Hughes absence puzzles Megson

Hughes scored 14 times for Coventry last season

West Brom boss Gary Megson has revealed his surprise that his team will not be facing former striker Lee Hughes in the Premiership this season.

Fans favourite Hughes was sold to Coventry for £5m last summer after failing to agree a new contract at the Hawthorns.

Hughes signs for Coventry

The Baggies elected to sell the prolific marksman rather than risk losing him on a Bosman free when his existing deal expired 12 months later.

Hughes continued to hit the target at Highfield Road last season but remains in the First Division while his old club enjoy life in the top flight.

And that surprises Megson, who expected the 26-year-old to have been snapped up by a leading club.

He said: "I really thought he was a massive asset to this football club, a better player than I thought.

Injuries to Jason Roberts hit West Brom's goals tally

"Lee moved on to Coventry and scored something like 15 goals in a side that supposedly struggled.

"I think Lee would be an asset to any Premiership side and I was surprised that no Premiership team came in for him last year.

"From my own point of view, I didn't want Lee to go at all."

Megson added that, despite winning promotion, West Brom missed Hughes last term, particularly when fellow forward Jason Roberts was hit by injury.

"Our goalscoring was not as good as we would have wanted last season because Lee had gone and Jason was injured for 90% of the time," he admitted.

"Those two accounted for 60% of our goals the season before, although we still managed to score 62 last season, which was the 12th best in Division One, so we were not that bad."

Megson made an unsuccessful bid to bring Hughes back to West Brom on loan while Roberts was out injured.

Coventry reject Hughes loan

The former Kidderminster player scored a total of 79 goals in 137 league games over four years at the Hawthorns.