Pre-season: West Brom 2 Sheffield Wednesday 0 - Report

The match was played behind-closed-doors at the Baggies’ Walsall training base with a brace from Matt Phillips ensuring Valerien Ismael’s side secured a 2-0 win.

Albion began their pre-season preparations by beating League Two Salford in a similar behind-closed-doors encounter.

They then played their first match in front of supporters last Friday, securing a 1-0 win at Woking.

And they made it three victories in a row against a Wednesday side managed by Baggies legend Darren Moore.

The Albion fans that travelled to Woking got to see their side in Ismael’s favoured 3-4-3 formation for the very first time.

And the boss stuck with it for the visit of Wednesday with Phillips once again deployed as a central striker while Grady Diangana and Karlan Grant operated as inverted wingers either side.

In what was the only change from the trip to Surrey, Cedric Kipre was given an opportunity to impress at centre-back with Dara O’Shea moving to the bench.

But once again, there was no place in the squad for Matheus Pereira – with Ismael having previously said he expects the Brazilian to leave the club this summer. In what was a first half dominated by the Baggies, they opened the scoring after just five minutes.

After Diangana played Conor Townsend in down the left, the wing-back then stood up a cross. And that was headed into the net from the edge of the six-yard box by Phillips.

Wednesday showed they carried an attacking threat when a superb pass from Sam Hutchinson found Josh Windass. But the striker then dragged a powerful shot wide of the far post.

It was Albion, though, who were the dominant side and they doubled their advantage shortly past the half-hour mark.

Once again the goal was created by Townsend with the full-back sending in a cross which was deflected against the post. But Phillips reacted quickest to fire the ball into the net.

Alex Mowatt, Diangana and Phillips all went close with long distance efforts following the re-start. Isamel then made nine changes on the hour with Matt Clarke and Callum Robinson introduced having not been involved at Woking.

Just moments later, Romaine Sawyers also got his first run out of pre-season.

The Baggies pressed for more goals with O’Shea and Sawyers going close.

Overall, though, this proved to be a comfortable win for Ismael’s side who are next in action at Watford on Saturday.

Albion: Button (Palmer 45), Ajayi (O’Shea 61), Bartley (Clarke 61), Kipre (Taylor 61), Furlong (Ingram 61), Livermore (Castro 61), Mowatt (Sawyers 73), Townsend (Gardner-Hickman 61), Diangana (Robinson 61), Phillips (Zohore 61), Grant (Tulloch 61).