Analysis: Darren Moore serving up refreshing tonic at West Brom

However, just six games into a 46-game league, it’s clear to see where they are trying to take this team.

Crucially though, they are also getting results along the way.

Since switching to this formation part-way through the second game of the season at Nottingham Forest, the Baggies have won four on the trot at home, and five from six in all competitions.

Removing the Carabao Cup matches because, well, they were against lower-league sides, Moore's men have still won three in four, and on that first night they switched, they stormed back at Forest to earn a draw.

Yes, all this playing out from the back can sometimes leave your heart in your mouth, but when it works it can be scintillating to watch.

And isn’t that the point of going to football? Of spending £20 on a ticket? To be wowed, thrilled, and maybe even just a little bit unnerved at times?

Jeopardy is part of the game, but in this system, the end goal is worth the risk.

Moore’s approach is a brave one, one that trusts its defenders to defend, and trusts its players on the ball in tight areas. Sometimes even in their own half.

It doesn’t always work, as some of the more unnerving moments in this first half suggest. But it is starting to bear fruit and it is bringing the best out of some.

Jake Livermore was unplayable here, charging around like a tank on nitrous oxide before picking out perfectly-weighted passes like a Pep Guardiola midfielder.

He sent Harvey Barnes through one-on-one but Jack Butland stood firm. Dwight Gayle, however, made no mistake.

He was another standout performer. What a stroke of luck Newcastle wanted Salomon Rondon.

Not since Peter Odemwingie or Kevin Phillips have Albion had such a predatory striker.

In possession, Gayle preys on the last man, the last shoulder. Out of possession he zooms around as if his life depended on winning the ball back. And he does it all with a smile on his face.

Both of his goals were brilliant, and both were made exponentially better by the other because they were completely different. The first was smooth as silk, the second was all about power.

Albion were helped by Stoke’s rigid formation that set up two banks of four and up front left the toothless Saido Berahino – who received more boos than passes – behind a nullified 37-year-old striker.

The Baggies, but in particular Barnes, who was kicked to high heaven and back, were finding so much space in between the lines that they had time to make a cup of tea. Or in Barnes's case, turn, and drive.

It wasn’t until Rowett removed Berahino – to much glee in the home end – and let Joe Allen and Peter Etebo move further forward with substitute Ryan Woods holding as a deeper-lying play-maker that Stoke really enjoyed any pressure that wasn't self-inflicted by the hosts.

But then Albion’s much-improved backline came to the fore.

After a shaky first half had seen both Ahmed Hegazi and Sam Johnstone caught in possession, the worry was that Gary Rowett would tell his team in the Hawthorns dressing room at half-time to press that weakness.

But even if that was Stoke’s plan in the second half, Albion stuck religiously to theirs, and continued to trust Hegazi et al, who did improve after the break.

Craig Dawson's return seemed to embolden his defensive partners. All three were dominant in the air, nullifying Stoke's only real threat.

Defending balls into the box had been a weakness this season, but Albion repelled 41 crosses during this match.

As one fan succinctly put it, it felt like Hegazi headed clear around 37 of them.

This was by far the Egyptian's best performance this season, and one he desperately needed after being so rotten at the Riverside.

He's still not completely convincing on the ball, but as long as Livermore and Chris Brunt are wise to his needs, he should be able to find a pass.

That rearguard action was reassuring after so many errors in the first few games, but it was the team's expansive approach that will have got most supporters purring.

During the darkest days of the Pulis era, when Rondon was toiling up front alone with nobody near him, and shots on target were as rare as hens' teeth, this is what miserable fans dreamed of.

Someone like Darren Moore, a bona fide club hero with nothing but their best interests at heart, leading Albion to victories with a new, expansive approach committed to playing the ball on the deck.

Painting Pulis as the pantomime villain is unfair. What is needed to survive in the Premier League is vastly different to what is needed to win promotion from the Championship.

There's a reason, for example, that Rafa Benitez – a Champions League winner no less – wanted Rondon rather than Gayle, who was Saturday's hero and looks so deadly in this division.

But there's no denying that Darren, as so many people connected with the Albion know him, is beginning to deliver on that dream.

There is still a long way to go. Only six league games have passed, and Pulis himself proved there are ways to nullify Moore's men.

But the Baggies seem to be honing in on this system, and now they have two weeks with only a few players away on international duty to continue perfecting it.

No doubt there will still be nervy moments at the back, and the likes of Johnstone and Hegazi need to learn when a hoof is acceptable, but at least Moore is trying to play this way.

Because it's the way so many had hoped their team would play this season, and it's proving to be a refreshing tonic.