Analysis - Promising opener for West Brom from positive Pardew

Alan Pardew's reign as Albion boss got off to an encouraging start against his former club and despite the goalless finish, there were positive signs of what to expect under him.

Before the game, the new man promised to play on the front foot, and he picked an attacking line-up designed to do just that.

For the first 20 minutes his three-pronged strike force gave Crystal Palace problems; Hal Robson-Kanu had the beating of Jeffrey Schlupp on the right; Kieran Gibbs was overlapping Jay Rodriguez dangerously down the left.

The Baggies had 20 shots to Palace's 10, but it was the manner of the performance, the intent on the ball, and the desire to get forward and dictate play that will have pleased a fanbase forced to watch their team drop deep and soak up pressure for the best part of three years.

For 15 minutes before half-time, the team slipped into old habits and let Palace drag them around during the visitors' only spell on top.

Pardew's 4-3-3 formation left the full-backs slightly exposed, and Wilfried Zaha was wreaking havoc. He should have had a penalty when Ahmed Hegazi kicked his trailing leg.

But the new boss recognised the problem and switched to a 4-4-2 at half-time to match his opponents, and in the second half it was all Albion.

"We bossed the game" said Pardew afterwards. It was a fair assessment, and one Tony Pulis was rarely able to utter. When his Albion team was at their best they controlled games without the ball, but they rarely bossed them.

The opposition has to be taken into account. Roy Hodgson returned to The Hawthorns with a team sitting bottom of the table, wracked with injuries to key players, their preparation ruined by delayed trains and late-night Indian weddings.

But Palace have shown enough since Hodgson took over to suggest they will not be in the bottom three come May. In this game, Albion did too.

Remember that Pardew was hamstrung by injuries to his best creative players.

It's hoped Matt Phillips and Chris Brunt will be available for the upcoming Swansea game, but Nacer Chadli and James Morrison are out a little longer.

At times it looked like they were missing a central No.10. Rodriguez plugged that gap occasionally in the second half, but it'll be intriguing to see if he puts with Morrison or Chadli in that hole when fit.

There is still work to do in the final third, but plenty of positives elsewhere. Jonny Evans is back to his best and helped Albion keep their first clean sheet in 11 games.

Young Sam Field continues to impress, and adapted quickly to being moved out onto the left wing in the second half.

He has a useful habit of arriving late in the box at exactly the right moment, and on another day, might have won it with one of his three blocked shots at the far post.

Albion ended the day in 17th, but just three points off 12th. This is a tight league, and two wins can propel you into the top half, as Everton and Leicester have proved.

It's 14 games without a win now in all competitions, which is worrying, but it feels like one confidence-boosting victory will bring more.

Pardew reckons he needs nine from his remaining 23 games to reach the 40-point mark.

But when you add in the inevitable draws, he'll probably only need seven, which is much less daunting.

Based on his first game in charge, Albion should get their comfortably, but more importantly, they might even have some fun on the way.