West Bromwich Albion vs Ipswich Town. Sky Bet Championship.
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Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between West Brom and Ipswich Town at The Hawthorns on Saturday; goals from Darnell Furlong and Grady Diangana inflict a first league defeat since August 26 on Kieran McKenna's side
Saturday 25 November 2023 20:19, UK
West Brom reaffirmed themselves as Championship promotion contenders by way of a comfortable 2-0 win over second-placed Ipswich.
Carlos Corberan's men secured their fourth win in five games thanks to Darnell Furlong's intelligent header in the first half and Grady Diangana's cool finish after a devastating counter in the second.
Ipswich were impressively kept at bay throughout and failed to register a single shot on target during the game, which meant that, for the first time since February 14, they failed to score in a league game.
They fail to gain ground on leaders Leicester, who now head the division by three points, while West Brom climb to fifth.
McKenna took charge of his 100th game at Ipswich at The Hawthorns, knowing that a win would see his side keep pace with Leicester, who had returned to winning ways against Watford earlier in the day.
The occasion began, however, with West Brom taking the lead. The hosts had won a corner after Jed Wallace's delicious cross was turned behind and, from the corner that followed, Furlong expertly guided a header across the six-yard box and into the net.
Ipswich began to gain something of a foothold after that, with Jack Taylor and Wes Burns lifting efforts over the target but, for the most part, West Brom sat deep, restricted the space in which their opponents could operate and thus protected their lead.
That lead was doubled within seconds of the start of the second half. Wallace led a rapid charge up the pitch after an Ipswich corner, dropped the ball off to Brandon Thomas-Asante, whose short pass allowed Diangana to advance and caress into the bottom left corner.
It should have been 3-0 and job done shortly afterwards when Phillips was located by a Wallace square ball inside the six-yard box, but he attacked it with the outside of his right boot and inadvertently hacked the ball away from danger.
The second goal took the wind from the visitors' sails, in truth and, despite a flurry of attacking changes, they were unable to lay a glove on the Baggies, generating just 0.22 xG on the night.
West Brom's Carlos Corberan:
"I'm very pleased with the players. They've played a mature game and competed very well. Every detail was important to them today, and the result was the consequence of the performance of the team.
"It's fantastic that we have injured players recovering. It will only help us as a group and help our competition in different positions. Sometimes in football everyone is focused on the first XI, but in football you don't win games in the first half. You need the full game and the players on the bench."
Ipswich's Kieran McKenna:
"The timing and the nature of the goals was the biggest disappointment. It's a tough place to come anyway but to concede after only a few minutes made things difficult.
"West Brom are really good at defending leads. We were strong first few minutes of the second half, and then we conceded again from our corner. It dictated the whole feel of the game and the performance."
West Brom are back in action at 7.45pm on Tuesday November 28, when they travel to South Wales to face Cardiff. Meanwhile, Ipswich return at 8pm on Wednesday November 29, when they welcome Millwall to Portman Road.
Both matches will be available to watch live across Sky Sports.
