AS soon as the final whistle had blown at The Hawthorns, while the majority of red shirts celebrated together at one end, Tony Pulis walked towards the travelling fans and fist pumped the air and applauded them.

Then, moments after that, the Boro players had their moment together in from of the team’s joyous support, before match-winner Britt Assombalonga took a little longer to savour his moment with the supporters on his own.

It has been a strange old season this for Assombalonga. Not only has he had the constant talk of him being available for transfer, he has barely started games – and yet he has still managed to find the net 11 times.

Fifteen league starts is not what you would expect for a record £15m buy and, even though he has just hit another two goals to seal three points at West Bromwich Albion, he is still not certain to start against Leeds United in the Championship on Saturday.

Yet once again, just like he did in the Midlands by hitting the winner from the bench at Birmingham City, Assombalonga has proven he has the quality and confidence to score what is required to keep Middlesbrough in the promotion mix.

Not only does he have a proven goal record, he has also shown he possesses the pace and power in the final third that Pulis had regularly spoken about finding during the January transfer window. He might not be the winger the boss craved, but he does bring a different dimension to the way Middlesbrough play.

It is the reluctance to play such players from the start of the games that has frustrated Middlesbrough supporters, and Pulis is aware of such criticism because he has had to endure similar at the majority of clubs he has been at. West Brom being one.

But West Brom’s fans, who never warmed to his ways during just under three years as the Baggies boss before leaving in November 2017, were left silenced in the end by a Pulis team that ended up scoring three times against them.

“Supporters have got to do what they’ve got to do,” said Pulis. “I met a group of supporters on Friday night who were very complimentary and again on Saturday morning so there will be people who like you, people who don’t like you and I think that’s life.

“Supporters pay their money, they wanted to move on, they wanted to do things differently and that’s fine by me.

“I had a great time here, got great memories, I think we beat all the top teams, got to the quarter-finals of the cup, the last season we finished tenth and should have finished eighth, we had a poor run-in.

“There’s a lot of good things for me to look back on and take a lot of positives out of it. That’s life, you have to take it on the chin, people like you, people don’t like you.”

In many ways Middlesbrough’s fans are similarly dubious about Pulis’ methods. Particularly at home there is a real sense they can turn on him because of a failure to deliver more positive results and goals at the Riverside.

This trip to West Brom should have impressed all the fans because Darren Moore’s side are a team more than capable of bouncing straight back to the Premier League and play with plenty attacking intent.

Rather than witness football that “will send you to sleep” or is “shit” – like the West Brom supporters regularly taunted the visiting boss – this was more an entertaining affair that warmed up the freezing temperatures gripping the country.

“No it doesn’t feel sweeter because of where this win was, not at all, it feels sweeter because of our supporters, nothing to do with the Albion supporters or anything like that,” said Pulis.

“That was for our supporters, for turning up and getting behind the team. I feel like we need to win every week. My thoughts after the game turn to Newport now on Tuesday night. That’s the way I am, that’s the way I’ve always been. The important thing is the players understand that they’ve got to give everything in every game.”

That is why Pulis is frustrated, because he knows how contrasting his team’s home and away form is, even if the fans blame him for the fact Middlesbrough have now won more games on their travels (7) than they have at the Riverside (6) and similarly lost one more by the River Tees (3) than they have on the road.

In defeating West Brom, who started the day three points above them and a place, the confidence should be flowing again after the disappointment of having to accept there would be no further additions to the squad – despite the departures of Grant Leadbitter and Danny Batth.

Pulis got his tactics nailed on against an attack-minded Baggies. George Saville’s 16th minute opener arrived courtesy of a ploy to press high when Moore’s men tried to play out from the back.

With Lewis Wing and Mo Besic pressing the full-backs, and Jordan Hugill on the toes of the centre-backs, goalkeeper Sam Johnsntone tried to play a pass into midfield to Gareth Barry. Saville nipped in, took the ball and drilled an excellent left-foot finish inside the bottom right corner.

The shame from a Teesside view was that West Brom levelled three minutes before break after the visitors had defended strongly. There was no midfielder close to Rekeem Harper when he volleyed a half clearance from Aden Flint back into the area, where Jay Rodriguez was on hand to turn in at the back post.

And when Newcastle loanee Dwight Gayle’s distance drive deflected in off the far post just after the hour, it looked like West Brom would go on to win. Assombalonga, introduced immediately after that goal, had different ideas.

Within 12 minutes he had levelled, with a lovely left foot finish inside the far post after creating space for himself in the area by turning and darting beyond his man.

Then with seven minutes to go, he was handed possession in the area when substitute Chris Brunt, a graduate of Middlesbrough academy 15 years ago, gifted possession to the striker with his first touch.

Assombalonga moved the ball to his left, creating an opening for himself to power a sweet finish beyond Johnstone’s diving, outstretched arms to seal a hugely impressive three points. Not bad for a team short of options and lacking ambition after an unsuccessful window ...

Pulis said: “The window, and all the nonsense, is closed now, everyone can concentrate on settling down and getting on with the job. It’s been a negative period because we didn’t bring anyone in, it was real negativity around the place.

“That’s why I went to supporters at the end, they were here in their numbers, and it was a thank you. They were fantastic. There has been a lot of negativity because the club hasn’t had a go, not getting promoted … you have just seen the players out there wanting to get promoted.

“Britt should have had a hat-trick and I have just told him that and that nearly killed him. But Britt’s part of the group and he’s a big part of the group. He did well and scored two good goals.”

It was a happy return for Pulis, who had not been back to The Hawthorns sine leaving in November 2017. He might want to go back and put up with the criticism every week, this was his sixth straight win there as an opposing boss.