Odemwingie stars in derby victory

Peter Odemwingie

Published: 3:42pm, 12th February 2012
Updated: 8:45pm, 12th February 2012

Hat-trick hero Peter Odemwingie earned West Brom a 5-1 victory in the Black Country derby and increased the pressure on Wolves boss Mick McCarthy after the home side were demolished at Molineux.

Albion were the first to settle and Wayne Hennessey denied winger Jerome Thomas at point-blank range after Kevin Foley had been pulled out of position. Hennessey produced his second top-class save of the half to turn over a deflected drive from Paul Scharner.

Albion were queueing up to have attempts on goal and a Liam Ridgewell effort was blocked. It came as no surprise when Odemwingie broke the deadlock after 35 minutes.

He was allowed to cut in from the right unopposed and his fierce shot took a deflection off Dave Edwards and deceived Hennessey for his sixth goal of the campaign.

But in first-half injury-time Steven Fletcher equalised with a typically opportunist finish when he combined with Sylvain Ebanks-Blake before beating the dive of Ben Foster with his shot on the turn.

The Baggies still looked threatening after the break and Hennessey turned aside a Marc-Antoine Fortune drive. But from James Morrison's corner, Albion regained the lead through Jonas Olsson via an error by Hennessey.

Gareth McAuley's initial header clipped the outside of a post and Olsson was first to react to the loose ball but Hennessey should have held his shot which slipped from his grasp and over the line.

Roger Johnson came close to equalising when his header was cleared off the line by Youssouf Mulumbu via the underside of the bar.

After 77 minutes Odemwingie struck for the second time. Ridgewell turned a Morrison header back across the box, Olsson back heeled the ball goal-wards and Odemwingie applied the vital touch.

Keith Andrews made it 4-1 with a deflected low drive after 85 minutes and Odemwingie completed his hat-trick from a Morrison cross three minutes later.