Horsfield sees off Saddlers

West Brom 2 Walsall 0

Geoff Horsfield buried the disappointment of his harsh yellow card for diving to grab his first West Brom goal and secure all three points against Walsall.

The £1m (€1.4m) signing from Wigan was judged to have dived after a 40th-minute tackle from Ian Roper when television evidence clearly showed Albion should have been awarded a penalty.

Albion boss Gary Megson felt the decision by Orpington referee Barry Knight was “ridiculous”.

He said: “I can’t understand how he failed to see what happened when he was so close and then he decided to book Horsfield.”

Horsfield maintained it was definitely a foul and said he had a gash on his shin to prove he had been fouled.

“I spoke to the referee and he told me he would have a good look at what happened and hopefully he will rescind the caution,” said Horsfield.

The striker, making his fifth appearance for Megson’s promotion chasers, scored the home side’s second in the 72nd minute to help end Albion’s miserable home run.

West Brom had not clocked up a Hawthorns victory since October 18 and they had drawn their previous five league outings in front of their supporters.

But they strengthened their push for a quick return to the Premiership as they gained revenge over the Saddlers for their 4-1 hammering on the opening day of the season.

Albion took the lead in the 62nd minute when Horsfield was clumsily fouled by Paul Ritchie.

Jason Koumas – later stretchered off with a damaged knee – took the resulting free-kick and he lashed in a hard right-footer that took a deflection off Vinnie Samways in the wall on its way past James Walker.

Ten minutes later it was 2-0 when substitute Lloyd Dyer, making his League debut for Albion, fired a marvellous cross into the heart of the Walsall defence.

Scott Dobie nodded the ball back and Horsfield was perfectly positioned to find the net with a close-range header.

“In the first 10 to 15 minutes we looked apprehensive and nervous,” added Megson.

“But afterwards we put in a really good performance – it was much better in terms of the tempo it suits us to play at.

“I think we deserve great credit for the way we played. We caused Walsall a lot of problems and we could certainly have had more goals.

“People have probably been looking at the table and thinking things have not been going too bad at West Brom. But we haven’t been playing well and that has brought self-imposed problems.

“That was a win we needed and it was probably our best result this season.

“There has been a lot of moaning and groaning but hopefully we will now go on and keep to winning ways.”

Walsall manager Colin Lee admitted he was disappointed with his side’s defeat in 11 games. “That was tough on us because we played some good football.

“I don’t think we can play a lot better than that. But we got nothing because we didn’t take the chances we created.”

Lee added: “We lost the game in the first half because that’s when we had our opportunities to go in front. We failed to stamp our authority on the game.

“I have got no complaints about that performance because we were terrific in certain parts of the game. Then Albion went ahead with a shot that was deflected off the wall. That’s the kind of bad luck you can have in this game.”