West Bromwich Albion ended Aston Villa’s hopes of chasing us down in the Play-Off spots in the campaign of 2018/19 as we fought back from behind to take victory over Rotherham United at the weekend.
We certainly didn’t have the match our own way as after a goalless first half, the visitors took the lead five minutes after the halftime restart and we needed a penalty to get us really firing in the second half.
After winning the penalty, Dwight Gayle stepped aside to let Jay Rodriguez rifle it home from 12 yards, and with momentum our way, highly rated (but yet to sign a new deal) Rekeem Harper fired home two minutes later in the 79th to send the three points our way.
It was our 19-year-old’s first career goal and it came in his 21st appearance of the season, and having been handed the Young Player of the Year award for 2018/19 ahead of kickoff, the goal was the perfect way to top his season off.
Speaking to wba.co.uk after the game, he explained.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment for so long. When I hit it I knew I had caught it sweet and it was going in, so I just thought I’d go and show how happy I was and celebrate, enjoy it with the team. It’s a big relief. Obviously when you go close, you think ‘what if’ but I just thought relax this game and then when you relax anything can happen, luckily it did.”
