Poppy season is over so that means it's the time of the year that James McClean moves on from his part-time gig as a hate-figure for the British far right and actually gets down to showing everyone why he's a very useful Premier League footballer.
After dropping down to the Championship with a dire Wigan side things could have turned sour for the Ireland winger. However, he's battled away and got his move back to the top division and this weekend against Spurs he really showed why he deserves to be there.
A man of the match display according to the West Brom fans and a first goal for the club, it was exactly the kind of performance that McClean needed. However, as tends to happen, there was a little something extra to talk about.
The Match of the Day panel, and Ian Wright in particular, were less than enamoured with the tackle that saw McClean let Moussa Dembele know he was there, to put it lightly.
Although McClean was defended by Albion assistant boss Dave Kemp, who called it 'a perfectly good tackle', Tony Pulis has opted for another, slightly more realistic, tactic when asked for his thoughts on the challenge.
The challenge, second half, is reckless and he shouldn’t do that, because he doesn’t need to do it. Everybody knows he’s a tough kiddy and he’s an honest lad as well but he’s got to be careful.
Despite that tackle, Pulis was delighted with McClean's performance and with more tackles than any other West Brom player, it's no surprise that he's managed to win over the Hawthorns crowd.
He’s become a great favourite here. The supporters like every challenge he goes into and every time he picks the ball up. He’s having a really good spell in his career.
With the Euros on the horizon all we can say is long may it continue and let's just hope he doesn't lose too much of that niggle that makes him such a fan favourite.
