Massive win puts Albion in the driving seat

Albion came of age last night with a victory that puts us back in control of Premiership destiny. The words tough, rugged, and durable are not often used by commentators to describe this West Brom side but boy did they earn those plaudits at Bloomfield Road.

An energy sapping pitch, combined with a spirited Blackpool side left Albion needing to call on all of their reserves of strength to come from behind and achieve victory.

Two Roman Bednar goals gave us the advantage after falling behind to a Southern goal, but in the 80th minute Dobbie levelled for Blackpool and it looked like a draw would be all that the increasingly tiring Baggies could achieve.

Then in the 83rd minute a late Dorrans penalty (the fourth in four) puts us back in front and we secure all three points.

Earlier in the week Bednar joked that Dorrans was only keeping up with his goal tally because of all the easy penalties.

This one, though, was very different. This was a full-on pressure penalty – our game in hand and our chance to go above Forest into second place. All resting on one kick. What a mature player Dorrans is proving to be.

Make no mistake, this could be the game that wins us promotion. At the end of the season it could be this performance and that penalty kick that made the difference.

Now that we’ve moved to within three points of leaders Newcastle the momentum is building and Dorrans is the one leading the charge. After the game he told the official site: “Being back in second is important to us. It sends out a message to everyone involved and hopefully Newcastle will be looking over their shoulders now and we can try to pull away from Forest, Cardiff and the teams in the play-off spots.”

The promotion campaign continues at Plymouth on Saturday but there are injury concerns for full-back Marek Cech and striker Ishmael Miller, who both limped off at the end of the game and visibly struggled to finish the match.