FIRING BLANKS
Bilic’s men go top but they fail to hit the target again
WEST BROM are destined to limp rather than sprint their way back to the Premier League as they failed to score for a third consecutive match with just two of their 21 shots on target.
Their absent fans will not care how promotion is achieved, of course, and the irony of the only goalless game in the Championship is that it could turn out to be a decent result for Slaven Bilic.
Fulham’s defeat earlier in the day meant Albion’ s cushion in the automatic promotion places has increased to seven points and they are back on top of the table, at least until Leeds face Cardiff today.
Further consolation came with an impressive performance from Brazilian winger Matheus Pereira who looked lively on his 30th game for the club on loan from Sporting Lisbon. That milestone is significant as it means West Brom have automatically triggered an £8.25million permanent transfer for the 24-year-old talent.
‘I am not happy with the result but the table looks even better now,’ said Bilic, whose post-match mood was definitely that of a manager with his glass half-full.
‘ We deserved to win. We had enough to win to be fair. You need that bit of luck but the number of shots and crosses we had were extremely high.
‘ Our control of the game was more than enough to win. We need matches to get sharp, everything else was there. We had an opportunity and wanted the result but we didn’t get it.’
Albion dominated territory from first to last. Birmingham still need a couple of points to guarantee their own safety and clearly came with a gameplan to sit back and try to kick and head everything away.
They achieved that with manager Pep Clotet happy to admit: ‘The last thing I wanted was an open game. Tactically the team was superb. We had to work very hard to make sure we took a point and I think we also had a couple of chances.’
Their battling qualities were summed up by skipper Harlee
Dean who put his body on the line throughout. ‘Harlee led the team very well. I have asked him to do that for nine games,’ added Clotet.
West Brom failed to break down both Wigan and Swansea before the lock down and there will be frustration that they didn’t manage to create more clear-cut openings with their 65 per cent possession and 12 corners.
Pereira went close with a couple of shots while Romaine Sawyers also squandered an opening when he blasted over. Closest of all, Callum Robinson headed into the side-netting when left free from a corner.
In the second half, Robinson and Pereira both fizzed in crosses which failed to get a finishing touch. Blues goalkeeper Lee Camp gratefully fell on to a Pereira free-kick while Bilic used all five substitutes to try and snatch a winner, including strikers Charlie Austin and Kenneth Zohore.
The last chance fell to Zohore whose header at the far post drifted just wide. It was that kind of day for the Baggies, although Birmingham will point to a late rally which saw Scott Hogan send a free header at Sam Johnstone when he could have completed a smash-and-grab.
Clotet already knows he’s leaving Birmingham at the end of the season so one has to admire his desire to keep them in the division for Lee Bowyer, Neil Warnock or whoever his successor may be.
Injuries meant only one of his nine substitutes was aged over 25. Their outstanding youngster Jude Bellingham, who doesn’t turn 17 until the end of the month, was deployed in the central midfield and impressed in his 71 minutes, breaking forward at one point to have a crack from 25 yards.
For West Brom, they will be comforted by having lost fewer games than anyone else in the division. They have points in the bag and from that point of view another draw in their next game at fourthplaced Brentford wouldn’t be the worst result in the world either.
Slowly but surely, they are crawling back to the top flight.