JUST WHEN WEST BROMWICH ALBION appeared to have forgotten their favourite party trick — the 1-0 win — they sprang it on a Middesbrough team that Steve McClaren, their manager, suggested can forget about qualifying for Europe this season. Middlesbrough were poor but give West Bromwich their due. This was not a fluke victory, not even a grimly fought one.

Albion were industrious, patient but, above all, entertaining and McClaren admitted that, had either of the late headers against their opponents’ bar, from Joseph-Desiré Job and Noel Whelan, denied the home side, it would have been unjust. “We were very poor, probably our poorest of the season, and we did not deserve anything out of the game,” McClaren said.

Daniele Dichio had come off the substitutes’ bench to fire in unmarked from close range with 18 minutes remaining. To be an Albion fan, you need only be able to count to one. Last season, West Bromwich’s 1-0 wins numbered 17, four of them with a goal by Dichio.

Another three 1-0 wins, after three defeats at the start of the season, had lifted West Bromwich into seventh place, but a Premiership run of six losses and three draws without a win saw them sink to one off the bottom before Saturday. Dichio was either in the reserves or among the substitutes and Gary Megson, the West Bromwich manager, put him on the transfer list. “I felt Danny’s standards slipped below the high standards he set when he came on loan,” Megson said of the former Sunderland forward.

His latest winner, though, will have done his standing the world of good at a time when Albion, with only six goals from their past 11 games, need all the help up front they can get. The chronic shortage of firepower is uppermost in Megson’s mind with the transfer window fast approaching. Timely, then, was the uplifting midfield performance of Jason Koumas who, like Dichio, had been growing accustomed to life among the substitutes. Making his first Premiership start for eight weeks, Koumas was at the heart of Albion’s creative play.

Neil Clement, Andy Johnson, Igor Balis and Koumas all went close for West Bromwich before Dichio’s goal. Middlesbrough hardly had a sniff before the two headers. “We have a long way to go before we can be talked about as aspiring to Europe,” McClaren said. “This team is inexperienced and I think that showed today.”

West Bromwich Albion (3-5-2): R Hoult 5 — L Sigurdsson 6, D Moore 7 (sub: J Chambers, 85min), S Gregan 7 — I Balis 5, J Koumas 7, D McInnes 6, A Johnson 6, N Clement 5 — J Roberts 6 (sub: S Dobie, 90), L Hughes 5 (sub: D Dichio, 59 5). Substitutes not used: R Wallwork, J Murphy. NEXT: Tottenham Hotspur (a). NEXT: WLDDLL

Middlesbrough (4-3-1-2): M Schwarzer 5 — S Parnaby 5 (sub: C Cooper, 62 5), U Ehiogu 5, G Southgate 5, T Vidmar 4 — Geremi 5, G Boateng 5, J Greening 6 — J-D Job 4 — M Maccarone 4 (sub: N Whelan, 74), A Boksic 4 (sub: S Nemeth, 76). Substitutes not used: L Wilkshire, B Jones. Booked: Ehiogu. NEXT: West Ham United (h). FORM: LWLWLD Shots on target: (h) 9 (a) 2. Fouls: (h) 13 (a) 8. Offsides: (h) 1 (a) 0

Referee: P Durkin 6. Attendance: 27,029