Roy Hodgson admits there is no better way to celebrate his first year in charge of the Baggies than beating Wolves 5-1 at the Molineux.
A hattrick from Peter Odemwingie, a debut goal from Keith Andrews and a Jonas Olsson volley cancelled out Steven Fletchter’s strike as Albion run ragged in Staffordshire.
The Baggies dominated from the first whistle until the last in arguably their finest Premier League performance.
"It's certainly up there with the best performances we've had while I've been here," said the head coach.
"There have been some good ones during that time.
"We've put a few bad records, which have seemed to dog us for years and years, to bed - like the wins at Villa and Stoke.
"There have been lots of good occasions but it was good to win today in an important derby game.
"It was also good to play well.
"The reason we won was quite simply that we had a very good day, played some good football and created lots and lots of goal chances.
"Their goalkeeper, Wayne Hennessey, was probably an outstanding Wolves player, which says everything about our performance."
The Molineux fixture coincided with Hodgson’s arrival at The Hawthorns exactly a year ago. The former Liverpool boss’ first game in charge was against Albion’s fiercest rivals when Carlos Vela equalised in stoppage time to rescue a point.
But today’s game highlighted how much the Baggies have progressed under Hodgson. "I couldn't have got a better anniversary present!" he said.
"It's been a very nice year and I've enjoyed it very much.
"I'm very proud of the way the team has performed here at Molineux.
"And I also think we've been very unlucky since the start of 2012.
"In our home matches in particular, we haven't played that badly but results have gone against us time and time again - often in strange ways.
"It was nice to put all that behind us today with another good win.
"I think it is very important now the team takes a lot of confidence and heart from our performance because Wolves are a very difficult team to beat.
"They are a good team and the only reason they lost is because we played well.
"It wasn't that they did that badly.
"Hopefully, we can start forgetting about how many points we are away from the relegation zone and start wondering how far we are from the top ten."