West Bromwich Albion 3 - Hull City 0

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Ratings submitted so far: 15

Brendan Clegg:

That was absolutely brilliant - easily the best performance of the season.

The team were everything you want as a fan. Aggressive, relentless, ran like mad, fought for everything, took the game to the opposition at every opportunity, entertaining and for the first time in ages we showed moments of composure and quality in the final 3rd. It’s a massive credit to Mozza and the coach he’s brought in - you do not score 3 very similar goals like that unless it’s something you’ve been working on.

Mozza again did exactly what I’d have done with the 11 - discarding all sentiment and putting Phillips in to give us aerial strength at the back, and Maja for Dike who obviously can’t play 3 times in a week so soon.

I worried how much the last 2 games would have taken out of us but we started really fast… no backwards or sideways passing, moving it quickly and our fullbacks bombing on.

Apart from a couple of self-inflicted jittery moments as our back 4 got used to playing together, it was as good an opening 20 minutes as I can remember… Wallace and Imray in particular raiding down the right and causing problems. Crucially… their final ball was much better than the last 2 games, decent crosses or cut backs from which we should have taken the lead earlier with Heggebø missing the best one.

My nerves felt like we needed to score while on top, as good as we were, and Maja obliged by slotting home after more great work and a cutback from Wallace… who turned and roared with us in the Smethwick end as it went in.

There was more of the same with Price fluffing another decent chance and we really could have been 3 nil up before the sending off. We kept our foot on the gas and peppered their goal before half time.

After the break it was more of the same. A nasty late one on O Leary meant a keeper swap and, again my nerves felt like we needed a second to avoid a clanger costing us… and we scored at the perfect time almost straight after that sub with another great move down our right and Heggebø doing the near post dart and finish that shows he’ll score goals if the supply is there.

And relief! We cruised through the rest of it with confident style, rattling the post, adding a third and making sensible subs.

Really this is combination of top coaching and players buying into it. On one level it could be simplified as 4–4-2 and square pegs… but there is so much more going on here. The patterns, the positions players take up (eg Molumby regularly receiving the ball almost at right back to allow Imray and Wallace to bomb on), the targeted running and swarming of the opposition, the variety of set plays, the way we’ve really limited opposition chances, the incremental improvements of individuals and the collective over 3 games. This is all deliberate and not by chance just because we’ve chucked a meat and potatoes formation together.

I’ve never seen Molumby and Styles so disciplined, Diakite is allowed to just be a monster in the middle and play to his strengths, Price suddenly looks like a footballer again, Imray a revelation, Wallace getting a new lease of life.

And to do it all against 3 really decent teams with little turn around time and with the effort and running each game takes out of them.

It’s really beyond the upper end of my expectations and suddenly it looks like if we can keep these players fit now and hit these levels we’ve got a hell of a chance of getting out of the mess we found ourselves in.

A family commitment means I can’t make Bristol next weekend and so am missing a game… I’ll now be trying to find a way by any means to watch it on the sly because we’re actually exciting to watch!

• O’Leary - 6 Solid and nothing to do.
• Imray - 8 A constant threat and solid
• Phillips - 7 Sloppy passes but a good game to bed him back in
• Campbell - 7 One silly moment but we’re so much better with him there.
• Styles - 7 Is managing his natural enthusiasm which previously led to ill-discipline so well. Class.
• Wallace - 8 All the effort and running but his crossing was so much better. Composed.
• Diakite - 8 Utterly dominant
• Molumby - 8 Controlled the game. One of his best ever performances for us.
• Price - 7 Loads of running, great goal, could have had a hat trick which is a sign we’re creating
• Maja - 7 Top finish, he’ll never lose that. Did well.
• Heggebø - 7 All the battling and a really good finish.

• Jamma - 7 Looked really useful on the right
• Griffiths- Did he have a touch?
• Mowatt/Dike/Whitwell - All contributed

Baggieboy8:

Have to agree with pretty well everything Brendan has said. We played well against Southampton last Wednesday and a win would not have flattered us. I was worried that we might be a bit 'flat' after not closing out a win in that game.

The other thing that worried me before the Hull game was that there was a discussion on Radio 5 talking about a record points total may be needed this season to be safe from relegation from the Championship. This may be true, we will have to see.

Before the game I had thought if we managed to get to 50 points that might be enough.

We started so well yesterday, on the front foot from the first minute and we did everything that you would hope for from an Albion team. Effort, moving the ball more quickly forward, we pressed Hull and won tackles. We also weren't worried about going longer rather than slow building from the back. I couldn't see one player who I thought hadn't improved. Clearly there has been some serious work behind the scenes by Mozza and his team, and the 3-0 win was no more than we deserved.

I had forgotten almost what a happy Hawthorns feels like due to everything that has gone on at our club in the past 3-4 months. It is too early to get excited as we need 4-5 more performances like that, but what I saw yesterday was encouraging. I guess we have to treat each game as a cup tie in some ways.