West Bromwich Albion beat their Championship rivals Ipswich Town 4-0 last Saturday at the Hawthorns with Ishmael Miller, Fillipe Teixeira and a brace from Kevin Phillips netting the vital goals.
Teixeira, the Portuguese midfielder netted late on after on loan striker Miller had put Albion ahead in the first half, whilst veteran forward Kevin Phillips scored twice with two minutes remaining to extend the Baggies 100% record at the Hawthorns this season.
However the score line was very tough on Ipswich Town who certainly didn’t deserve the four-nil mauling that they endured; they came out strong in the second half and looked hard enough to win the game but missed opportunities allowed Albion to take advantage late on in the game.
Former Rotherham United striker Alan Lee was given enough chances to win the game for Town on his own – but it was quite clear that it wasn’t going to be his day when on 65th minute his effort struck the woodwork.
Despite this the home side had their own chances too and was a shock to see West Brom take 23 minutes to bag their first goal of the game.
Kevin Phillips twice went close to hitting in the old onion bag in the opening six minutes before the Tractor Boys made there only notably chance when the ever busy Lee dragged his shot wide after good work from Pablo Counago.
Miller headed wide before both Phillips and Teixeira were just centimetres away from converting Chris Brunt’s cross at the far post as Albion carried the biggest threat.
And, when that vital goal came it was all down to sheer strength of Miller which created the goal; he raced onto a pass from Teixeira and ploughed past defenders Dan Harding and Alex Bruce before gentle rolling the ball past keeper Neil Alexander.
Before the half-time whilst had blow the striker on loan from Manchester City could have easily grabbed himself a hat-trick but two missed opportunities were he headed wide from close range and failed to hit the target with a low shot prevented him from taking home the match ball.
In contrast to the second half Town were pretty poor but the Championship side put up a brave show and Jim Magilton’s side could have got away with all three points.
Alan Lee was arguably Man of the Match for the opposition and he showed no fear as he forced keeper Dean Kiely into a save just 60 seconds into the game whilst later he almost had his taken off when he bravely dived for an header on goal only to meet the foot of Carl Hoeftkins.
Former Charlton keeper Kiely was to earn his dough in the second half and was relived to see the post come to his rescue on 65th minute when Lee met Counago’s cross only for his header to crash against the crossbar.
The Town fans would have left the Hawthorns disappointed had the score remained 1-0, but it didn’t and probably now feel hard done by as with three minutes left Portuguese midfielder Fillipe Teixeira wrapped up the points, collecting the ball from Paul Robinson and beat Alexander from the edge of the area.
Then, to rub salt into the wounds he turned provider for an unmarked Phillips to head home at the far post before netting his second when he turned in Robinson’s pass and turned in from 20 yards out.
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