West Bromwich Albion vs Queens Park Rangers. Sky Bet Championship.
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Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between West Bromwich Albion and Queens Park Rangers at The Hawthorns on Tuesday night | Brandon Thomas-Asante and Grady Diangana net in Baggies win
Wednesday 25 October 2023 00:24, UK
West Brom climbed back into the Sky Bet Championship's top six with a 2-0 win against 10-man latecomers QPR at the Hawthorns in a game Jimmy Dunne will want to forget.
Brandon Thomas-Asante netted a 59th-minute penalty before man-of-the-match Grady Diangana scored the second nine minutes later, after he had been tripped by Kenneth Paal for the spot-kick.
The penalty award led to the dismissal of QPR defender Dunne for a second bookable offence for dissent, just two minutes after he was shown a yellow card after being injured.
The result meant West Brom head coach Carlos Corberan could celebrate his one-year anniversary - in stark contrast to opposite number Gareth Ainsworth, who lost for the fifth time in a row.
Until the penalty it looked like West Brom were going to be left doubly frustrated by QPR - first by the Londoners' late arrival, then by their defence.
The game, which was due to start at 8pm, kicked off 10 minutes late following the delayed arrival of the QPR squad due to traffic following an incident in Birmingham city centre.
Corberan, 40, who will have been in the Baggies hotseat for 12 months on Wednesday, saw his injury-hit side find chances hard to come by until the decisive penalty.
West Brom started the brighter but Thomas-Asante failed to control a beautifully-flighted ball over the top from Diangana which left him through on goal.
Darnell Furlong headed powerfully over the crossbar from eight yards from Erik Pieters' up-and-under cross.
West Brom looked to find some much-needed inspiration after the break and Okay Yokuslu looped a header over from Matt Phillips' free-kick.
But they had to be alert at the other end as only a vital block from Cedric Kipre denied Ilias Chair from Reggie Cannon's cutback.
The breakthrough came when Paal clumsily tripped Diangana as the winger cut in from the right.
Thomas-Asante thumped home the resulting spot-kick into the top corner to end his seven-match drought in style with his fourth goal of the season.
Diangana hit a post with a superb curling effort before tapping home the second goal after Nathaniel Chalobah had beaten Osman Kakay and squared.
The goal - his first since February - came on his 100th league appearance for West Brom since his £20million permanent move from West Ham.
Substitute Jayson Molumby drove just wide in time added on.
West Brom's Carlos Corberan:
"It was a question of patience and being mature enough because sometimes when you play against 5-4-1, it's not easy to attack. The key in these type of games is not to concede counter-attacks, and at the same time to create chances.
"But at the same time it's important to dominate so you can create something.
"Things like passing the ball in front of the player instead of the back because if you play at his back, that can lead to you being off balance and you can give them the advantage.
"One thing which helped us was how we were attacking down the sides - having Diangana and Matt Phillips one against one.
"The key was to stretch their last nine with players such as Nathaniel Chalobah and Jed Wallace making runs in behind, which allowed us to start to stretch them and allowed us to get them one-v-one."
QPR's Gareth Ainsworth:
"There was a crazy moment to give the penalty away and then a crazier, more naive moment with the red card.
"I spoke to the referee and he said there was an incident on the penalty spot with the West Brom player.
"I asked him if he was absolutely certain that it was the player he recognised and he said 'yes, 100 per cent', so a second yellow was warranted. If it's true, it's very naive.
"The first yellow was coming back onto the pitch too early.
"You can accept getting done by football but when you lose a player to that - if it is that - then it's very naive."
