West Brom 2 Coventry 1 - Report

Carlos Corberan's hosts opened up a 2-0 half-time lead through Mikey Johnston's sixth-minute stunner and a lovely team goal finished by Grady Diangana 10 minutes before the break.

And it looked like plain-sailing for the hosts until Sky Blues substitute Haji Wright halved the deficit with a penalty 18 minutes from time to set up an edgy finale on the week US investor and entrepreneur completed his takeover from Guochuan Lai.

But Albion managed to keep the visitors, who are ninth and pushing for a play-offs [place themselves, at arm's length for the most part despite nerves around The Hawthorns late on as they opened up a seven-point gap to seventh until tomorrow, at least.

Rivals Norwich and Preston, both seven points behind, are in action at 3pm on Saturday with six-pointers of their own against Sunderland and Hull, respectively.

Corberan will focus on his own side and toast a return to winning ways at home after defeat to Southampton two weeks ago. The narrow victory backed up four good points since on the road.

It wasn't the most convincing victory of the season but the Baggies deserved their win against an off-colour City side. In Johnston and Diangana there were two important goalscorer and two nice goals. The only sour note of the night was the sight of first-choice left-back Conor Townsend hobbling off with a knock in the second period.

The Baggies head on their travels for another two away fixtures on Wednesday and Sunday at QPR and Huddersfield, respectively, and will look to build on their current momentum.

Corberan resisted the option to rotate his ranks and selected exactly the same starting XI and 20-man squad that earned the creditable point at Hull last weekend.

That meant veteran Dutchmen Erik Pieters, 35, added to his run of four games in 11 days with a deserved stay in the centre of defence. The head coach also kept skipper Jed Wallace as an unconventional striker ahead of Johnston, Diangana and Tom Fellows.

Mark Robins was more inclined to tinker after a Monday FA Cup win over non-league Maidstone. The away boss made five changes and, interestingly, a rare change to a defensive five.

The Hawthorns sounded in the mood early on - ramped up by the return of The Liquidator - and the home fans only had to wait six minutes for the opener from their side, and a fine one at that

Not a lot looked on when the ball found Johnston on the left touchline. But before right wing-back Milan Van Ewijk knew it he had been nutmegged and Johnston tore into the box. He sent Josh Eccles the wrong way before a belting right-footed finish into the far corner.

It was a third goal in five games for the on-loan Celtic ace and another picture-book finish like at Plymouth not so long ago.

Fittingly, barely 60 seconds after the restart, all four sides of The Hawthorns rose in appreciation and support for Tony Mowbray, former Baggies and Sky Blues boss and Birmingham chief who is battling illness. Mowbray is loved and respected by both clubs and that shone through in the moment.

The script wasn't totally written, though, as Coventry - who have wobbled with some dropped points of late - threatened to hit back.

Wasteful striker Ellis Simms, formerly of Everton, dragged wide when well-placed and couldn't reach an inviting header before Kasey Palmer fired over. Midfielder Palmer then went closer from range as he curled narrowly wide.

Coventry went closest to an equaliser through Josh Eccles after a smartly-worked short corner but the midfielder could only curl across goal from the edge of the box. Alex Palmer dived but wasn't required.

The away fans were just taunting their hosts for making little noise and, seconds later, the home fans got the on-field spark they craved.

It was a lovely team goal to settle any jitters for Corberan's men. Okay Yokuslu and Darnell Furlong were patient with the ball as it was worked right and eventually fed Tom Fellows.

The winger - like opposite colleague Johnston - had his wing-back on toast. Jay Dasilva was ghosted beyond and Fellows' low cross was on the money for Diangana to side foot first-time into the bottom right corner from six yards. His accurate effort kissed the inside of the post for a first goal since late December prior to AFCON.

Credit too, skipper Wallace in the goal. He smartly allowed the ball to pass him in the box for Diangana to finish.

Robins threw caution to the wind at the interval by sending on striker Haji Wright for attacking midfielder Callum O'Hare, who had been ineffective.

A constant theme remained that all the visitors; threat came from distance. Palmer was the main source and struggled to find his range. The midfielder's one effort on-target was straight at namesake Alex in goal, as was Torp's strike in the box in space.

Albion still held their two-goal lead and looked content without creating much. Diangana headed over with a few harmless deflected strikes thrown in to boot.

Townsend limped off with 25 minutes to go as the head coach introduced Adam Reach and John Swift. Nathaniel Chalobah and Andi Weimann followed moments later.

But inside the final 20 minutes the visitors made their territory count and Kipre made his first error in judgement of the night in catching Palmer in the box for a clear spot-kick. Kipre knew it.

Sub Wright stepped up to send Palmer the wrong way for a potential big finish as nerves jangled around The Hawthorns.

City tails were up as Simms was played in by Palmer but shot wastefully over as Pieters screamed at his colleagues to recover.

The hosts were unconvincing for the final 10 minutes or so plus stoppages. They were at times guilty of some sloppy possession and inviting Coventry on. Eccles shot wide from 25 yards as Albion, despite stoppage-time jitters, held on with relative ease for what felt a key win.

Albion (4-2-3-1): Palmer; Furlong, Kipre, Pieters, Townsend (Reach, 65); Yokuslu (Chalobah, 69), Mowatt; Fellows (Bartley, 80), Diangana (Weimann, 69), Johnston (Swift, 65); Wallace (c).

Subs not used: Griffiths, Ajayi, Pipa, Marshall.

Coventry City (5-2-2-1): Wilson; Binks, Latibeaudiere (c), Thomas; Van Ewijk, Eccles, Torp, Dasilva; Palmer, O'Hare (Wright, 45); Simms.

Subs not used: Collins. Kelly, Kitching, Bidwell, Godden, Tavares, Lusala, Andrews.

Attendance: 24,839 (1,980 Coventry fans)

Referee: Lewis Smith