Just when everything finally appeared to be going the way of West Brom, the defeat to Leicester City brought the mood around The Hawthorns crashing down once again.
While the result alone was disappointing, especially considering just how late in the contest Harry Winks’ winner came, Carlos Corberan’s bad mood was compounded by yet another injury blow as Matt Phillips hobbled off in the first half.
The Baggies boss is set to be without the winger until after Christmas due to a hamstring injury [Birmingham Live, 3 December] while Jed Wallace is also expected to be ruled out for a couple more weeks, leaving the Spaniard short of options out wide.
Both Grady Diangana and Jeremey Sarmiento are capable of playing in those wide roles, while John Swift was the man to replace Phillips against Leicester, but another player who could step up in the Scotsman’s absence is Tom Fellows.
The 20-year-old was introduced with 15 minutes left to play against the Foxes and while he didn’t get too involved in the matches he still managed to have an impact on the game.
With his eight touches, he completed 100 per cent of his two attempted crosses, carrying an expected assist rate of 0.14, more than Diangana or Sarmiento offered in 75 minutes of action [Fotmob].
Fellows is an incredibly raw talent and hasn’t played a huge amount of Championship football, having spent last season on loan with Crawley Town in League Two, but showed against Leicester and in the Baggies’ win over Cardiff that he can impact games in England’s second tier.
The winger has seriously caught the eye of supporters and journalists alike, with Johnny Dury heaping praise on the winger even suggesting that he is the most exciting attacking academy talent to come out of The Hawthorns since Saido Berahino [Bagges Broadcast, 29 November].
Corberan himself has admitted that West Brom supporters will be seeing much more of Fellows in an Albion shirt [Birmingham Live, 10 October] and given the latest injury news coming out of The Hawthorns the run-up to Christmas may be the perfect chance.
The Baggies have four matches between now and Christmas and a further three in the gap between then and New Year’s Day.
Corberan is going to have to rotate his attacking options without Phillips and Wallace and Fellows’ cameos from the bench have earned him the chance to get his first start of the campaign.
