West Brom avenged their 4-1 thumping in front of the Sky cameras at the Hawthorns tonight. A deflected free kick from Jason Koumas and then a close range header from Geoff Horsefield condemned the Saddlers to a 2-0 defeat.
It could have been a different story if Darren Wrack hadn’t spurned a glorious chance after two minutes; Merse fed Jorge Leitao and his right wing cross picked out Wrack sliding in three yards out but somehow the winger failed to turn the ball in. Then on six minutes, Gary Birch met Merson’s cross with a powerful downward header which Hoult palmed away.
Walsall then got lucky when the ref chose to book Horsefield for diving in the area despite a blatant trip by Ropes. The Horse – clean through after intercepting a wayward Roper pass – was then brilliantly foiled by Walker as the teams went in level at half time.
The deadlock was broken after 62 minutes when Horsefield dived under pressure from Ritchie and Koumas’ low free kick deflected past Walker off Vinny Samways. West Brom rapped up victory eleven minutes later when young debutant Lloyd Dyer’s cross was knocked back by Dobie and headed in by Horsefield. Paul Ritchie – eager to impress watching Scotland boss Berti Vogts – then limped off after an ugly looking collision with Koumas, who was stretchered off.