WEST BROM 2 Wanderers 1: AS banana skins go, this was the daddy of them all -- and Wanderers stepped right on it.

Seven Premiership games without a win, the axe about to fall on Gary Megson, reports of dressing room bust-ups and two key players sin-binned... West Brom were there for the taking and all Wanderers had to do was turn up, do the business and bank the points.

Bread and butter stuff, except there is no such thing as an easy ride in the Premiership -- as Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal have all discovered in recent weeks when Sam Allardyce's Whites have risen to the big occasions.

But Big Sam, back off his sick bed, got a taste of his own medicine at The Hawthorns on Saturday and he didn't like it one bit.

He kept his players in the dressing room for the best part of an hour and, although no-one knows the full story of what went on, he certainly wasn't handing out invitations to his 50th birthday party.

The October 19 bash promises to be a huge celebration with the Bolton boss -- devoted family man and dedicated football manager -- having much to toast as he reaches his half-century.

But, if his players don't present him with three points from the Crystal Palace game on Saturday week, he might just decide to leave the champagne on ice.

Two weeks ago, Wanderers were riding high after a staggering run of results -- beating Liverpool and drawing with Manchester United and Arsenal. There was talk of Europe.

Now, after taking just three points from a possible 12, the "R" word has reared its ugly head with Allardyce himself admitting there could be hard times ahead, unless there is a rapid improvement.

What a turnaround. The team that trounced Charlton, sank Southampton, matched the big three and, for half a game, made Birmingham look second rate, have managed to to undo all that good work in just a game and a half.

After the shenanigans of the second half performance at the Reebok a week earlier, things took an even more worrying turn for the worse at The Hawthorns as two of Megson's summer signings -- the fated Nigerian Kanu and Hungary's international captain Zoltan Gera -- scored twice in just nine second half minutes to turn the form book on its head.

Forget the fact that Stelios fluked a consolation, 2-1 was a flattering scoreline -- not because Albion were so impressive but because Wanderers were so poor.

They had their problems -- Kevin Davies was missing with a rib injury suffered in training the day before, Jay-Jay Okocha walked off just 34 minutes into the piece after aggravating the groin injury that kept him out of the Birmingham game, and Henrik Pedersen was such a shadow of his best that there are strong suspicions that the Achilles injury he has been carrying is starting to take its toll.

But Allardyce, who considers this the strongest squad he has ever had, felt he still had enough quality to win the game, had everybody done their jobs correctly.

Unfortunately they didn't, either individually or collectively.

Albion were not at their best, if Megson is to be believed, but they were still too good for Wanderers and deserved the win that sparked a deafening chorus of tributes for the under-pressure manager who, despite the unconvincing support of his chairman, appears to have the wholehearted backing of the fans.

For the record, this was not a good advertisement for the Premiership.

With Okocha struggling for half an hour before he finally gave up the ghost, the game was desperately lacking in the subtleties we come to expect from top flight teams.

Kanu showed touches and, when he did, Radhi Jaidi discovered there is more to Premiership defending than winning bruising battles and towering headers, although the giant Tunisian could have been the hero again had he not squandered a chance of a late equaliser.

Les Ferdinand and Tal Ben Haim got their first starts -- respectively because of Davies' absence and Allardyce's decision to leave out Nicky Hunt -- but the old-stager was muscled out of it by Darren Moore, a man mountain of a defender making his first appearance of the season in place of the suspended Darren Purse, while the young Israeli had a baptism of fire.

For reasons best known to themselves, Wanderers were their own worst enemies.

They created precious little, gave the ball away recklessly and were slower to pick up the pieces, inviting West Brom to take the initiative and respond to their vociferous fans.

Bruno N'Gotty worked hard to keep things under control at the back, Ricardo Gardner showed a marked improvement after his aberrations in the second half of the Birmingham game and Gary Speed and Kevin Nolan gave their usual committed performances in midfield.

But with Okocha sidelined and Ivan Campo looking distinctly out of sorts to the point of being hauled off with almost half an hour to go, Wanderers had no-one capable of conjuring something out of the ordinary, certainly no-one to match the impressive Gera or the inspirational Kanu.

The best skill came from Gardner in the first half when he weaved through three tackles and fired in a shot Russell Hoult failed to hold and gave Nolan a half-chance which he did well to strike against the outside of the post.

Allardyce had been supportive of Megson, suggesting the club would be worse off without him, and will have been pleased to hear before the game that the manager appeared to have the backing of his chairman, Jeremy Peace, at least for the time being at least.

He knew Megson's bad run had to end, sooner or later, but he did not expect it being at Wanderers' expense.

"Gary's got a great result and I just hope it puts it to bed for him," he said, "I'm sick he's got it against me, mind you, but he's got it and good luck to him.

"I'm really disappointed with the performance. It was only when we went two-down that we started to play and then you saw how nervous they got.

"But we didn't deserve anything."