Match Reports

Albion 2-0 QPR

Albion celebrate their second goal against QPR

Albion earned a 2-0 win over QPR at The Hawthorns on Tuesday evening.

Second-half goals from Brandon Thomas-Asante and Grady Diangana saw the Baggies grab all three Sky Bet Championship points.

The result ensures Carlos Corberán will celebrate his one-year anniversary on Wednesday with his team sat fifth in the league table after 13 fixtures.

The boss made one change to his starting XI - bringing Okay Yokuslu in for Alex Mowatt. He was without Conor Townsend (ill) and Semi Ajayi (minor knock) for the match, meaning youngsters Josh Shaw and Leyton Love were named on the bench for the first time.

His men worked to break down a stubborn QPR side during the opening 45 minutes, but were left frustrated by the visitors’ defence.

Thomas-Asante studded a close-range effort straight at Asmir Begovic early on before Darnell Furlong and Cedric Kipre both headed opportunities over, and Matt Phillips had a curling shot comfortably saved.

It was a different story in the second-half, though. Excellent play from Diangana around the hour-mark ended up with him being fouled inside the area - and Thomas-Asante stood tall to emphatically convert the spot-kick.

QPR were reduced to 10 players in the penalty incident, Jimmy Dunne presumably receiving a second yellow for protesting too much.

And things were soon made worse for Gareth Ainsworth’s Rangers just 10 minutes later. Fantastic footwork by Nathaniel Chalobah cut open QPR’s backline and set-up Diangana to tap home a well-earned first of the season.

The Baggies managed to see out the remainder of the game comfortably with their two-goal advantage, sealing an important victory ahead of next Monday’s Coventry clash.

Albion: Palmer; Furlong, Kipre (Taylor 86), Bartley, Pieters (Pipa 86); Wallace, Yokuslu (Mowatt 54), Chalobah (Molumby 75), Phillips (Fellows 75); Diangana, Thomas-Asante.

Substitutes: Griffiths, Shaw, Higgins, Love.

Attendance: 21,749 (676).