Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BLOWING OFF STEAM
After the mayhem of Lee Mason’s crazy whistling.. Big Sam is relieved his players have finally learnt to defend
desperate for a 1-0 win since he took charge in December. This was his first with that scoreline in 13 league attempts.
Big Sam is finally plugging the holes of the top flight’s leakiest defence which has conceded 55 goals.
His back four and keeper Sam Johnstone were resolute as Brighton dominated possession.
The Baggies took the lead when Kyle Bartley headed in from a corner, then watched as Pascal Gross and Danny Welbeck failed from the penalty spot for Brighton.
In between, Mason lost the plot for almost four minutes until VAR bailed him out, with Lewis Dunk’s free-kick having to be retaken after he originally curled it in while Johnstone organised his wall, sparking chaos. Inevitably, there were few complaints post-match from Allardyce after belatedly registering his first home win ahead of a crucial week, with Everton due at the Hawthorns on Thursday and Newcastle on Sunday.
And with West Brom unbeaten in three games, he reflected: “Winning the game and getting a clean sheet together has always been the way forward for us. The more of these we can get, the better the chance of saving our Premier League status.
“It should have come sooner but it hasn’t. We’ve had more than a bit of luck with it. But we’ve shown more consistency in defending in our last three games than we have in my entire time here.
“We have been shocking as defenders, so at least we’re getting better in that department and we need to if we want to win more matches.”
Allardyce was also thrilled to see Bartley head in Conor Gallagher’s 11th-minute corner.
He added: “We work on the delivery and the lads’ runs, and we are persistent in what we do and how we do it. Everyone knows what we want and where to run. That continuous practice will hopefully give us more opportunities to score.”
Brighton should have levelled when VAR penalised Okay Yokuslu for handling.
But Gross smashed against the bar before Dunk’s free-kick fiasco when the visitors thought they had levelled.
Yet the Seagulls had only themselves to blame for leaving empty-handed when Welbeck hit a post with a second-half spot-kick after Gross was clipped by Conor Townsend.
And on a day of extraordinary goings-on, a final stat in keeping with it all - West Brom’s last five Premier League home wins have come under five different managers: Tony Pulis, Alan Pardew, Darren Moore, Slaven Bilic and Allardyce.
THOMAS FRANK gave a rousing half-time speech to secure this victory against Stoke.
But the manager of the promotionchasing Bees insists nothing of the sort will be required by his players for the top-of-the-table clash with Norwich this week. Frank noted:
“If I can take credit for an inspirational team talk at the break, then you also have to ask what the **** I was doing before the game.”
The home side were still asleep as goalkeeper David Raya gifted Stoke a 27-second lead and looked totally flat for the first 45 minutes.
But after a rollicking from Frank turned the game on its head with fine goals from Vitaly Janelt and Championship top scorer Ivan Toney (above) with his 25th of the season.
Frank said: “There are some games it is so easy, talking about making an emotional speech, but before the Norwich game on Wednesday I don’t have to say anything.
“The players will naturally just be on it. I can only destroy everything by getting involved, they will be ready.
“It means something, going into that match after what we did here. If
you can continue that momentum and confidence going into that next game it helps because the turnarounds are so quick.
“We turned a game around again and lifted our level. That is better to take into the game against Norwich compared, to say. having lost five on the bounce. I am looking forward to that game massively.”
After Jacob Brown took advantage of Raya’s early blunder, it needed a thunderbolt from Janelt to haul Brentford level, and Toney did the rest. The outside chance of a play-off spot may be fading but Stoke boss Michael O’neill wants his players to use their weekend experience against another top side Swansea on Wednesday night. He said: “It is one where you hope players can learn from things that happened.
“You want them to learn, and then put those things into practice so we’ll see on that.
“But we are getting more experience at the top end of this league, and that’s important.”
Raya 5, Dalsgaard 6,
Reid 6, Pinnock 6, Sorensen 6, Fosu 6 (Canos 58, 6), Dasilva 5 (Jensen 58, 6), Janelt 7 (Norgaard 77, 6), Mbeumo 6, Toney 7, Ghoddos 6 (Marcondes 86) STOKE: Gunn 6, Smith 6, Chester 6 (Clarke 83), Batth 6, Souttar 6, Norrington-davies 6 (Tymon 46, 6),
Allen 6, Thompson 6 (Cousins 46, 6), Mikel 6, Brown 7 (Vokes 84), Powell 6
BRENTFORD:
MOTM IVAN TONEY (BRENTFORD)
PEP GUARDIOLA says Norwich are the only team he watches to relax because he enjoys the way they play.
Relax? You can come out from behind the sofa now, Pep.
This was a close-run thing, but Manchester City’s messiah would have approved of the Canaries’ silk and steel as eventually they banked a deserved fifth consecutive win at Adams Park.
If Guardiola thinks he’s seen this film before, he’s right – it was only two years ago when Norwich romped to the Championship title, and the sequel is just as good to watch.
And head coach Daniel Farke told fans not to wait for promotion to crack open the champagne after Teemu Pukki’s 18th goal of the season and substitute Adam Idah sent them 10 points clear of third-placed Watford.
The Canaries boss said: “I have a great relationship with Pep and I know he follows what we are doing. If one of the best coaches in the world says he watches our football to relax, we take that as a huge compliment. I hope he enjoyed the view from his sofa today.
“Is it too soon for our fans to get down the supermarket and start buying champagne? In these difficult times, I hope they celebrate with champagne if they can afford it.
“Everyone connected with Norwich is buzzing, because we are playing the best season in the history of the club, with 70 points from 33 games.
“I hope the fans enjoy this win, but we have to focus on a big game against
Brentford on Wednesday.”
The Chairboys may be bottom of the table but they don’t keel over and for 50 minutes their resistance was robust.
But Norwich’s fast start after the interval proved decisive, with Pukki’s shot from Emi Buendia’s low centre taking a deflection off Josh Knight (below left).
Wycombe substitute Scott Kashket lifted his lob from home keeper David Stockdale’s clearance wastefully over the top. But Idah settled all arguments three minutes from time (below right).
Wycombe boss Gareth Ainsworth praised his team’s effort but claimed Norwich keeper Tim Krul got away with a forearm on Nnamdi Ofoborh.
“We will tell Nnamdi to stop putting his face in people’s elbows,” grinned Ainsworth.
“Anywhere else on the pitch and that’s a foul.
“But I’m proud of the boys. We had our chances but couldn’t take them.” WYCOMBE: Stockdale 7, Grimmer 6, Stewart 7, Knight 6, Obita 6 (Jacobson, 68, 6), Wheeler 5 (Thompson, 68, 5), Gape 5 (Ofoborh, 68, 6), Mehmeti 5 (Horgan, 68, 5), Mccleary 5 (Kashket, 68, 5), Ikpeazu 7, Onyedinma 5
Krul 6, Aarons 8, Hanley 7, Gibson 7, Giannoulis 6, Skipp 6 (Sorensen 90), Mclean 7, Buendia 8 (Placheta 90), Vrancic 6 (Rupp 85), Hernandez 5 (Idah 85), Pukki 7 (Zimmermann 88)
EMI BUENDIA (NORWICH)