West Brom and Southampton level after play-off first leg
With circa £100m as the reward for promotion via the Championship play-offs, it was no surprise to see defences on top in the early minutes.
However, it wasn’t for want of trying, and armed with the psychological edge of seven H2H wins in eight – including a 2023/24 league double – the Saints crafted two decent early chances.
Firstly, Cédric Kipré blocked Will Smallbone’s cross after a decent run on the right flank, before Alex Palmer prevented Flynn Downes from chipping past him by rushing out on the angle.
Currently on their fourth attempt to reach the English top-flight via the play-offs, West Brom responded, and Palmer’s counterpart Alex McCarthy had a moment in the sun too, as he prevented a certain goal a few minutes later when Tom Fellows’ well-timed cross was met by Grady Diangana’s header at the far post just after the half-hour mark.
Nil-nil was still a fair HT scoreline though, in this battle of two stubborn teams keeping their proverbial powder dry.
Saints boss Russell Martin, who went into this with six personal wins from six against the Baggies, would have made that Diangana chance a highlight of his HT team talk.
And his troops enjoyed the better of the second half’s early skirmishes.
Joe Aribo pulled the strings and saw a shot blocked by Darnell Furlong, yet Furlong himself missed a great chance to put West Brom ahead when firing wide after a cross to the back post that Aribo failed to read.
With Southampton failing to score a second-half goal in any of the previous five away matches, they needed an extra edge to defy the formbook.
With that in mind, Russell Martin went all in, making a treble change that included a former League One play-off winner in Ross Stewart.
His first real act was to be caught offside, stubbing out a promising Southampton move, but after Diangana saw a shot denied at one end, the Scotsman broke away from fellow substitute David Brooks’ ball forward and drew a save from Palmer.
Back came West Brom, and John Swift orchestrated a move that was ultimately blocked by Jan Bednarek to retain parity.
Chances then began to fizzle out, giving the eventual goalless result a feeling of inevitability. Aiming to right the wrongs of ex-club Huddersfield’s play-off failure two years ago, West Brom head coach Carlos Corberán, in particular, will see this as an opportunity missed on home turf.
His side will need to muster a lot of courage to avoid further play-off heartbreak at St Mary’s – a ground at which they have lost on their last three visits.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Alex Palmer (West Bromwich Albion)
