West Bromwich Albion secured a 2-0 victory over Millwall at The Hawthorns last weekend and going into the game there were serious questions about our defensive solidarity given the back three of Craig Dawson, Kyle Bartley and Ahmed Hegazi.
Dawson gave a significantly improved performance in the backline on Saturday, but he wasn’t the only one as we kept a clean sheet in the game and having taken his criticism previously, including calls for the club to quickly move him on in the January transfer window, Hegazi’s own performance saw fans take to social media to recognise his efforts.
Some believe it was actually his best showing of the 2018/19 campaign so far, but in fairness that probably wasn’t that difficult to achieve given our leaky nature at the back, with the front line carrying us so far.
Spot on ????
— AlbionOnSunday (@AlbionOnSunday) September 22, 2018
Totally agree. Got to say what you see and Hegazi was tremendous today.I was just about to tweet the same
— BAILEY (@BAGGIEBAIL) September 22, 2018
Whole back line was much better. Phillips and Gibbs need to track back more and CM pair need to protect back 4 better and we’d be very very hard to break down
— Tonks (@tonkshew) September 22, 2018
Word for that lads at the back , Dawson getting back to he’s best game by game we know he’s a class act but as needed games , Hegazi best preformance of the season today & Kieron Gibbs who’s been super and showed what a miss he was against blues #wba
— Jason Wheeler (@lebouf1976) September 22, 2018
Looked a lot more composed today defensively. Mainly due to the opposition but they will grow in confidence from it. We get our defence rite and nobody will touch us In This league
— LNEY (@laneythebaggie) September 22, 2018
It was a gritty win today. Top stuff from the back 3. Also Hoolahan looked good. #boingboing
— calum francis (@francisfuzzy189) September 22, 2018
Allof them played well, thought Dawson much improved too!
— JCorz (@JohnCorfield7) September 22, 2018
Another 3 points at home for @WBA, well played Baggies! Even a clean sheet! Stodgy game, but Gayle made the difference with a poachers goal and Gibbs, who was excellent, sealed the win. A shout out to Hegazi too, he was assured and and played very well ???????? #WBA
— Dan Nash (@DanNash86) September 22, 2018
Played well. Close call between him, Livermore and Gibbs for man of the match, I would say.
— The Shepherd (@DickLaurent96) September 22, 2018
Hegazi to his credit has been brilliant today. #WBA
— ???? DOOD ⚪️ (@RudeDoody) September 22, 2018
Much maligned Hegazi had a good game today. Still a worry but he can do it when called on. #wba
— Mark Mansell (@MarkMansell) September 22, 2018
In any event, hopefully, that will be the corner turned on a defensive front as we can’t always expect the boys further forward to find the net as regularly as they are and clean sheets are a must in this division if we want to pick up points from games that will definitely be tighter as the weeks tick by.