Having reduced the deficit to second placed Wolves to three points, the Baggies hosted Barnsley at the Hawthorns on 30th March 2002 for game 42 of a compelling Division One season.
Jordão was becoming a key goalscorer in these closing games and it was the Portuguese that broke the deadlock just after the half hour. When Barnsley failed to properly clear a corner, Darren Moore headed the ball back into the danger area. Dichio nodded it on and Jordão was on hand to divert the ball into the net from close range.
The Portuguese was involved in the second as it was he who picked up the ball about 30 yards out, beat a challenge to square it to Danny Dichio whose deflected shot beat Andy Marriott in the Tykes’ goal just before the hour mark.
Trevor Benjamin, on loan from Leicester City, came off the bench and scored a third, his only goal for the Baggies – it was a big clearance from Big Dave that found Benjamin in space on the left and his shot went through the defender’s legs taking a slight deflection to find the bottom corner of the net.
Darren Barnard scored a penalty for the visitors but the Baggies held on for a 3-1 win.
Meanwhile, Wolves managed to nick a 3-2 win at Turf Moor to maintain the three point gap, while Man City comfortably saw off Forest 3-0.
That left the table pretty much “as you were” but with now just four games remaining. Next up was the Easter Monday fixture programme which would see Albion travel to Coventry City and Wolves host Manchester City.
| Division One Promotion Battle – 30th March 2002 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pld | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |||
| 1. | Man City | 42 | 27 | 6 | 9 | 95 | 49 | 87 | |
| 2. | Wolves | 42 | 24 | 10 | 8 | 73 | 38 | 82 | |
| 3. | ALBION | 42 | 24 | 7 | 11 | 56 | 28 | 79 | |
