West Brom’s work on set-pieces paying off for under pressure Ryan Mason

West Brom head coach Ryan Mason revealed his side sharpened up their set-pieces to earn a welcome 2-1 home win over QPR in the Championship.

Set-piece headers from defenders George Campbell and Nat Phillips earned a richly deserved victory after four defeats in five left some fans unhappy with Mason.

In a much-improved second half from Albion, Karlan Grant could have had four goals, with the hosts also having an effort ruled out for offside.

“Set-pieces are important,” said Mason. “We have changed what we have done in the last 13 or 14 games while sticking to our principles.

“The lads have been really consistent and buying into it, and in the last 10 or so games we have looked more dangerous. That’s something we need to try to continue doing.

“It’s down to discipline and consistency with certain things.

“Deliveries have improved and the buy-in and the belief has been there.

“You get belief when you have success, and we’ve had relative success in the last couple of months from our set-plays.”

Campbell nodded Albion ahead in the 25th minute, meeting a Callum Styles corner with a towering leap at the far post.

Ousmane Diakite’s own goal pegged Albion back but Phillips’ towering header from eight yards out in the 55th minute from Mikey Johnston’s curling free-kick proved to be the winner.

Much-changed QPR, who won five of their last eight including a 3-1 win against Albion earlier this month, hit the woodwork through Kwame Poku after the break.

But the visitors could have few complaints at the result and QPR head coach Julien Stephan admitted his side could not match Albion’s power in the second half.

“You saw they had players who could carry the ball 45, 50 metres and we don’t have those kind of strengths,” said the Frenchman.

“It was a very tight game in the first half with many opportunities for both sides, especially from set-pieces.

“But the turning point was early in the second half when Kwame Poku hit the crossbar, because the momentum of the game could have changed completely. The crowd could have changed.

“Afterwards we conceded from a second set-piece, and there were too many of those in this game for us.

“We tried to bring on some fresh players in the last 25 minutes – the plan was to bring on some quality to make a difference.

“We produced some crosses but we didn’t manage to succeed to finish the situations.”