Pierre Ekwah scored to secure a win against 10 man Baggies and end their 10 match unbeaten run...
This last week has seen the lads pick up a hard fought 0-0 draw at Elland Road, and Hummel announced as our new kit manufacturer. Many fans are excited to see the chevrons return to the famous red and white shirt after 30 years apart.
I have no doubts that shirt sales will soar through the roof, but until then, we have a season to finish and our next trip was down to the Hawthorns where we took on promotion hopefuls West Brom.
Carlos Corberan's side have had a good season and before this game they were sitting comfortably in 5th. The Baggies headed into this unbeaten in 10, so it wasn’t going to be an easy game. Their last game was a 2-0 win at home to already relegated Rotherham.
Starting 11: Anthony Patterson, Timothée Pembélé, Trai Hume, Luke O’Nien, Dan Ballard, Callum Styles, Dan Neil, Pierre Ekwah, Chris Rigg, Jack Clarke, Jobe
Mike Dodds went with an unchanged starting 11, and it was clear that we were going to be defensive. It worked well against Leeds, so I wasn’t against it.
Dan Neil got the game underway, and after a little bit of back and forth, West Brom took control of possession. Darnell Furlong smashed in a dangerous ball, but Pembélé did well to get in front of Johnston and force a goal kick.
Dan Ballard was getting boo’d by the home crowd. That’s because he injured Josh Maja in the reverse fixture.
We were putting a lot of men behind the ball and making it hard for the home side to get in the box. In the 9th minute, Nathaniel Chalobah went down with what appeared to be an ankle injury. The players went for a quick drink break before he came back on. Although we looked defensively organised, we lacked ideas going forward.
Chalobah had a long shot that dipped in front of Anthony Patterson. He was able to catch it, but it looked dangerous for a second. I was pleased that we were limiting WBA to long shots, nothing in the penalty area.
Grady Diangana had another shot from outside the box, but it was catching practice for Patto. It was all West Brom though, and we were struggling to get a hold of the ball.
Jack Clarke gave away a free kick on the right side of the pitch. Mikey Johnston whipped it in, but Luke O’Nien was able to head it out. The Baggies won the first corner of the game and it led to a spell where we were pinned back into our box.
Clarke gave the ball away in a bad area in our own half to Brandon Thomas-Asante, but Trai Hume was able to charge in and win the ball. Nothing came from the break, but I was impressed with Hume’s tenacity, nothing new there.
In the 29th minute, Chris Rigg and Pembélé linked up well and managed to win a corner. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a great corner. Trai Hume received a yellow card for barging down Tom Fellows. As time went on it became clear that this was a poor game of football that lacked tempo. Pembélé got up the pitch again and put the ball in the box, Callum Styles went down, but nothing was given.
In the 41st minute, Thomas-Asante went through Jack Clarke and was given a yellow card. Hume picked out a great diagonal ball to Styles who fizzed it in, but it missed everyone and eventually went out of play.
A few minutes later, the recently booked Thomas-Asante went studs up into Ballard and received another yellow, so he was sent off. It was stupid from the striker, but we were now playing against 10 men. With the second yellow coming from a foul on the already disliked Dan Ballard, the West Brom fans were even more agitated any time Ballard got the ball.
There was a huge momentum shift and we started pushing forward. We won a corner, Styles whipped it in and Pierre Ekwah was there to tuck it away. The lads went into half time 1-0 up.
Although it wasn’t the greatest half of football, I was happy with our resilience. That red card and Ekwah’s goal were huge turning points in the game. We could now afford to be more aggressive in the second half, especially considering WBA had to come at us.
The home side got the game back underway, and they had switched to a back three. Chalobah was subbed off for Adam Reach. We were now getting on the ball more and taking advantage of having an extra man.
Darnell Furlong should have been booked for wrapping his arms around Clarke, and Styles had a free kick given against him despite being charged down in the box. I thought Pierre Ekwah was really starting to pick up and have a good game.
The game remained scrappy, but we looked in control. Chris Rigg gave the ball to Dan Neil who had a long shot that Alex Palmer struggled to deal with. Adam Reach broke forward for the home side, but yet again Hume was there to deal with it.
In the 62nd minute, Darnell Furlong was finally booked for going into the back of Clarke. John Swift had a dangerous shot from outside the box that looked like it was dropping into the far corner.
Alex Palmer had a few dodgy moments in his own penalty area, Jobe nearly charged him down and won the ball. Jed Wallace fouled Dan Ballard and the crowd seemed very pleased. A few minutes later, Ekwah had a shot from outside the box that was easily caught.
In the 70th minute, Aji Alese and Patrick Roberts were subbed on for Timothée Pembélé and Chris Rigg. Timi had a good game in my opinion and it’s great to see him finally settling in.
Adam Reach put a dangerous ball across goal, and we were lucky that no one was there to finish it. The game was finally starting to open up as we approached the last 10 minutes.
WBA were committing bodies forward, and Tom Fellows whipped in a ball to substitute Matthew Phillips who headed it wide. We needed to be careful because the home side were growing in confidence.
Aji Alese was shown a yellow card for taking too much time to take a throw in. That same throw in found Callum Styles who had a left footed effort that nearly nestled in the bottom right corner of the goal.
In the last five minutes, Styles was booked for standing in front of the ball and Cedric Kipré was also put in the book a minute later.
Jack Clarke got past Furlong and had an effort that hit the side netting. Four minutes of stoppage time was added on and the West Brom fans weren’t happy.
Clarke was subbed off for Abdoullah Ba after two of those added minutes and we successfully saw the game out and won 1-0.
I was happy with that performance, it wasn’t the prettiest game, but we took our chance and secured another clean sheet. Not to mention, we are now mathematically safe.
Final Score – West Brom 0-1 Sunderland
ALS Man of The Match – Pierre Ekwah: It was a very scrappy game, but Ekwah was there to secure all three points. He was good today.
