West Brom moved back to the top of the Championship on Saturday after a thrilling 3-2 win against local rivals Birmingham City at St. Andrew's.

Slaven Bilic's side, who had lost only once in the league all season going into the clash, looked set for a second defeat of the campaign until Charlie Austin's introduction in the 70th minute sparked them back into life.

As our graphic shows, the forward came on to have a devastating impact, scoring two goals in his brief spell on the pitch from his two shots on target.

The fact his expected goals return from the game was a low 0.23 shows just how ruthless and prolific the ex-Southampton man was.

In truth, he had no right to score the first goal - which was superb. A neat bit of play saw the ball worked into the feet of the striker and he quickly turned and fired an unstoppable effort past Connal Trueman.

If that piece of individual brilliance wasn't something you have always associated with Austin, the winner was exactly the sort of goal you expect him to grab and it perfectly highlighted why he is such a good player at this level.

When Darnell Furlong picked the ball up down the right flank, Austin was being closely marked by Maxime Colin, however an intelligent, sharp bit of movement saw him lose the Blues man and he nodded home with real accuracy.

Those goals took the 30-year-old to seven for the season but it continues his fantastic run of form with six of those coming in the past five games.

Even though Albion are running clear in the race for automatic promotion, there have been calls by some to bring in a more prolific number nine and you could understand that to a degree.

During Austin's run of four goals in four games, two of those had been penalties and the other an in-direct free-kick, so he hadn't really been showing the quality that many had expected, which is why he has lost his place to Hal Robson-Kanu.

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However, having taken time to adapt to his new surroundings, Saturday's performance was the clearest indication yet he is capable of hitting the heights that Albion expected when they brought him in.

Of course, there are areas of his game that he can improve, such as holding the ball up and keeping possession but if Austin can build on Saturday's showing and maintain that sharpness in front of goal then West Brom could breeze to the title this season.

Thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.