Stoke City 1-0 West Brom - Nick Powell winner ends table-topping Baggies' unbeaten run
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Nick Powell has now scored six goals in eight games this season - the last four in successive matches
Nick Powell scored the only goal of the game as Stoke City beat previously unbeaten Championship leaders West Bromwich Albion.
It looked like being one of those nights in the Potteries when Michael O'Neill's men outplayed the visitors but could not find a way through.
Jacob Brown hit the post in the first half, then Mario Vrancic hit the bar in the second, before Sam Johnstone twice made great saves in quick succession from Sam Surridge, the second of them from the penalty spot after the Albion keeper had brought down the striker.
But on 79 minutes the Potters finally created one piece of real magic for their deserved winner on a night when Albion boss Val Ismael admitted that Stoke were the best side they have faced so far this season.
Tommy Smith latched on to a mis-hit pass from Conor Townsend to float a chipped ball through the inside-right channel - and Powell ran on to lift a perfectly weighted lob over the marooned Johnstone.
Stoke climb to third on the back of their best performance of the season in front of their biggest crowd of the season, 22,703, although that was swelled by the noisy 2,886 travelling Albion fans who made such an occasion of it.
The Potters eventually won it largely thanks to another superb performance from Powell, who, at 27, now looks to be a real class act compared to the teenage Crewe Alexandra hopeful who Manchester United risked £3m on more than nine years ago.
It was Powell who created Stoke's first great chance when he put Brown clean through, only to see his team-mate outfox keeper Johnstone but also find the base of the post. Seconds later, fit-again Joe Allen fizzed a right-foot follow-up just wide.
Jacob Brown's early miss was the first of two Stoke efforts against the woodwork
And, although Albion's Callum Robinson had a powerful left-foot volley straight at home keeper Adam Davies, he was also involved in an incident at the other end.
Stoke thought they had scored when Darnell Furlong, trying to clear the danger back to his keeper, arced a low diving header into the corner. But referee Tim Robinson had already blown his whistle for a supposed foul on Robinson, who appeared to have gone very easily to ground, earning a loud, sustained chorus of booing.
Summer signing Vrancic was next to go close after the break when he floated a left-foot free-kick over Johnstone, which bounced back off the bar.
From Powell's low second-half cross, the Albion keeper then denied Surridge from close range - before there came an even better chance.
Semi Ajayi cleared a goal-bound shot almost from off the line and, in the melee that followed, Surridge was adjudged to have been brought down by Johnstone.
The Albion keeper dived to his right to save Surridge's poorly struck penalty kick with his feet.
In between, Albion had gone close to snatching it themselves when captain Jake Livermore poked just wide in a late scramble triggered by one of Furlong's long throws,
But it was Stoke who had the last laugh as Powell's winner rubberstamped their promotion credentials, lifting them within a point of top spot going into the latest international break.
What's next?
By then Albion may have been overtaken by both Bournemouth, who are level on goal difference ahead of Saturday's home game with Sheffield United, and also fourth-placed Fulham, who are two points off top spot going into the lunchtime away fixture with Coventry.
The Baggies are next in action in the local West Midlands derby at home to Birmingham City on Friday 15 October, while Stoke's next game is the following day at Bramall Lane against the Blades.
Stoke City manager Michael O'Neill told BBC Radio Stoke:
"It's a happy dressing room and we deserved to win but we may have made it harder work then necessary with all the missed chances.
"I felt we dealt with everything they threw at us. I didn't feel were going to lose a goal. But Nick Powell pops up with that bit of quality again.
"The system we play suits Nick Powell. He's very receptive and disciplined. When he plays like that there is a responsibility as a team to get the ball to him in those areas and he'll always cause problems. And it was a great assist from Tommy Smith. He's enjoying it at wing-back and is really offering us something in an attacking sense.
"We have to keep the fans coming back. Our home form has been excellent and at times the place was rocking. We have won five and drawn one here - and the fans are a big part of that."
West Brom boss Val Ismael told BBC Radio WM:
"I don't know if it was tiredness but we just weren't good enough. We didn't match the performance we put in against Cardiff. Stoke are the best team we have played so far and they deserved to win.
"We tried to play but we lost the ball. It's as simple as that. After that you need to run after it. We made too many mistakes and we have to learn from it. We lost too many balls in the pocket.
"We did not create enough chances and did not keep the ball in the danger areas. We hesitated a lot in many areas. That is the reason why the performance was average.
"We need to give 100 per cent all the time. You see the quality in the Championship and we need to raise the quality. We need to recover and prepare for the next game against Birmingham. And Alex Mowatt has a foot injury that we have to check on."
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