The dream of three wins in a row was too good to be true

Over the last couple of weeks, its been a pretty good time to be a West Brom fan, so much so that I was disappointed Albion weren’t able to make it three Premier League wins on the bounce at Hull on Saturday. As a Baggies fan, thats a weird position to be in.

However, Hull were there for the taking, there’s no doubt about that. If you look through their squad, there’s very few players that you would consider to be of genuine Premier League quality.

The most disappointing aspect of the draw was the fact that we took the lead, through a trademark Gareth McAuley header, and failed to come away with the three points.

We also had a number of chances to score the second goal, especially in the final few minutes, when Salomon Rondon found himself free in the box following a brilliant cross from substitute James McClean, but the Venezuelan put his header agonisingly wide.

It was a great chance, even Hull Manager Mike Phelan puffed out his cheeks in relief at seeing the header miss its target.

The game plan was pretty much the same as it was against Leicester, try and play when we had the ball, but stay deep and compact when out of possession.

Truthfully, it could have also easily finished as a 1-1 draw against Leicester a few weeks ago, if not for that terrible Drinkwater error which allowed Phillips to run through on goal.

Thats always going to be the danger with how we play, if we concede early on, as we did against Manchester City, its usually ends in disappointment.

That’s because the longer we stay compact and keep it tight, the more chance we have of nicking a goal, whether from a set piece or other means, and getting a result.

If we concede though, that means changing the whole mentality of the team, and thats difficult to do when you’ve been set up defensively all game long.

After his goal at the KC Stadium, I feel its only right to highlight the brilliance of West Brom stalwart Gareth McAuley. The 36-year-old, soon to be 37 in December, is the oldest outfield player in the Premier League.

At his age, its incredible to see that ‘G-Mac’ doesn’t look out of place in this extremely demanding league, even though it’s quite obvious he lacks pace, he more than makes up for that with his stunning anticipation and reading of the game. What a player.

Watford next up at The Hawthorns, another winnable game, lets hope we can make it three wins in four games!