Albion prove value for money

Now that's what you call value for money - a cut price ticket for The Hawthorns and The Great Exhibition all rolled into one, writes Martin Swain.

Around 5,000 'missing' fans were tempted back by the club's hefty price cuts for this Championship clash and Tony Mowbray and his players can do no more to ensure they return.

Five thrilling goals, the last three of which were the result of quite brilliant finishing, lengthened QPR's win-less misery at the foot of the table and surely added more numbers to the growing appreciation society for this re-constructed Baggies

For a few fleeting minutes after Gareth Ainsworth had pulled the score back to 2-1 midway through the first half, Rangers might have dared to believe they could repeat last season's feat and evenly split six goals with Albion.

This time, however, their share of the same goal count was not quite so flattering.

Rangers were put to the sword by some more wonderful, flowing football full of elusive movement which bewitched the visitors' defence and left them grateful that the damage was not even more overwhelming.

Albion's best home crowd of the season lapped up every second of QPR's breathless discomfort as they chased after a ball which Mowbray's men effortlessly caressed around the pitch.

And if the sub-text of this game was the PR exercise in winning back some valuable numbers within the fan base, then it can only be viewed as a terrific trailer for what could be a blockbuster of a season.

All through the team Mowbray has assembled, the ticking of confident machinery made up of high-quality components for this division could be heard.

But it is at the top of the side, the attacking spearhead of Kevin Phillips and Ishmael Miller, where the havoc is delivered to the opposition.

Phillips's two goals were two different demonstrations of the striker's craft, the first a tap-in from his unending ability to be in the right place at the right time, the second a wonderfully-plotted and precisely-executed chip from the angle of the area.

All of this came on his 50th appearance for the club of which this was his 45th start.

By some distance, then, his 28 goals bring him in ahead of the classic goal-every-other-game ratio by which all forwards measure themselves, a truly impressive postscript to his distinguished Premiership career.

How much of this is down to his sudden decision to go blond is unclear but he is certainly having more fun alongside Miller than he might have imagined.

They are separated by 14 years, contrasting styles and I would bet, very different CD collections.

But there is a natural blend developing which it was soon clear was going to be too much for Rangers and which will continue to challenge the Championship's better defences.

With Miller scuffing one chance and Phillips forcing a goal-line clearance with the sweetest of volleys direct from a Jonathan Greening corner, John Gregory's team were already shipping water when the carnage began in earnest.

Miller's power on the run with the ball at his feet had already dumped Danny Culip on his backside in setting up those early opportunities but in the 17th minute, Albion's on-loan striker repeated the move on Zesh Rehman while bearing down on the by-line from his favoured left hand side of the area.

A composed cut-back gave Phillips one of the easiest of the 200-plus goals he has tucked away down the years before he set about returning the compliment inside a minute - a smart release as Miller waited on the last line of RangersÕ defence before sprinting away to comfortably beat Lee Camp.

That had Miller's big pal Micah Richards, seated under one of the video walls, celebrating as enthusiastically as the Brummie Roaders who sensed the game had just finished as a contest.

There was, however, time for some nit-picking in this otherwise faultless Baggies display.

A 24th minute free-kick was mis-judged by Leon Barnett, his only blemish in another impressive afternoon of unfussy defending, which gave Dexter Blackstock the chance to head across goal for Ainsworth to poke home a morale-boosting response for his struggling team.

An interesting week lies ahead for Mowbray beginning with a visit from Stoke, a side which enjoys an almost freakish stranglehold over the Baggies, on Wednesday and that team's robust style will have gained some encouragement from another slice of evidence in the case against Albion's defending at set-pieces.

But yesterday, this soft spot in a team which is otherwise gaining powerful momentum was an irritation and not a signal for a major change in the game's pattern.

Inside 10 minutes, Albion's two-goal advantage was restored by an absolute beauty from Phillips which followed two more goal-line clearances to keep Rangers in touch before Camp beat away a rasping Miller drive.

That half-cleared attack was collected by Greening, however, who wrong-footed QPR's overworked defence with a disguised pass which picked out Phillips, just inside the area.

The veteran striker had already mapped out his calculations before the ball had arrived at his feet and the unhesitating clip which arced over Camp's fingertips proved his penalty area maths to be absolutely perfect.

What followed was torture for QPR as they battled away gamely, but hopelessly outclassed, to stem the flow of buzzing traffic towards their increasingly congested penalty area.

Two more goals would follow but, in truth, it could have been 22.

And both of them were thumping drives smashed past Camp with stunning power, the first by Robert Koren on 57 minutes, the second via Greening's left foot eight minutes later.

This was finishing that was almost wasted on the opposition in the way a bowler uses a brute of a delivery to take care of a tail-ender.

But it electrified the Hawthorns fans who, TV replays would later confirm, were wrongly denied a sixth when substitute Craig Beattie bundled the ball home from an exquisite Phillips touch ruled out for offside.

If they want more, they will have to come back. And something about Albion yesterday suggests they will.