Jonny Drury gives his take as Albion picked up an opening day victory over QPR.
Josh Maja cancelled out a QPR opener - before Josh Maja levelled things up.
Maja added a further two goals in the second period to take the matchball and give Albion a perfect opener.
Jonny looks at Maja and what he brings, the new boy and the returning winger handed another chance.
Josh Maja cancelled out a QPR opener - before Josh Maja levelled things up.
Maja added a further two goals in the second period to take the matchball and give Albion a perfect opener.
Jonny looks at Maja and what he brings, the new boy and the returning winger handed another chance.
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SportsTranscript
00:00Hello Baggies fans, welcome to ExpressAndStart.com for the very first time this season. My name
00:12is Jonny Drury and I'm here at Loftus Road after Albion have got off to a perfect and
00:19quite frankly unexpected start to the season to be honest. It's been a summer of change,
00:23it's been a summer of uncertainty and a few weeks of concern for Albion fans with players
00:28going out of the door following on from a raft of players being released earlier this
00:32summer but today we saw a perfect display of finishing from one Josh Madger and that
00:39has boosted the confidence and given these travelling Albion fans who are I'm sure making
00:44their way back to the West Midlands at the moment very very pleased. It was sort of an
00:50afternoon of unknowns almost coming here, obviously supporters have only had one chance
00:58to see a first Albion team or a main Albion side which was at Birmingham last week, didn't
01:04go too well did it? So it was a case of sort of not sure what to expect today, Carlos Corberham
01:11went with a side that was maybe tried and trusted, the likes of Karl and Grant played
01:16out wide over Lewis Dobbin who came in in the week, Torben Heggen played at left back
01:21instead of Gianluca Fabrotta who some might have predicted would have started but from
01:26start to finish here at Loftus Road on a day where let's be honest a lot of us probably
01:31would have taken a point today, Albion to a man I thought were absolutely superb and
01:36in the next minute or so I'm going to sort of wax lyrical about some of the players who
01:40did really really well today. We'll start at the back, Torben Heggen, someone who's
01:43come in, you know never played in English football, never played in the rough and tumble
01:47of the Championship, playing arguably out of position even though he's a little bit
01:51versatile and can play left back, he was absolutely superb all afternoon, defensively
01:57didn't miss a beat, I think the only slip he had was very early on where he sort of
02:02fired a back pass back to Alex Palmer and he dealt with him but all afternoon he was
02:06solid, he dealt with Smith the winger very very well, got forward, put in a superb cross
02:12for Josh Madgers opener and he was just, he threw himself in front of tackles, a couple
02:16of last-ditch tackles and he looks to be a real, real coup this summer, an absolute
02:22superb signing. Let's move a bit further forward, well let's start at the back as well, I thought
02:26Ajay and Bartley did really well, I'm going to write a piece on defensively and how good
02:30Albion were later on but you know, big sort of question marks, missing Cedric Kipra and
02:35your Okoye Kuslu in front of the back four but they stepped up really well today. Darnell
02:39Furlong would have headed a brick today I think if it was thrown in, put in some real
02:43real top defensive work and was good going forward. And then if we look a little bit
02:48further forward I thought Tom Fellows, quiet first half, second half, set up two goals,
02:52did what Tom Fellows does, the Tom Fellows step over, I think he should trademark that
02:56probably from now on and set up the two second half goals for Josh Madger. The other one
03:01that I really want to praise before we come on to the main hat-trick hero man is Karlan
03:04Grant. I have been probably, you know, as critical as maybe anyone, maybe not as anyone
03:09as some of the supporters but very critical of Karlan Grant, farmed out on loan last season.
03:15I don't think we've ever really questioned Grant's technical ability and quality because
03:19he's had a season at Albion where in the past he's scored 18 goals. But there's been real
03:24question marks around his desire and his work rate. Today it looked like we had a different
03:28player. In the first half everything went down the left, you know, he set up a couple
03:31of openings for Albion and had a shot blocked himself. In the second half he had a volley
03:37that he couldn't have easily scored from. It was a really good save from the home goalkeeper.
03:41But for me, what underlined Karlan Grant today was probably in about the 70th, 75th minute
03:45when Torbjörn Häggen was under a little bit of pressure and he had a winger running
03:49at him. Grant sprinted back and got the vital touch in and he did it all afternoon. Defensively
03:53I thought he was superb and he just looks like a different player and it's another option
03:57for Carlos Corbijn and another option that the fans can see because I'm sure a lot earlier
04:01in the summer didn't expect him to play today. Let's move on to Josh Madger, hero of the
04:06day. Our three chances, three goals, absolutely clinical and something that we have been missing
04:11here for a long, long time at Albion. Probably in the Championship we've been missing that
04:15clinical edge, arguably since Dwight Gale and Jay Rodriguez. You could say under Slavon
04:20Bilic they had players who scored 12, 13 goals, your Robson Carnews and your Charlie Austins
04:25but a striker who could score and poke like that we've missed since Dwight Gale. Don't
04:29get me wrong, that's not me saying he's going to score as many goals as Gale but what he
04:33showed out there today was sort of akin to that and what Albion have lacked for so long.
04:38If they had that last season it might have been a different story but it's just refreshing
04:43to see and it lifts everyone, it lifts everyone. By no means was it all doom and gloom but
04:49it was a bit of concern and trepidation on the back of the news last week or the headlines
04:54from Sky Sports about a financial business plan. We know, as we said, as Lewis has explained
05:01and I know a lot of the other written press what the ins and outs behind that but there
05:05was a lot of concern about that. The previous week, Townsend, Lukasz Lue, Thomas Sassante
05:10all went out the door. A couple of signs are coming this week which has lifted the spirits
05:14somewhat and this result today has really lifted it and maybe surprised a few people.
05:19From the outside they would have just seen Albion shedding players in recent weeks but
05:23today has been a pleasant surprise for some, maybe not those in an Albion camp and an Albion
05:28persuasion. I've just spoken to Carlos Corbett and he said his players focused on what they've
05:32got rather than what they haven't got and I think that's a really key message. So today
05:36a superb start to the season, we're not going to get too far ahead of ourselves like the
05:41best managers say, never get too high when you win, never get too low when you lose but
05:44a great start from Albion, something to build on and I'm sure we're itching for the next
05:49game, league game against Leeds on Saturday at the Hawthorns. So from me here at Gloucestershire
05:55on this road, final score QPR 1 Albion 3, all the rest of your reaction throughout the
06:00weekend you know where to go, expressandstar.com