View: Attacker has provided spark – Three things learned in West Brom win v Bristol C
West Brom continued their impressive form at the top of the Championship table with a 3-0 win against fellow promotion hopefuls Bristol City.
Callum Robinson opened the scoring for the Baggies at Ashton Gate while Hal Robson-Kanu helped himself to his eighth and ninth goals of the season to secure a convincing win on the road.
Romaine Sawyers was shown a straight red card for grabbing former Walsall team-mate Jamie Paterson by the throat just before Robson-Kanu’s second goal in what was the only blotch on what was pretty much a perfect display by Slaven Bilic’s men.
Here, West Brom News has rounded up three things learned about the Baggies in their 3-0 win at Ashton Gate:
Unchanged line-up isn’t always the way forward
Bilic, understandably, kept his starting line-up exactly the same for the last three matches as West Brom picked up wins against Millwall and Reading before drawing against Nottingham Forest. No one expected him to make a change after an impressive display against Forest but the Albion boss opted to drop Kyle Bartley and replace him with Hegazi. Bartley’s form had started to show signs of dropping. He conceded a penalty at Reading and scored an own goal against Forest. His confidence could have been affected by that and bringing in Hegazi, who helped keep a clean sheet at Bristol City, was the right call. Sometimes, changes are necessary.
Robinson has provided the spark needed
West Brom missed Grady Diangana a lot before the start of this month. The 21-year-old, who is on loan from West Ham, had been a stand-out player at The Hawthorns but injury forced him out of five matches in December and January. Albion failed to win any of those fixtures without Diangana but Robinson’s arrival on loan from Sheffield United seems to have sorted out the lack of cutting edge in the attack. Robinson has started five games since his arrival and four of those have resulted in wins while the other was a draw.
Bring on Preston
It was pointed out by a lot of fans that West Brom had a run of tough fixtures at this time of the season. Millwall and Reading were two tricky teams while Forest and Bristol City are both promotion contenders. Up next for West Brom is a clash against Preston at The Hawthorns on Tuesday night. Preston are currently sixth in the Championship and are bound to be another tough opponent for the Baggies. However, based on this win away at Ashton Gate, Alex Neil’s side should not be one that is feared.
In other West Brom news, Bilic has explained by Bartley was dropped for the trip to Bristol.