West Bromwich Albion manager claims Peterborough United travelled to the Hawthorns to waste time rather than to play football and a staggering shots at goal statistic

Posh frustrated a team armed with parachute payments, and built for tens of millions of pounds more than Darren Ferguson had to play with, for 79 minutes at the Hawthorns, but the first goal of the game opened the floodgates and the Baggies ran out comfortable 3-0 winners.

The match statistics told a sobering tale for Ferguson’s side as they were outshot 27-1 by West Brom and had just effort on a goal, a tame header from centre-back Frankie Kent.

It was a much better day for Ismael’s side who won for the first time in five matches to move to within four points of the automatic promotion slots.

“Until the first goal, it was the story of the season so far,” Ismael said. “But as always with a good story, there was a happy ending.

“The game was how we expected. Our opponents didn’t want to play. They just wasted time and tried to take time from the clock - they didn’t shoot once on target. You have to stay calm, to stay patient.

“We might’ve scored earlier, with (Daryl) Dike three times.

“But I said to the guys at half-time we’re on the right path, We’re controlling the game. Just make sure we come wide with the crosses and counter press to put them under pressure.

“We showed our quality when the opponent was ready to play football (after we scored)

“Then it became a good game, we were able to run in behind and show the quality of our players.

“The first goal got the breakthrough and you could see straight away the energy from the players. Their heads were higher, their chests were wider.”