WEST BROM’S CHAMPIONSHIP play-off aspirations suffered a significant jolt with a 2-0 defeat at mid-table Hull.
Benjamin Tetteh’s instinctive strike against the run of play after 33 minutes put the hosts in front, while Dara O’Shea’s own goal in the second half compounded the Baggies’ struggles on the road.
West Brom have won just once away from home this year and must wonder how it went so wrong at the MKM Stadium following a dominant start.
But Hull defended shrewdly from the outset and never looked back once Tetteh scored his first goal for the club.
A strange first half in which West Brom were far superior appeared to have set the tone for the rest of the game.
Jed Wallace was a particular nuisance early on, and teed up the first chance of the match after 10 minutes.
Wallace and Jayson Molumby linked up nicely on the left before the former sent over a dangerous cross to Marc Albrighton, whose deflected hit was well saved by Karl Darlow.
Darlow then had to be alert to deny in-form Daryl Dike – as the United States international’s follow-up skewed wide of the target.
With home fans increasingly frustrated by West Brom’s dominance, Hull somehow opened the scoring.
Tetteh firstly did well to win a header, from which Regan Slater threaded the ball back to the Ghana international towards the left of the penalty area.
He still had plenty of work to do, but Tetteh reacted superbly with a fine finish from a difficult angle that sailed into the top-right corner of the net.
West Brom fans might have expected a big response after the restart, but it never happened until they were 2-0 down in the 57th minute.
Ozan Tufan’s inviting corner from the left was firmly headed towards goal by centre-back Sean McLoughlin.
O’Shea attempted to snub out the threat but he glanced the ball into his own net past a hapless Josh Griffiths.
West Brom unsurprisingly rallied thereafter, with Darlow required to make a string of admittedly routine saves.
John Swift also struck the left post with a lovely, central free-kick which befuddled the on-loan Newcastle goalkeeper.
But West Brom manager Carlos Corberan can have no complaints with the scoreline as his players lacked the enterprise that saw them win so handsomely against Middlesbrough last weekend.
Counterpart Liam Rosenior looked to have miscalculated his selection policy, such was their slow start, but they were most impressive in the second half and deserved to end a four-game winless run.
