West Brom analysis: No dramatic ending as Albion clash follows script

Unfortunately for Albion, it wasn’t the prelude to the dramatic drumroll of an EastEnders-style climax which would have seen them winning this game, which they perhaps deserved to do as a result of their improved second half performance.

Instead, it was the same old script against the Londoners, with the last four league meetings between the two in B71 now finishing in stalemate, the most recent two without troubling the scorers.

Same old script for Albion too, after a week of three fixtures all ending in draws, albeit without a huge amount of edge-of-the-seat soap-style drama with the exception of the opening four-goal flurry at Vicarage Road.

Same old Championship too. Same old ultra-competitive, physically demanding, frustrating and yet ultimately mesmerising division where so many of the teams are separated by little more than the width of a cigarette paper.

At full-time on Saturday the Baggies sat in 13th position in the table with 10 points from their first eight games. Millwall occupied tenth, with 11 points, and, of the previous two opponents with whom Albion had shared the spoils, Bristol City were eighth on 12 points and Watford 16th on nine.

So, three points between the quartet just as there had been so little between them over this trio of fixtures. Albeit there was only a lick of paint between Albion and victory against the Lions as Alex Mowatt fired a free-kick against the bar and Brandon Thomas-Asante’s header bounced back off the same piece of woodwork.