West Brom 2-1 Sunderland: Romelu Lukaku deal good for everyone, says Steve Clarke

Lukaku, who is on a season-long loan from Chelsea, scored from the spot on 35 minutes after Craig Gardner was adjudged to have handled Liam Ridgwell’s cross inside the area before seizing on defender Titus Bramble’s poor backpass to net his 12th goal of the season.

Stephane Sessegnon halved the deficit with just over 10 minutes remaining, but it wasn’t enough to stop Steve Clarke’s side securing their first home win since beating Norwich by the same scoreline back in December.

“Like I said on many occasions this year we are just delighted that he chose to come here and further his education in the Premier League,” Clarke said.

“It’s been good for us, it’s been good for Rom and I think it’s probably be good for Chelsea as well.”

Lukaku was replaced by Peter Odemwingie with a little over 10 minutes left to play.

And there was a stark contrast between the standing ovation that greeted the two-goal hero and the boos for the player making his first appearance in a West Brom shirt since his on-off transfer to Queens Park Rangers in January.

Clarke added: “For me it’s finished. I don’t like talking about it. It’s an incident that happened, it seems to be a long time ago and we have to move on from it, I think everybody should move on.”

For Sunderland it is now four games without a win in the the league leaving Martin O’Neill’s side just five points clear of the relegation zone.

“Overall, we should draw a lot of comfort from today,” the Mackems manager insisted.