West Bromwich Albion fans will be looking forward to today’s trip to South Yorkshire, hopeful that their confident side can extend their unbeaten early start in the Championship to seven games away at Sheffield Wednesday.
It hasn’t always been the prettiest football on the eye from Carlos Corberan’s table-toppers, but wins are continuing to be secured through grit and determination as much as the displays so far have blown the opposition away, with a slim 1-0 win over Plymouth Argyle achieved last time out courtesy of a second half strike from Josh Maja.
On another day, West Brom could have fell found themselves surprisingly behind in this clash, with Baggies goalkeeper Alex Palmer standing out against the Pilgrims when his team needed him to be switched on and alert.
Palmer's performance vs Plymouth
It’s almost set in stone at this point that Palmer is Corberan’s number one shot-stopper, with the homegrown Baggies product present for every single competitive game the Spaniard oversaw from the sidelines last season, as he continues to be everpresent this campaign as well.
His top-drawer performances have seen him gain more plaudits during the infancy of this season too, with only two goals shipped in the league so far, as Palmer sits on four clean sheets already collected from six league clashes.
But, his side were nearly breached a number of times when Wayne Rooney’s Plymouth came to town last match.
Palmer had to make four saves in the even contest to ensure his team did end up securing the three points, whilst his distribution under pressure out from the back was also a standout from his personal display, with six accurate long balls tallied up.
Whilst the constantly improving 28-year-old helped to shut out a tricky Plymouth side, other performers on the day for Corberan’s men had a quiet day at the office, including Tom Fellows who was nowhere near his rampaging best in attack against the visitors from Devon.
Fellows' performance vs Plymouth
The fellow academy prodigy could well find his position in the main West Brom XI isn’t as concrete as Palmer’s for the trip to Wednesday today, after failing to ever spark into life versus the Pilgrims.
Fellows would actually accumulate fewer touches of the ball than Palmer across the game – with the 21-year-old winger only managing to amass 26 touches next to the ‘keeper’s 47 – as the likes of John Swift and the aforementioned Maja stepped up in attack instead.
Stat
Fellows
Minutes played
71
Goals scored
0
Assists
0
Touches
26
Accurate passes
12/14 (86%)
Accurate crosses
0/2
Total duels won
3/7
Looking at the table above, it was a quiet showing from the usually electric attacker, who does have a mightily impressive four assists next to his name still from six second-tier games.
Yet, Corberan might feel like utilising his full squad for the test of the Owls, which could see Fellows drop out as a result, who failed to be that creative presence that has scared Championship defences stiff this campaign against Plymouth, with zero accurate crosses registered to try and feed the likes of Maja up top.
Thankfully, new recruit Uros Racic would take on those responsibilities to gift the former Sunderland man a tap-in to win the finely poised affair, as Fellows was instead hooked off by Corberan deep into the second 45 minutes over picking up another goal contribution.
The likes of Jed Wallace – who did replace Fellows on the day – will be clamouring for a starting spot ahead of the Baggies youngster, therefore, to try and show what he can provide over the vibrant 21-year-old, whilst Grady Diangana will also be waiting in the background ready for his chance to shine down the flanks.
Corberan could also, on the contrary, keep his faith in Fellows by continuing to pick him, as West Brom strive to stay at the top of the second-tier table for as long as possible no matter what personnel is picked, with a potential win at Hillsborough only further boosting their rising confidence levels.
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