Albion 1 Bologna 0: Hinshelwood's Goal Highlights New Wide Play
Albion went into their final pre-season outing without two of their star wide men. They walked away with another win – and a new way of hurting teams down the flanks.
Jack Hinshelwood’s 59th-minute strike settled a 1-0 victory over Bologna at the Amex, capping a second-half spell in which Albion finally ripped open the Italian side out wide after a flat, predictable opening period.
From static to stretched
For 45 minutes, Albion had the ball but very little bite. They moved it neatly enough, but Bologna sat comfortably, rarely dragged into the spaces they did not want to defend.
That changed after the break.
Georginio Rutter, operating as a roaming No.9, spent as much time hugging the left touchline as he did between the posts. His movement started to pull Bologna’s back line around, and with that, the game opened.
The breakthrough came from that channel. Rutter worked hard to keep possession on the left, then drove infield and was fouled as he tried to surge through. Play continued and he slid a low ball across the face of goal. Diego Gomez stepped over it, the ball ran on, and suddenly the edge of the box opened up.
Mats Wieffer arrived at full tilt. His low, measured effort – more like a disguised pass than a shot – skipped towards the six-yard line, where Hinshelwood darted in and diverted it home, glancing quickly towards the assistant’s flag before turning to celebrate.
One incisive move. One goal. A completely different feel to the contest.
Wide threat without star wingers
The goal reflected a clear shift. Albion began consistently getting runners in behind Bologna’s full-backs, with Ferdi Kadioglu and Gomez repeatedly exploiting the spaces that had not been there in the first half.
Wieffer threaded a clever pass to release Gomez into the box for a pull-back that found Hinshelwood again, this time leaning back and firing over. Gomez later turned provider for Kadioglu, whose effort clipped the post as Bologna’s defence scrambled.
All of this came with the spotlight fixed firmly on Albion’s wide options. Yakuba Minteh has joined Kaoru Mitoma on the injury list, stripping the side of two natural, high-impact wingers and forcing a rethink.
Maxim De Cuyper, starting on the left in tandem with Kadioglu, carried much of that responsibility early on. The Belgian produced Albion’s first two efforts of the game, both saved by Lukasz Skorupski, and slid a smart pass into Kadioglu that opened up another dangerous situation. Hinshelwood, again well placed, saw a volley kept out after a neat delivery from Olivier Boscagli.
Possession was not the issue before the interval. Penetration was. Albion’s dominance of the ball rarely translated into clear chances, and Bologna were largely untroubled.
The restart flipped that script. Both teams pushed higher, took more risks, and the match suddenly felt like a proper contest rather than a controlled training exercise.
Fresh legs, same clean sheet
An expected flurry of substitutions brought more orthodox width for Albion as Ibrahim Osman and Zadok Yohanna entered the fray. Both showed flashes – direct running, willingness to attack their full-back – signs that the squad’s wide options run deeper than the injury list might suggest.
At the back, Bart Verbruggen quietly did his job. He produced one sharp save in each half from Nicolo Carbiaghi to preserve another clean sheet and underline his calm presence behind a defence that again featured Luka Vuskovic and Boscagli as the central pairing in the first period. The duo looked solid, giving little away and keeping Bologna largely at arm’s length.
The structure in front of Verbruggen looks settled. The interest now lies in how Albion attack without their headline wingers. On this evidence, De Cuyper’s role on the left could be crucial – less about traditional wing play, more about clever angles, underlaps, and a different sort of threat.
Pre-season is over. The questions about how Albion adapt out wide are only just beginning.
