Zoltan Gera looked happy enough as he left the Hawthorns once again.

Yet beneath the polite smile and typical joke the former Albion winger was surely questioning some of his recent choices.

While four years at Fulham will guarantee security and might bring a degree of success too, Gera looked horribly out of place on his return to the Black Country on Saturday.

The man who did so much to lay foundations for the Baggies’ latest adventure must have had the feeling he had left a party just before it really took off.

As he said goodbye to the wellwishers and boarded the coach back to his new life in London, the Hungarian left behind a Hawthorns brimming with optimism fuelled by the home side’s best start to a Premier League season.

Baggies fans are lapping up the Mowbray-style assault on the top flight that Gera helped to make possible, but will now not take part in.

With 31 matches remaining for each club before the season is put to bed, their campaigns could yet take markedly different courses.

The evidence of Gera’s old club’s meeting with his present employers suggests newcomers Albion have already gone a fair way towards bridging the class divide from the Championship to the Premier League.

They locked horns with a Fulham side who, with the help of the Harrods millions, have secured a regular seat at English football’s richest table since the turn of the century.

The Baggies did not just claim victory.

There were plenty of signals beyond the result to suggest they can at last establish their own place among the nation’s elite clubs, without resorting to the rudimentary methods that represented a glass ceiling on their previous tilts at the top flight.

These are early days in Mowbray’s mission to prove Albion can play their way to respectability and beyond.

The signs are increasingly encouraging. The recruitment policy that the manager has overseen is reaping dividends.

So the new-look central defensive duo of Ryan Donk and Jonas Olsson not only prevented the Cottagers troubling an underworked Scott Carson, they provided the starting point for a progressive brand of play that the Baggies could barely have contemplated in previous Premier League seasons.

In midfield, the £4.7million spent to acquire record signing Borja Valero is beginning to look like a shrewd investment, as the Spaniard adds additional speed of thought to his obvious craft.

With Jonathan Greening, James Morrison and Robert Koren suggesting they too can make the step up, the Baggies are starting to have the look of a Premier League team.

Gera would have been right at home in the latest side assembled by Mowbray. Sadly, it was not to be. The star of ‘the great escape’ must now wonder whether he is about to miss out on another memorable top flight season with the Baggies.

A former partner in crime of Gera’s in the business of dressing room banter was once more the hero of the hour, as Roman Bednar celebrated the latest phase of his coming of age as a Premier League player.

A third goal of the season for the big Czech, allied to a fine all-round display, suggested that he too is ready to rise to yet another challenge.

A year ago Bednar was the risky signing from the Scottish Premier League, for whom injury threatened to derail his Albion career before he had kicked a ball in anger.

Since then the former Hearts hitman has faced questions at each hurdle, yet each time a flurry of goals has elevated him to the next level.

Now, after a frustrating start to the new season that saw him restricted to substitute duties, Bednar once more has the look of the most instinctive scorer in Mowbray’s squad.

His goals have already helped secure vital points just two months into the campaign and, despite a shortage of genuine pace or top drawer tricks, Bednar’s predatory instincts in front of goal could yet be worth their weight in gold.

His happy knack for impeccable timing made the difference on Saturday, in a match that saw Mowbray’s side withstand a modicum of first-half pressure, from their visitors before coming to life after half time and claiming a fully merited win.

Clint Dempsey, who would not have played had £10million forward Andy Johnson been available, was the biggest threat to the Baggies in a forgettable first half where the visitors had the greater share of possession.

The American’s ability to find space behind the Albion midfield was behind all of his side’s first-half chances, the best of which fell to Gera in the 31th minute.

The former Hawthorns man collected a pull-back from Dempsey just inside the box and let fly with a low right-footed drive that spun a fraction of an inch wide with Carson beaten.

Not until the second half, after a tactical reshuffle in midfield by Mowbray, did the Baggies begin to build up their own head of steam.

When it came, the opening goal into Mark Schwarzer’s net began to appear inevitable and the Baggies had gone close twice before Bednar struck.

A burst down the left by Paul Robinson ended with a cross towards Bednar, who fired a half-volley over the bar.

A corner on the hour mark was headed back across goal by Donk for Morrison, who had his header headed off the line by Danny Murphy.

From the next flag kick the goal arrived. Again Donk forced it across the goalmouth and Bednar reacted quickest in a crowded six-yard box to poke home the loose ball.

Fulham created more chances in the closing stages but only once did they threaten the goal as former Wolves man Seol Ki-Hyeon’s shot was deflected wide of the post.