Thompson: big win for Baggies

You could see the celebrations of the fans, they were ecstatic because the team had done really well and these are the ones that count at the end of the season.

Phil Thompson
Quotes of the week

Related links

Teams

• Fulham
• West Bromwich Albion

Also see

• Match Report

West Brom 1-0 Fulham
Soccer Saturday analysis

They might have been promoted with a reputation for flair and attacking football, but Phil Thompson feels narrow wins and clean sheets will be all-important for West Brom this season.

Roman Bednar's close-range strike was enough to give the Baggies their third win of the season and condemn Fulham to their third consecutive Premier League defeat as Albion ran out 1-0 winners at the Hawthorns on Saturday.

With many pundits tipping the promoted side to be among the relegation candidates this season, Thompson feels the impact of this win - and the clean sheet that went with it - may prove to be vitally important in West Brom's bid to beat the drop.

"They are up to seventh in the Premier League," Thompson pointed out on Soccer Saturday.

"These are the games that they have to win, playing against the teams likely to be around them.

"It was a poor first half from an attacking sense, both defences were on top, but I think West Brom probably had a rocket at half-time. Tony Mowbray will have told them to get out there, have a go and straight away they started making things happen instead of just waiting for things to happen.

"They fully justified the win. Bednar was very, very good in the second half and scored the goal from a corner kick.

"But sometimes for the teams that come up, a clean sheet is very, very important. As much as it is about scoring goals, if you can make sure you can keep things out you'll do okay.

"The two centre-backs kept the shackles on Bobby Zamora and keeping another clean sheet will give everybody great heart.

"You could see the celebrations of the fans, they were ecstatic because the team had done really well and these are the ones that count at the end of the season.

"Taking three points from these games will be vital for them."

Poor

But while West Brom fans were celebrating, Fulham's supporters were left to reflect on a fourth consecutive defeat in all competitions.

Thompson pointed out poor performances all over the pitch from Fulham's players and detected an element of discontent in the ranks following Danny Murphy's reaction to being substituted.

Discussing Fulham's performance, Thompson said: "Zoltan Gera was poor. A couple of times he got into great positions and the final pass was poor.

"It was the same with Simon Davies, who I always thought had a great contribution to make on the right-hand side and he didn't have many kicks of the ball at all.

"Danny Murphy and Jimmy Bullard did quite well in the first half, but when West Brom started to get closer nothing was happening from the sides and in the end they were very, very poor.

"After the start of the season when they did very well to beat Arsenal, this is a little reality check for them.

"A few of the players have got to get their finger out. Aaron Hughes and Brede Hangeland at the back look good at times, but at times they look as though they drop off too much.

"All round they need to improve.

"Danny Murphy's the captain. He'd done alright in the first half and was substituted in the second and forgot to take his armband off to give it to Bullard or whoever.

"But as he crossed the line to come off he ripped it off and threw it on the floor. You can do without things like that.

"It just shows there's a little bit of discontent in the camp as well."