Match Reports

Albion 2-0 Ipswich

An image of Diangana, Wallace and Thomas-Asante celebrating

Albion earned a fantastic 2-0 win against high-flying Ipswich at The Hawthorns on Saturday evening.

Goals either side of half-time by Darnell Furlong and Grady Diangana, combined with an impressive clean sheet, sealed the eye-catching victory in B71.

The result lifts Carlos Corberán’s men up to fifth in the Sky Bet Championship, two points above seventh-placed Cardiff - where they travel this Tuesday.

The boss made one change to his starting XI from the narrow defeat in Southampton, replacing Nathaniel Chalobah with Alex Mowatt. He was able to welcome John Swift and Josh Maja back into the squad, too, after they returned to training during the international break.

And it was Albion who made an electric start, going ahead inside five minutes when Furlong’s header from Matty Phillips’ corner looped over Vaclav Hladky.

Brandon Thomas-Asante then quickly tested the Ipswich goalkeeper, but this time he pushed away the striker’s venomous effort.

The visitors tried to come back, though both Jack Taylor and Wes Burns wasted decent openings, firing over and wide respectively.

Albion were having to work hard defensively to limit their opponents yet still broke dangerously, Jed Wallace unfortunate not to find Conor Townsend following a decent counter-attack in what was the only other real chance before half-time.

The Baggies came out full of intent after the interval and doubled their advantage straight away, a quick break involving Townsend, Wallace and Thomas-Asante was superbly finished by Diangana - via the post - for his third of the season so far.

Phillips was unfortunate not to net a third almost instantly, the ball hitting the wrong part of his foot a few yards out as he looked destined to notch.

However, in the end it didn’t matter because Albion cruised to all three points - inflicting second-placed Ipswich their maiden away defeat of the campaign while becoming the first team to stop them scoring this season.

Albion: Palmer; Furlong, Kipre, Bartley, Townsend; Diangana (Swift 71), Yokuslu (Molumby 71), Mowatt, Phillips (Sarmiento 71); Wallace (Ajayi 90), Thomas-Asante (Maja 80).

Substitutes: Griffiths, Pieters, Pipa, Fellows.

Attendance: 24,001 (1,989).