West Brom made it eight games without defeat as they pulled further clear of relegation trouble by beating Preston 2-0 in the Championship at Deepdale.
Josh Maja showed great composure in the 11th minute to strike the Baggies ahead and Daryl Dike came off the bench to seal the game with a decisive 77th-minute finish.
Interim boss James Morrison’s stint started with defeat to Oxford but since then the Baggies have not been beaten, in stark contrast to the reign of former manager Eric Ramsay, who failed to win any of his eight Championship matches in charge.
And this latest success leaves West Brom five points clear of danger with three games to play, albeit with the threat of a points deduction looming over them.
Josh Maja celebrates after opening the scoring for West Brom at Preston
Albion nearly took an early lead when George Campbell met Callum Styles’ fourth-minute corner with a header that was blocked in a crowded penalty area.
But they were ahead when Maja emphatically slammed the ball beyond Daniel Iversen after Aune Heggebo inadvertently found his strike partner having miscontrolled Isaac Price’s incisive pass to him in the box.
Preston’s woes were compounded as Ben Whiteman injured himself attempting to tackle Price in the build-up to the goal, trying to atone for giving the ball away in the first place, and Jordan Thompson had to come on as an early substitute.
There was a lot riding on this match for the visitors and they looked the livelier of the two teams with Iversen doing well in the 25th minute to get his body in the way of Price’s wicked goal-bound cross.
Preston’s first chance of note came around the half-hour mark as Alfie Devine glanced Andrew Hughes’ enticing cross wide from a good position.
North End’s lethargic display perhaps reflected the fact that there was nothing riding on the game other than pride, but the half-time introduction of Thierry Small for Andrew Moran was Paul Heckingbottom’s way of trying to conjure a reaction from his players.
They did start brightly after the interval with Max O’Leary unorthodoxly juggling Daniel Jebbison’s improvised close-range effort to safety in a crowded penalty area.
In the 56th minute, Brad Potts’ goalbound header forced O’Leary to adjust his position and tip the ball over the bar as the wing-back gambled on Hughes’ cross to the back post.
Shortly after, though, Maja could have had his second as he met Callum Styles’ low delivery but fired straight at Iversen from the centre of the box.
Preston’s brief reprieve was all but forgotten when Dike, who had only been on the pitch for seven minutes, smashed past Iversen from six yards, applying the finishing touch to Jayson Molumby’s cut-back.
Hughes ballooned over from close range in stoppage time before Lewis Dobbin headed wide Small’s excellent cross when it looked easier to score but West Brom held out for a priceless win.
The managers
Preston’s Paul Heckingbottom:
“Really disappointing today. One of the worst (performances of the season). If you get outfought like that (in the first half), that cannot happen. You can get beat but not like that.
“I’m not taking anything away from West Brom. They’ve got good players, a good squad and we’ve got no right to beat them but I expected us to turn up and compete.
“One of the two disappointments was the fact we were outfought in the first half and the fact that everything we prepared for, we didn’t execute.
“Sometimes, if you can’t give the players a solution then you’re culpable but we knew what we were going to face and for some reason we didn’t do well.”
West Brom’s James Morrison:
“I thought it was a top performance. The goals came at the right times in the end. The first one was when we started really well.
“We got our rewards with a good bit of play and a great finish and then we controlled the game really well without being overstretched. When we had to defend the box, we defended it really well.
“I always feel confident with Josh that if he gets a chance, he will score, and then Daryl’s performances have been really good.
“He’s just been unlucky at times with chances that he’s had but that tops (his) hard work so I’m delighted with him because he’s an important part of the group.”
