Sunday People

Baggies different Grady as Bruce enjoys a high five

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WHO needs a new centreforw­ard?

West Brom boss Steve Bruce was on the phone all week trying to get a new No.9 with £7million man Daryl Dike crocked again.

But the Baggies smashed in five, demolishin­g Hull’s unbeaten Championsh­ip record.

“Crazy isn’t it?” said Bruce.

“You don’t often score five in this league. When is the last time we hit five? I don’t know. It will be a bloody long time ago.”

In fact it is West Brom’s first five-goal salvo in nearly three years, since they whipped Swansea 5-1 at The Hawthorns in December 2019.

It also gives Albion their first league win of the season, just as Baggies fans were getting restless after a dull goalless home midweek draw with Cardiff and only three points on the board.

“There wasn’t any need to panic,” said Bruce.

“We are off and running. We needed an own goal to get us started but then we played very well against a good team.”

Albion got a break when Callum Elder turned a Darnell Furlong cross past his own keeper in the 37th minute and then, inspired by Grady Diangana, they took Hull apart.

Diangana was a blazing success when he first moved from West Ham but his form and influence on Albion has dipped alarmingly.

But he was behind everything good West Brom did, creating great holes in the Hull defence as they caved in during the second-half Baggies charge.

“The biggest challenge for me when I walked through the door was to get Diangana playing well again,” admitted Bruce. “He’s had a big summer and has worked tirelessly in the gym, but he loves his football.

“He was the biggest challenge because we know his talent. People come here today and they purred at some of the stuff he did.

“Grady gets you on the edge of your seat and there’s not many who can do that, and he does it with natural ability.

“When he plays well, like he did today, we’re a bigger threat.

“He’s played three games in six days and he’s arguably been our best player in all of them. “Speaking to a lot of people, they hadn’t seen him play like that for 18 months.”

John Swift put Albion two-up with an 18-yarder three minutes into the second half.

Furlong followed that with a 25-yarder and Karlan Grant’s penalty made it 4-0.

Dara O’shea got the fifth as Hull crumbled and boss Shota Arveladze was just grateful for small mercies as Oscar Estupinan refused to give up and got two back.

“We were beaten by the better team,” said Arveladze.

“It’s just nice in that situation when you score two goals because it makes it look a bit better.”

WEST BROM: Button 7; Furlong 7 (Phillips (74) 5), Ajayi 6, O’shea 7, Townsend 7; Molumby 6, Yokuslu 6 (Robinson (75)

5); Wallace 6, Swift 7 (Livermore (84)

6), Diangana 8 (Reach (84) 6); Grant 6 (Gardner-hickman (84) 6)

HULL: Ingram 7; Coyle 6, Figueiredo 7, Greaves 6, Elder 6; Jones 6, Slater 6; Williams 6 (Covil (86) 6), Tufan 5 (Woods (21) 7), Tetteh 6; Estupinan 6

STAR MAN: Grady Diangana. Showing the form again that made West Ham fans angry when he left.

REF: James Bell 7

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 ?? ?? EDGE OF HEAVEN: Swift makes it 2-0 from 18 yards
EDGE OF HEAVEN: Swift makes it 2-0 from 18 yards

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