First home win for Pepe Mel edges West Brom closer to safety - match analysis

Albion aren't officially over the line yet – and neither is Mel.

But after a raucously-greeted victory, his first at home, the prospects of the Baggies and the Spanish head coach continuing their partnership in top-flight football for another season have been significantly enhanced.

Mel has now got nine points from his last seven games. He has 15 points in all from his 14 games; Steve Clarke's last 14 reaped one point fewer.

It's not conclusive, but neither is it quite so damning. The tame and watery capitulations at Villa, at Palace and at Hull and the careless protection of winning positions against Cardiff and Tottenham are drifting further off the grid.

Albion's hugely-relieved public are instead today plugged into a mini-surge of optimism about what this charming man might bring to the club.

There is an organic opportunity to give the Baggies a serious makeover this summer because of all the contracts up for renewal and suddenly the prospect of handing this task to a man recruited to change the team's dimensions does not seem entirely out of the question.

• West Brom 1 West Ham 0 - match report and pictures

This would be a Mel armed with a very different contacts book to those head coaches who have preceded him; a Mel much, much wiser for the experience of such a turbulent introduction to English football.

And it would be a Mel with whom everyone at The Hawthorns has, well, fallen a little bit in love. Has he even managed to charm Jeremy Peace, a feat previously only managed by Mrs Peace?

The answer must wait until after the current business has been satisfactorily completed, but there is today more enthusiasm for Albion to continue with their Spanish experiment thanks to an enlivened, more dynamic and more 'managed' victory over West Ham.

The team that couldn't protect a three-goal lead were able to look after a one-goal advantage for 79 minutes against the savagely-blunt instrument that is Sam Allardyce's West Ham. The second-half performance which clinched the victory was arguably the most impressive and significant of Mel's uneven tenure so far.

In the pulsating, closing minutes, rarely can the sight of Albion players running the ball into the corners to count down the clock have been so enthusiastically acclaimed by their supporters.

Everybody knew the reference point of Saido Berahino's naive gaffe against Cardiff; that the boy wonder turned 'enfant terrible' was the scorer of the decisive early goal and delivered his best performance for months added to the sense of redemption. Berahino was a surprise call to start at the head of the attack, but the decision was fully justified by an athletic performance which reminded us of what earned him his first big fat contract earlier in the season. Hopefully, the same will have occurred to the England Under-21 forward.

Perhaps the key performances came in defence, however. Ben Foster was outstanding in goal with one first-half save from an Andy Carroll header particularly memorable. Foster approaches the World Cup in the kind of form which deserves not just to support Joe Hart, but genuinely challenge him.

There remains a measure of backing for Andy Carroll to provide an option among Roy Hodgson's forwards and more than a few at The Hawthorns would back that proposal after the West Ham striker's performance.

Rarely have they seen Jonas Olsson have such a difficult time in the aerial combat which repeatedly challenged Albion's central defence. It didn't make for pretty viewing and even continues to provoke outrage among sections of Hammers fans, who raised a banner proclaiming Allardyce was "Killing WHUFC" while demanding the manager's removal.

But the critical torpedo from the visiting fans was no help to Olsson and Co as they fought to repel the missiles hurled in their direction. The clean sheet they checked in at the final whistle will have come as a huge source of satisfaction.

Especially as Mel had to think on his feet to paper over the cracks which have been evident all season in the full-back departments. Steven Reid suffered a groin injury trying to keep pace with the bursts of Matt Jarvis which gave Albion all manner of difficulties for the first 40 minutes.

Mel opted to switch Billy Jones from left to right and ask Chris Brunt to drop to an unfamiliar left-back role, where he performed admirably. Albion were much more comfortable thereafter but addressing this key area is an essential first port of call on the club's close-season journeys.

With Carroll in such commanding form, Albion adapted and focused on the second ball with which they dealt so effectively after the break – so much so that West Ham then threatened just once, when Carroll plonked a header on the bar direct from a Jarvis corner.

By then, the Baggies should have been home and dry because as their defensive solidity grew so they embarked on a wave of exciting offensive football which had the Hawthorns pounding at times. But like everything else this season, the rewards remained maddeningly just out of reach.

What are we to make of Stephane Sessegnon? He has been everything Sunderland fans warned he would be – one moment, a player around whom a coach would build a team, the next a lost or too-often injured figure of insignificance. On Saturday, this erratic talent was inspirational, feeding off the energy of his burst past James Tomkins in the build-up to the decisive goal completed by the Morgan Amalfitano cross forced home by Berahino.

In one extraordinary moment just after the hour, Sessegnon twice set up Berahino for chances which went begging before firing over himself; Albion fans gripped this season's roller-coaster with whitening knuckles at that point.

In the same category lies Amalfitano, a player whose capacity to go missing in games is exceeded only by the range of his exquisite touches on the ball. Do you stick with a figure who has provided some of the campaign's most inspirational moments, but at a cost of great chunks of irrelevance?

Albion's squad has waged a constant struggle this season between its undoubted potential and confounding inconsistency, issues which must be sorted out by the club's football department this summer.

It is one which made a right hash of things 12 months ago but, chastened by that experience, will surely box a little cleverer this time around.

Having handed the Spaniard such a loaded opportunity in January, it would seem only fair that he gets a chance to show what he can do with his own squad. But since when was football fair?

Still, Mel wants the chance and has three games left to persuade Peace. After this win, don't rule it out.