hawthorns pitch for a couple of minutes for the results to come in from elsewhere.
Suddenly, the place erupted – as much as any mostly empty stadium can – as it filtered through that the Bees had lost, and the sign “We are Premier League” flashed on the big screen.
Promotion is worth £170million and Albion’s dream scenario of getting their noses in front and cruising to victory with the minimum of fuss took a jolt 10 minutes before half-time when they fell behind.
Ryan Manning seized on a square ball and chanced his arm, only to see his first effort blocked. But, when it rebounded back into his path, he made no mistake.
Shell-shocked Baggies players didn’t need telling the situation could not be allowed to go on too long and they dug deep to start dictating matters.
Rangers started to wobble and, a minute before the break, West Brom levelled when Callum Robinson shunted a beautifullyweighted through ball into the path of Grady Diangana.
It was a tricky angle, but he fired through keeper Joe Lumley’s legs into the bottom of the net from six yards.
And they looked to have made the big breakthrough five minutes into the second half, when Diangana finished a brilliant dribble and run with a ball right across the face of the six-yard box.
Robinson was waiting, and it fell straight into his path, giving him the easiest of conversions.
But Albion were then hit for a second time when Ebere Eze took a long ball from Yoann Barbet and lashed it into the top corner from the edge of the box.