Slaven Bilic’s West Bromwich Albion are six points clear at the top of the Championship after beating Mark Bowen’s Reading at the Madejski.
Reading manager Mark Bowen admits that Slaven Bilic was ‘crying out’ for the full-time whistle as West Bromwich Albion survived a scare at the Madejski on Tuesday night, speaking to Berkshire Live.
For the second time in the space of three days, the Baggies sealed a valuable away win to establish themselves as clear favourite for the Championship title.
They made hard work of things at Reading, however, with Kyle Bartley gifting George Puscas the opener from the penalty spot after a bizarre handball. The giant centre-back made amends, however, scoring a second half winner after Matheus Pereira had drawn West Brom level.
It was far from the most impressive performance Bilic’s league leaders have produced this season but the Croatian boss, who was counting down the seconds late on, will not care one jot with the result lifting them six points clear of second place.
“When the second went in we took the game to them and it changes – I made positive changes to try and affect the game going forward and Slaven was saying to me they were crying out for the final whistle,” said former Stoke City coach Bowen.
“I thought we deserved something out of the game but sometimes you don’t get everything you deserve.”
With Leeds United in the midst of their seemingly annual stumble, and with Fulham, Brentford and Nottingham Forest all dropping points in midweek, the latest round of fixtures could hardly have gone much better for West Brom.
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