West Bromwich Albion 2 - Everton 0

Paul Gainham:

A case of 3-2-1 today

• 3 Points gained and 3rd in the league going into the international break
• 2 fingers to the w****** - the so called football experts who predicted Everton would sweep us away today
• 1 Really smart coach who was prepared to change things around when they needed it.

Everton were and are a poor side, I really have no idea why they came into the game on such an elevated platform. They did not trouble Foster once today and their game plan is simple, lump the ball towards Jelavic and Fellaini which is as basic as it gets.

First half we were not great, we lacked tempo and sat back maybe too much giving Everton too much possession and too many times we were punting aimless balls forward which was not getting us anywhere. We did hit the bar with a Long header but other than that the 1st half was not too special.

We came out with more purpose in the second and were more aggressive going forwards and had a greater sense of purpose. The turning point for me was the arrival of Odemwingie - Clarke timed this just right after about 10-15 mins into the 2nd half - Dorrans was not having a great time and needed to come off. That substitution ultimately lead to the first goal with Ridgewell feeding Odemwingie down the left who put a wonderfully weighted pass into the box along the floor for Long to run in on and bury.

That lifted spirits further and in truth we did not look back from that, McAuley getting the second later on with a neatly taken header from a Brunt corner.

Have to say that the defensive duo of McCauley and Olsson were excellent today as were Mulumbu and Yacob, between them they completely snuffed out any threat from Fellaini and Jelavic which resulted in a really quiet day for Foster.

Player Marks

• Foster 7 Could not really give him any more as he literally had nothing to do
• Reid 5 Not his greatest game, kept giving it away and panicked when a calm head was needed in the 1st half
• Ridgewell 7 Steady, solid
• Olsson 9 Excellent performance today, lead the back line really well, handled the twin threat of Fellaini and Jelavic easily
• McAuley 8 Ditto Olsson, also scored a really neat goal
• Mulumbu 8 Another great performance from him, having Yacob alongside has allowed him to be more adventurous
• Yacob 8 Ditto Mulumbu they ran the midfield today, enough said
• Morrison 7 Improved 2nd half and looked more purposeful
• Fortune 6 Not a great first half but came to life in the 2nd
• Dorrans 5 Not at his best today
• Long 7 I still have my doubts but he worked hard and took his goal well - should have scored with a header in the first

Subs

• Odemwingie 8 Made the difference when he came on, injected a lot of energy and set up the first goal
• Jones 7 Slotted in well at RB and looked solid, got forward well also
• Brunt 6 Did well in the short time we had, added some defensive support to Ridgewell.

Coach

• Clarke 8 Another great example of being prepared to change things at the right time when plan A was not going too well.

Philip Cole (RSABaggie):

An excellent result from a game where I was seriously worried that the wheels were going to come unstuck. I disagree with Paul Gainham - Everton are not a poor side and are much improved from last season. But, like the previous two sides that we have played, they were made to rue their poor finishing by our fine form in front of goal. According to Soccernet we have scored six goals out of seventeen shots on target (35%) and it looks like a similar proportion of our shots have been on target. When we get a sight of goal we seem to be making it count!

I'm not going to give individual marks or a MOM this week as this was very much a team performance for me, although there has been strong teamwork in all three of our League games to date. But, although its still early days, I suspect that this victory will go down as the point at which we started to be taken seriously by the media. Although I'm in South Africa, everything that I'd read suggested, as Paul says, that every pundit 'in-the-know' had this fixture down as the one in which we would be rumbled by our betters. As it turned out, it was very much the opposite!

Rather than an orthodox match report, I want to reflect on a few things which for me were made clearer about the 'Steve Clarke way' of playing, for he is very clearly a very good coach with a plan for every game. A few points:

1. We're very much an evolution from Roy Hodgson's formidable organisation and work rate that he successfully instilled in us last season. If anything this aspect now looks stronger - every player seems to know their place at every point of the game and when someone inevitably gets caught out at some point they're racing to get back in position as are others to cover.
2. We're starting cautious and finishing strongly. In all three matches the clear approach has been to keep it very tight and cautious early on and then open up later on. In all three games the opposition have looked better in the first half and we have looked better in the second half, increasingly so as the half went on.
3. We're happy to cede possession - in all three games, two of them at home, we have had far less than the majority of possession. But when we're out of possession we're concentrating on keeping our shape and on harrying the other team to get the ball back or to make a slip. This is potentially a dangerous game, especially against sides with pace and quality on the ball. But Spurs and Liverpool especially had this quality and in both these cases we didn't panic, even when we were under the cosh for the first half hour against Spurs, but kept organised and harrying. This means that even when the opposition get a chance they have to take it quickly in the limited space and time available.
4. But when we get the ball we know what we want to do with it! We're willing to mix it up and either build patiently or play out fast ad accurately from the back to our pacy midfielders and attackers.
5. Steve Clarke wants to win! In all three games he's made strong substitutions at around 60min to bring on attacking players that can open up the game and create and take chances. He's yet to play for a draw - even at Spurs we finished the stronger.
6. Some of this is down to us looking incredibly fit. With the benefit of the core of the side the same, there's clearly been a lot of work over the summer on fitness and stamina which is paying dividends. Half of our league goals have been in the last 10 minutes of the game.
7. We have a much stronger forward line which is looking very sharp. This is a major improvement from last season where one of our faults was to be wasteful in front of goal, especially at home. It's also at least partly down to the credibility that Steve Clarke has in the game, which has definately brought in Lukaku.

So although we still have the proverbial wet Tuesday nights at Stoke to look forward to, I've already seen enough to believe that this good early season start is no flash in the pan. I think that us Baggies have a very exciting season ahead of us!