TWO thousand eight hundred and one Tony Browns – one of them real – six goals and three strikes from Somen Tchoyi.

So much for a drab end-of-season beachwear fest.

Anyone expecting Albion and Newcastle to be wrestling over the sun-loungers clearly had another game in mind as the two sides completed their campaigns with a stirring contest.

Punch after punch was thrown.

Albion were down. They came back.

This was supposed to be the drab affair that gets 30 seconds at the end of Match Of the Day.

Thankfully not.

Yet it was a feast of football by two sides worthy of their Premier League status.

It was a fitting way for both clubs to complete their respective campaigns.

Had anyone suggested 12 months ago that the title holders and runners-up of the Championship would both be safe on the final day of the following season then it would have been fanciful. To say the least.

The very fact that both Newcastle and Albion could effectively trade blows of pride is testament to the clubs. Both made managerial changes, both sides made modest improvements to their squads following promotion last season.

Albion made a few changes yesterday. Jerome Thomas was on the bench, Simon Cox too – though he is on Ireland duty this week. Peter Odemwingie was presumably enjoying a sunday roast at his mother’s house in Moscow. It was the chance for the likes of Tchoyi and Marc-Antoine Fortuné to put forward their case. End-of-season dirge it wasn’t.

On the pitch there was early intensity, certainly from the home side.

It took just three minutes for Scott Carson to be tested. Paul Scharner was played into trouble by James Morrison allowing Shane Ferguson to dart forward. The Newcastle man’s shot was ambitious, failing to trouble the Albion keeper.

At the other end Jose Enrique was very lucky not to be punished in the eighth minute.