West Brom 0 - 2 C PalaceCrystal Palace defeat West Brom as Sam Allardyce’s side get physical
Away team scorersWilfried Zaha 55
Andros Townsend 84
Sam Allardyce turned the tables on Tony Pulis with a display of physical, clinical football that condemned West Bromwich Albion to their first home defeat since December and gave Crystal Palace another vital three points in their fight against relegation.
Two second-half goals, the first an instant control and finish by Wilfried Zaha, the second a composed one-man counterattack by Andros Townsend, did what West Brom have done to many other sides this season. Though it need hardly be pointed out that it is also a habit Allardyce has fostered over his long career as a Premier League manager.
Before this match Pulis had done his level best to add spice to the occasion, making detailed observations about the money Crystal Palace had spent in seasons since he left the club, amounts that looked at odds with Palace’s current league position. He also refused to confirm whether he’d even paid the £3.7m fine he owed the club for cashing in a loyalty bonus shortly before he resigned from Selhurst Park. “We’re having your house, oh Tony Pulis, we’re having your house,” sang the away support. The Smethwick end matched them lung for lung with “Tony Pulis, we’ve got … Tony Pulis,” to the tune of Palace’s Glad All Over.
There was no doubt as to who the centre of attention was in this match, which may or may not have piqued Allardyce a little. His Palace side claimed only the second win of his tenure last weekend but Allardyce had spoken about how much of a psychological boost this might have given his team and at The Hawthorns they looked every inch a Big Sam side. Strong in the challenge, effective in the cross, every player looked a good 2% stronger than they did a month ago (which, according to Sam’s recent maths, ought to make them 22% stronger as a whole).
In the first half Palace benefited from the swirling delivery of Townsend and the assertive play of Christian Benteke. The Belgian saw his stooping header come back off the West Brom post in the 18th minute from a Yohan Cabaye corner. Key man for the visitors however was the Liverpool loanee Mamadou Sakho. Cast out from Anfield, the giant Frenchman made an impressive debut against Boro last week and held the defensive line together at The Hawthorns, making three key interceptions to deny Salomón Rondón a sniff of goal in the opening half hour.
Palace were playing like a Big Sam, or even a Tony Pulis side, posing the home team questions they would usually expect to be asking themselves. And while the Baggies were rarely troubled in the first half, there were moments of uncharacteristic hesitancy, almost as if they were unsure as what they were supposed to do.
Come the second half and the pattern continued, Albion were invited to try and play before being either muscled off the ball or snuffed out when they dared to come into the Palace box.
Then, in the 55th minute, Palace hit them with the sucker punch. Cabaye received the ball just inside the Albion half with all the play in front of him. He picked out one of his pinpoint quarterback passes straight to Zaha on the far side of the Albion box. The winger took one touch on his chest before finishing low with his left foot into the far corner of the net.
Five minutes later and Palace lost Patrick van Aanholt to injury, their record signing taken off on a stretcher after collapsing under a challenge. Palace hadn’t kept two clean sheets in a row since April and as West Brom went two up top with Hal Robson-Kanu joining Rondón, the pressure began to rise. But Sakho continued to stand strong and with 15 minutes to go Allardyce went to a back five, removing Cabaye for the club captain Scott Dann.
With 11 minutes left Palace might have made it two as Townsend saw his low shot blocked by Wayne Hennessey with only the keeper to beat after a sly through ball from Luke Milivojevic. West Brom meanwhile were resorting to shooting from range. Pulis must have been unsettled because he chose to give talented Albion youngster Jonathan Leko a rare outing at the expense of captain Darren Fletcher.
With five minutes remaining Leko received the ball on the edge of the Palace box. He stood up Townsend, threw a shoulder and looked to trick his way past. But Townsend read the move, robbed the ball, and accelerated away on the counterattack.
Leko tracked back but was muscled off the ball by the England winger who then threw three stepovers at Gareth McAuley, ran past him and hit another low shot that took a deflection off Jonny Evans and flew past Foster.
Guardian