West Bromwich Albion 3 - Preston North End 0

Date:	Saturday 4th May 2024
Competition:	Sky Bet Championship
WBA: 7.2	(4-2-3-1) Palmer 6.8, Furlong 7.8, Kipré 7.1, Bartley 6.7, Townsend 7.3, Mowatt 7.5, Yokuslu 6.7 (M'Vila, 76 5.5), Fellows 6.7 (Wallace, 67 6.3), Diangana 7.4 (Phillips, 85 5.6), Johnston 7.3 (Swift, 76 5.7), Thomas-Asante 5.9 (Maja, 85 5.7) Unused subs: Griffiths, Ajayi, Chalobah, Reach Manager: Carlos Corberán 7.6
Preston: 4.5	(3-4-1-2) Woodman, Hughes (Best, 84), Lindsay, Whatmough, Storey, Browne, Holmes (Seary, 72), Millar, Frökjaer-Jensen (Stewart, 73), Riis Jakobsen (Osmajic, 29), Keane (Evans, 84) Unused subs: Cornell, Brady, Mawene, Mawene
Scorers:	Mowatt (45 pen), Bartley (61), Furlong (68)
Referee:	Steve Martin 5.9
Attendance:	25,386 Home Fans 8.1 Away Fans 5.0

Brendan Clegg:

No messing about, it was a good day.

The boiler mon was back.

There was sign language on the big screen for the starting lineup - not to trivialise this but imagine doing it under Ismael or Bruce? The sign language for David Button… (hands over face) for Karlan Grant (head in hands)… for Kenneth Zohore (no comment).

Carlos went for arguably his best side available with no sentiment, dropping Wallace for Fellows, and to be honest from about minute 3 when Preston bottled a couple of 50/50s against Connor Townsend it was just a case of when we’d score.

There were a few nervy and rushed passes in the first 20 but as we calmed down we began to knock it about well and put them under pressure. As we built momentum there were a few half chances and nearly moments before Furlong did well to win the penalty, very coolly taken by Mowatt, and timing wise it couldn’t have been better.

After the interval it was pretty relentless and in particular Diangana and Mikey J couldn’t get enough of the ball. The 2nd goal was a proper pub football one and the third came again Townsend winning battles he didn’t have a right to win.

We should’ve got more and the subs then were absolutely sensible.

Results elsewhere also gave the place a buzz.

Overall for the first time in 4 or 5 years we’ve slightly over-achieved, there is upwards momentum and we can go into the playoffs under no pressure but with the knowledge that we can absolutely beat anybody. I’m just happy we’ve got one more game at least!

Palmer - 6 not much to do.
Furlong - 7 Funnily enough he made quite a few basic errors but he was involved in all 3 goals.
Bartley - 7 Best game for a while. Took it seriously.
Kipre - 7 Another solid game.
Townsend - 7 Competed well, got forward, gave his all as he always does.
Okay - 6 Cruised through it. Controlled the game.
Mowatt - 7 pinged it about nicely and a great penalty
Fellows - 6 Super direct. Better when he plays on instinct.
Grady - 7 Had a great afternoon, always causing trouble. In this role when he plays well we play well.
MJ - 8 Shaded MoTM for me. Had 2 players on him and had them on toast all game. Constantly had a go.
BTA - 6 Should’ve scored and I’m not sure whether I’d start him or Wallace BUT he looked after the ball so well when we needed him to and he ran and fought for every minute.

Subs -

It was game over so they all get 6s and it was important for them to get minutes.

Hoping Carlos just goes for it again against Southampton!