Albion’s Second Tier Season Comparison – 29 games | OneFootball

Tony Mowbray’s Hawthorns return brought Albion’s biggest win since Matheus Pereira inspired Slaven Bilić’s team to a 5-1 win over Swansea City in December 2019. Only twice since then have the Baggies scored five goals – Steve Bruce’s team beat Hull City 5-2 in what was Albion’s first victory of the 2022/23 campaign while Sam Allardyce’s team surprised everyone by beating Chelsea 5-2 at Stamford Bridge in April 2021. The last time that Albion recorded a bigger win was the 7-1 victory over QPR under Darren Moore in August 2018.

It was the first time this season that Albion had scored more than three goals in a match and their previous biggest win of the campaign was a 3-0 win at Fratton Park in September, which also means that the Baggies have completed their first league double of the season. Albion hadn’t scored more than three goals in a game since the 4-1 win at Huddersfield Town in March.

Readers of my match preview that the 5-1 result doesn’t quite match the club record win over Portsmouth which is 5-0, achieved three times most recently in 2002.

The three points lift Albion back into the top six above both Blackburn Rovers and Middlesbrough who both suffered defeats. The Baggies remain eleven points behind fourth-placed Sunderland and fourteen points off the automatic promotion places.

Looking ahead to game 30, it is the second time that the Baggies have faced Plymouth Argyle at the same stage of one of our comparison seasons. Rather than being the first day of February as it is this season, it was the last day of January 2007 but the man in charge was the same – Tony Mowbray. That game was at the Hawthorns and a brace from Diomansay Kamara, one of which was from the penalty spot, was enough to secure the points with Rory Fallon’s second half strike for the Pilgrims a mere consolation in the end.

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