Alex Mowatt of West Bromwich Albion celebrates scoring during the Championship match at Portsmouth FC.Getty Images

Alex Mowatt joined West Bromwich Albion from Barnsley in July 2021

Dan George
BBC Sport at Fratton Park

Alex Mowatt scored twice to send impressive West Bromwich Albion top of the Championship following a 3-0 victory at Portsmouth.

The Baggies climb above Sunderland, Blackburn Rovers and Burnley with 13 points after five games.

Forward Josh Maja scored in the first minute before Mowatt's brilliant second-half finish and late free-kick wrapped up the points for Carlos Corberan's team.

Next-to-bottom Portsmouth are still winless this season in the league but have been dealt some tough opening fixtures on their return to the second tier.

The Baggies started the game fast with that early goal - Tom Fellows making a dash down the right-hand side of the Portsmouth box before cutting it back to Maja who slotted the ball home and celebrated in front of the jubilant travelling West Brom fans.

John Mousinho's Pompey responded well to going behind, coming close to equalising when Callum Lang pressed the Baggies defence and won the ball, but sent his shot wide of the target.

West Brom thought they had doubled their lead when Maja's close-range header forced an impressive stop out of Will Norris, who clawed the ball away millimetres from going over the line.

In the second half, Mowatt doubled the away side's lead, curling a fabulous effort from the edge of the box into the top left-hand corner of the net past Norris.

Portsmouth threatened to get one back as debutant Josh Murphy struck a shot narrowly wide of Alex Palmer's far post just after the hour mark.

But Mowatt made sure of the win in injury time with his second brilliant goal - curling a gorgeous free-kick into the top right corner.

One positive note for Portsmouth was the return to action of defender Regan Poole, 10 months after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury.

Score not a 'fair reflection' on Portsmouth

Pompey boss Mousinho said he did not feel the 3-0 scoreline was a "fair reflection" of his side's performance.

After going behind, the Blues played well in the first half and threatened the Baggies goal on a number of occasions but couldn't find the quality and end product to score.

In the second half, they lost momentum and heads seemed to drop after Mowatt's impressive strike.

"I don't think 3-0 was a fair scoreline but ultimately we've got to learn to be realistic of the differences between the two sides," Mousinho said.

"The first half, bar the first minute, was the best football we have played all season, we just need to be a bit more clinical - West Brom were.

"I was a lot more pleased with our performance today than I was for the majority of the season so far, I thought we made West Brom struggle in the first half and they're a side I expect to finish in the top two."

It does not get any easier for Portsmouth as they next travel to ex-Premier League side Burnley before welcoming Sheffield United to Fratton Park and going away to Stoke City.

'This is how hard we need to work' - Corberan

It might have looked a comfortable game for the Baggies on the scoresheet but head coach Corberan felt it was a really "competitive game".

Portsmouth failed to register a shot on target but had 14 shots throughout the course of the game. They also had 54% possession throughout the match.

"The result doesn't show what happened on the pitch because it was a competitive game," Corberan told BBC Radio WM.

"They were very aggressive and we conceded some big chances but we managed the game well at the end to have control of the situation. It was one of the more difficult games for me to manage.

"The message of the result, and so far this season, is how hard we need to work to win games in this league."

Albion next welcome Plymouth Argyle to the Hawthorns before travelling away to Sheffield Wednesday.

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