West Bromwich Albion boss Roy Hodgson hailed Somen Tchoyi's contribution in the derby win over Aston Villa.

He praised Tchoyi for picking up the baton so admirably after replacing the injured Shane Long (knee) in the 19th minute.

"Somen did well when he came on," said Hodgson.

"To be fair, he was a bit unlucky to lose his place to Peter because he and Shane were very good against Wolves last week. Peter came on for an important 15-minute cameo at the end of that game.

"But Somen had done the bulk of the work in 70 minutes and had done it very well. So, he was a bit unlucky to lose his place in the team, I thought.

"He got it back quickly enough, though, and luckily he carried on from where he left off the other day.

"Somen played well, held the ball up for us well, and he is a handful for defenders - there is no question about that.

"I'm rather hoping this year he'll have a major breakthrough in Barclays Premier League football."