Albion Defeats Bologna 1-0: Hinshelwood Shines in Pre-Season Finale
Albion went into their final friendly without two of their star wide men – and walked out with another win and a new way of attacking.
Jack Hinshelwood’s close-range finish on 59 minutes settled a 1-0 victory over Bologna at the Amex, wrapping up pre-season with another clean sheet and a different kind of threat from the flanks.
Flat first half, fresh idea
For 45 minutes, Albion had the ball but not the bite. They moved it patiently, often attractively, but rarely with penetration. Bologna were comfortable, the home side too static and short of ideas in the final third.
With Kaoru Mitoma already sidelined and Yakuba Minteh joining the injury list, all eyes were on how Albion would cope without natural wingers. The answer, eventually, came from a change of emphasis rather than personnel.
Maxim De Cuyper, starting high and wide on the left, offered an early clue. He had Albion’s first two efforts on goal, both saved by Lukasz Skorupski, and slipped a clever pass to release Ferdi Kadioglu into a dangerous area. Hinshelwood later forced a volleyed save after smart service from Olivier Boscagli.
It was neat, controlled football. It just lacked a cutting edge.
Rutter roams, Albion bite
The mood shifted after the interval. The game opened up, the tempo rose, and Albion finally began to stretch Bologna on both sides.
Georginio Rutter drove that change. Operating as a highly mobile No.9 – or false nine, depending on your preference – he refused to stay central. Instead, he drifted out to the left touchline, worked tirelessly to hold the ball up, then surged infield to draw a foul and drag defenders with him.
From that spell of pressure came the breakthrough.
Rutter’s low ball across the face of goal was dummied by Diego Gomez and initially looked to have evaded everyone. Then Mats Wieffer arrived on the edge of the box, steaming onto it and guiding a low effort towards goal – a pass as much as a shot.
Hinshelwood, alive to the opportunity and glancing across for the offside line, turned it in from close range. One sharp movement, one simple finish. The difference between a flat first half and a far brighter second.
Flanks come alive
Once Albion found joy out wide, Bologna’s full-backs were suddenly under strain. They repeatedly got runners in behind, often targeting the areas around Kadioglu and Gomez.
Wieffer slipped a clever ball in for Gomez, whose cut-back found Hinshelwood again in space, only for the midfielder to blaze over soon after his goal. Gomez later turned provider for Kadioglu, who struck the post as the Seagulls pressed for a second.
On the left, De Cuyper’s role became clearer: not a traditional winger, but a high, creative presence combining with Kadioglu to drag markers around and open lanes. On the right, the introduction of more orthodox wide players changed the picture again.
A flurry of substitutions brought Ibrahim Osman and Zadok Yohanna into the game. Both offered direct running and width, immediately looking lively and giving Albion a different angle of attack compared to the first half’s more patient probing.
Solid base, new left-sided threat
While the attacking tweaks caught the eye, the platform behind them stayed firm. Bart Verbruggen produced one sharp save in each half from Nicolo Carbiaghi to preserve another clean sheet and underline his calm authority.
In front of him, Luka Vuskovic and Boscagli again looked a composed pairing during the first period, reading danger well and keeping Bologna’s threat largely at arm’s length.
The bigger story, though, lay on the left. With Mitoma and Minteh out, this final friendly hinted at the solution: De Cuyper asked to offer a different sort of menace, less about raw pace, more about timing, combinations and clever passing from advanced positions.
Albion leave pre-season with a narrow win, a settled goalkeeper, and a back line that looks increasingly assured. More importantly, they have proof they can hurt teams from wide areas even without their headline wingers.
The real question now is whether this improvised wide blueprint holds firm when the games start to count.
