West Brom 0-1 Stoke: Tyrese Campbell winner sees Potters stun out-of-form Albion
- Published
Tyrese Campbell (second left) scored his fifth goal in his past 10 appearances
Championship leaders West Bromwich Albion squandered the chance to go four points clear at the top as relegation-threatened Stoke City held on for victory at The Hawthorns.
The Potters pulled off the best win so far of new manager Michael O'Neill's brief reign after Tyrese Campbell's early goal lifted the lowly Potters four points above the bottom three.
Hampered by the early loss of on-loan creative influence Grady Diangana, the Baggies were blunted by a disciplined defensive display from the visitors.
Albion simply did not create enough good chances and, when they did threaten, too many shots were off target and England international goalkeeper Jack Butland was in commanding form.
Despite losing Campbell on 26 minutes with a hamstring injury, his fifth goal in nine league games was enough for the Potters to continue this season's record of winning when the 20-year-old scores.
Slaven Bilic's side ought to have done better with a string of chances, going closest when Matheus Pereira fired a free shot across the face and wide in first-half injury time. But, by then, Stoke were already visibly growing in confidence following their ninth-minute goal after Nick Powell fed Tom Ince, who squared for Campbell - son of former Albion, Arsenal and Everton striker Kevin Campbell - to find the bottom corner from 12 yards.
And Stoke might even have won by more, as substitute Lee Gregory should have done better with a softly hit angled shot from 10 yards - and Bruno Martins Indi made home keeper Sam Johnstone go full length to save.
Albion's third defeat of the season leaves them still just a point clear of second-placed Leeds - and only five clear of the chasing pack now, when at one time the top two looked like they were threatening to run away.
For Stoke the victory was an astonishing transformation from the performance put in by the then managerless Potters against Albion in November in a game the Baggies comfortably won 2-0.
But it says everything about their improvement under O'Neill that they have now won as many league matches as the Baggies since then - six in 13 games.
West Brom boss Slaven Bilic told BBC Sport:
"This is no time to panic. A mini-crisis, yes. Hard times, yes. But we knew it was going to be no easy ride. We are still top of the league. We have to embrace the challenge and show the right character.
"We were nervy in the first half. There wasn't enough bravery. In the second half we improved but the quality wasn't there
"We had 16 shots but only four on target. You have to take more advantage of the sort of possession we had. But it's hard to create when teams are defending so deep, and left us having to rely on crosses.
"Grady Diangana's injury is another hamstring. The same leg. We will have to wait and see how he responds."
Stoke City manager Michael O'Neill told BBC Sport:
"It's a massive three points for us. We knew we'd have to defend a lot of balls coming into our box. But we coped with it well.
"Albion are a big physical team but we competed well in the middle of the pitch. Joe Allen and Sam Clucas were great for us and our two wide players had good games too.
"And in the end it was us who had the best chance of the second half.
"Tyrese Campbell took his goal well. He was a threat down the middle for us. But credit for Tom Ince for setting him up. Tyrese felt his hamstring go tight and he had to come off. But getting him off as quick as we did may help him."