West Brom get instant payback from Odemwingie

BIRMINGHAM, England (AFP) – Nigerian international striker Peter Odemwingie scored on his debut for West Brom here on Saturday to give the Premier League newboys a 1-0 win over Sunderland and erase memories of their opening 6-0 thrashing by champions Chelsea.

The 29-year-old Uzbekistan-born forward – whose father is Nigerian and his mother Russian – only signed on Friday but was thrown into the action immediately by West Brom manager Roberto di Matteo and repaid an immediate return on the investment with the only goal in the 81st minute.

He hadn’t taken long to make an impression, taking aim in the seventh minute from inside the penalty area only for his shot to go wide.

West Brom had all of the play in the opening 20 minutes with James Morrison also firing at goal only to see his shot go wide of the left post while Chris Brunt celebrated his 250th appearance for the club by being booked in the 18th minute for a tackle on Jordan Henderson.

Brunt, though, made a more positive contribution on the half hour mark as the 25-year-old Northern Irish winger produced a spectacular overhead kick but it failed to trouble the Sunderland ‘keeper Simon Mignolet as it went over the bar.

The visitors had their first attempt at goal only in the 48th minute as England striker Darren Bent got in a header from Henderson’s free kick but it went wide of the right hand post.

Black Cats manager Steve Bruce tried to inject some more urgency into his side when he made two substitutions in the 66th minute bringing on Dutch veteran Boudewijn Zenden and on loan Manchester United striker Danny Welbeck for Ahmed Elmohamady.

Zenden showed he still has spring in his step and a certain amount of winger style trickery in getting in a great cross in the 77th minute which fell to Nedum Onuoha but his shot was gathered safely by former England goalkeeper Scott Carson.

However, it was the hosts that got a deserved lead when Morrison’s slide rule pass found Odemwingie and the former Lille forward showed why di Matteo pursued him by slotting it past Mignolet.

The Baggies went desperately close to doubling their lead shortly afterwards as the impressive Brunt fired in a long range effort that beat Mignolet but hit the bar and rebounded to safety.