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Sunderland extended their unbeaten run to 10 games but, as the gentle boos that greeted the final whistle, it was certainly no cause for celebration on Wearside.
Instead, a fifth successive draw against highly efficient, if somewhat unambitious, opponents well coached to pick up seemingly unlikely points saw early players Régis Le Bris drop to third in championship. West Brom’s reward for the tenacity that so frustrated the mildly disgruntled season ticket holders at the Stadium of Light was a drop to seventh in an increasingly charming second tier.
Carlos Corberan may soon decide if he wants to take the job Manager vacancy in Leicester but so the coveted West Brom head coach broke his usual fully committed, often highly agitated figure in the technical area as he watched the excellent Thorbjorn Hegem often hold West Brom’s makeshift defense together. “It was a very tough game,” Corberan said. “Sunderland had a lot more chances than us; we achieved a point with a lot of hard work and endurance.”
Sanguine Le Bris turned out to be a typical realist. “The players and I feel disappointed,” he said. “We dominated and had four or five chances but West Brom defended well. We are a young team and I am very excited about our ability, but we have to learn quickly.”
There was early turmoil as Corberan found himself forced to make an unplanned personnel overhaul as Ousmane Diakite was injured in the warm-up, necessitating his replacement by the still-unfit Kyle Bartley.
A quick guide Overview of the championship
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Sheffield United returned to the top of the Championship with a convincing 3-0 win over the strugglers Oxford United on Bramall Lane. Tyrese Campbell was the architect of the Blades’ victory as he set up Callum O’Hare’s opener before grabbing his fifth goal in six games to make it 2-0 just before the half-hour mark.
Jesurun Rak-Saki completed the scoring to complete a dominant performance and lift Chris Wilder’s men above Yorkshire rivals Leeds, who play Luton on Wednesday.
Scott Parker Burnley also moved into the automatic promotion places as they picked up their third win in a row, at home against a manager without a manager Coventry. Jeremy Sarmiento fired home the opener from the center of the box two minutes after the break and CJ Egan-Reilly added a second 10 minutes before that to seal a 2-0 win and leave the Sky Blues still looking for their first win since the sacking of Mark Robbins.
The pressure continues to build HullTim Walter manager after the Tigers crashed to a 2-0 home defeat against Sheffield Wednesday. Hull had their chances with Owls keeper James Beadle saving well to deny both Xavier Simons and Regan Slater in the first half. But a Josh Windass penalty in the 37th minute gave Wednesday the lead and Michael Smith secured the points with the visitors’ second nine minutes from time.
Norwich ended their seven-game winless streak in spectacular fashion as they crashed out Plymouth 6-1 at Carrow Road. Borja Sainz grabbed a hat-trick – including two inside the opening 17 minutes – while Shane Duffy, Anis Ben Slimane and Ante Crnak also got on the scoresheet. Mustafa Bundu’s 39th-minute effort briefly reduced the Canaries’ lead from two goals, but defeat left Wayne Rooney’s men with just one win from eight.
Ryan Andrews grabbed the lone goal as Watford beat Bristol City on Vicarage Road while Preston had Freddie Woodman sent off in the last minute of a goalless draw at Stoke. PA Media
It proved to be a rare moment of little drama, as little else of note occurred in the first 45 minutes. Josh Maja certainly looked keen to impress on his latest return to his old club, but the closest West Bromwich Albion’s leading scorer came to a goal, largely starved for service, was an early shot that went wide after his slick link-up with a full-back of Tom Fellows.
With Bartley, still nursing a knee problem and replaced by midfielder Uros Racic at half-time, initially holding his own in the visitors’ extremely well-organised back line, the majority of Sunderland’s shots were from outside the area.
Tellingly, Wilson Isidore unleashed the only shot on target in the first half – a benign and easily saved deflection – as the hosts’ promising approach invariably failed around the 18-yard line.
Well before half-time, the sense that West Brom, in particular, were playing with the handbrake on ensured that everything had clearly turned. No wonder Corberan’s side have just 11 points to show for their nine-game unbeaten run.
With two key promotion rivals in Sheffield United – who host Sunderland in an intriguing-looking fixture at Bramall Lane on Friday night – and Burnley wins, while recently-resurrected Middlesbrough and Leeds prepare for games on Wednesday night, Le Brice’s players were keen to confirm your auto-promotion credentials again.
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Yet, despite winning a string of corners, they were never able to make the most of such standards. It might have been different had Maia still been wearing the red and white stripes, but no current Sunderland player could make the most of Patrick Roberts’ promising play.
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Of course Isidore put the ball into Alex Palmer’s net after Luke O’Nien’s cross, but the striker was part of the ambush. Tellingly, that close encounter came at the end of a rare highlight, namely a magnificent move involving Jobe Bellingham, Dan Neill, Roberts and Chris Rigg.
Rigg was clearly on the wing a little later and his shot looked on target, but a fine block from Alex Mowat in the 11th hour ensured the deadlock continued. Roberts then sent a corner wide by inches, while Dan Ballard’s final clearance off the line denied Lewis Dobbin a goal on the counter-attack, but the winner remained stubbornly elusive.
“Bartley wasn’t ready to start and we finished No.8 [Racic] playing central midfield,” Corberan said. “You can’t always win, but all my players gave their all.”
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