Watford’s Jake Livermore is turning back the years, West Brom is gaining ground for promotion, and we assess the actual playoff prospects of the participating clubs. All of this and more from the most recent Championship round…
West Brom easily defeated Blackburn 4-1 on Saturday, having a great time. Without disparaging the Baggies in the
slightest, let’s talk briefly about Blackburn’s difficulties. They lost this game for the seventh time in nine Championship encounters, and they currently sit just one spot above the bottom six.
Such was the home team’s first-half display that if Rovers were a weak opponent, the Baggies mercilessly exploited that weakness and things were essentially handled shortly after half past three on Saturday.
Tom Fellows, a young player gaining popularity, forced the first touchdown out of a signature deep ball from Darnell Furlong. Brandon With only thirty-three minutes remaining, Dom Hyam shot through his own net to give West Brom a 3-0 lead. Thomas-Assante then added a fantastic second goal, curling in from the angle. Rovers had a tiny window of hope when Jake Garrett curled in a ball with his left foot, but three minutes later Thomas-Asante made it 4-1 with his second goal.
Later in this column, we’ll delve into more detail regarding the play-off hunt, but as of right now, West Brom is projecting a highly dependable team that is entirely consistent with a Carlos Corberan squad. Only the three clubs that were relegated from the Premier League the previous season have gained more wins since late September. Since
Christmas, the team has won four of the past five games across all competitions. The arrival of Fellows, Thomas-Asante’s ongoing development, Daryl Dike’s return from injury, and the Baggies’ five-point lead over sixth place make them a pretty safe pick to hold onto their play-off positions.
This week’s player of the round will be determined by the element of surprise. Naturally, it would have been simple to write about Callum O’Hare’s amazing takedown of Leicester, the leaders, for Coventry, or Johnny Rowe’s incredible solo goal against Hull on Friday night for Norwich. While it’s not shocking to see these two players leading their teams to victory, who could have predicted that Watford’s triumph at QPR would have depended on a double from Jake Livermore?
