West Brom set up Wembley date
Tony Mowbray is one step closer to Premiership football
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Wednesday, 16, May 2007 11:37
West Brom will contest the Championship play-off final after a 1-0 victory over Wolves game them a 4-2 aggregate win.
Former Sunderland striker Kevin Philips got the only goal of the game against a tame Wolves side midway through the second half.
Knowing they needed to score to have any chance of top-flight football next season Mick McCarthy's Wolves started brightly at the Hawthorns, but their attacking intent played straight into their Black Country rivals' counter-attacking game.
Welsh international Jason Koumas set up Philips with 20 minutes on the clock but the forward edged his header wide.
The influential playmaker was guilty himself of missing a good chance when he blazed over early on in the second-half.
Wolves were struggling to make an impact on the game by this point, with central European wingers Robert Koren and Zoltan Gera tormenting the away team's full-backs.
It was from Slovenian Koren's cross that Philips, who scored a brace in last week's 3-2 victory at Molineux, headed home for what would prove to be the game's only goal on 64 minutes.
Seconds later however McCarthy's team were almost handed a lifeline by Sam Sodje when he sent his backpass wide of keeper Dean Kiely, but West Brom's Nigerian defender recovered to clear off his own line.
Following tonight's win Tony Mowbray's side will play Derby at the new Wembley Stadium on May 28th to determine who will join Sunderland and Birmingham in making the step up to the Premiership.