West Bromwich Albion 1-0 Reading: Baggies beat Royals with Callum Robinson strike

Callum Robinson's second-half strike was his fourth Albion goal of the season, but his first since August

West Bromwich Albion made it back-to-back Championship wins as they scored the only goal of the game to beat Reading.

The Covid-hit Baggies only played after being refused permission by the English Football League to postpone the fixture.

But Callum Robinson got the winner on 62 minutes to cement the Baggies' place in third - and extend the Championship's only unbeaten home record to 11 matches.

Following Karlan Grant's run, Robinson fired deftly in off the underside of the bar. It was his first goal for Albion since August, when he netted in three successive games, although he has scored six times for the Republic of Ireland (including a hat-trick in a friendly against Qatar) since then.

Albion - missing defenders Matt Clarke Semi Ajayi and Conor Townsend through coronavirus and midfielder Grady Diangana through illness - wasted chances.

Robinson was the main culprit, although Reading's former England striker Andy Carroll twice rescued his side before the break with headed clearances off the line.

But Robinson got the goal that mattered to move Val Ismael's side within three points of second-placed Bournemouth, who lost 2-0 at home to Blackburn.

Albion had opportunities to make the scoreline more resemble their overall authority over a Reading side missing Andy Yiadom, John Swift and Danny Drinkwater due to injury.

Visiting skipper Liam Moore nearly registered an own goal with a sliced clearance, Robinson headed just wide and Alex Mowatt fired straight at keeper Luke Southwood, who also kept out Robinson's curler at full stretch.

But a second straight victory, on the back of a winless four-game run, looks to have got the Baggies back on course before next Friday's trip to Oakwell when boss Ismael will face his struggling former side Barnsley for the first time since leaving for The Hawthorns in the summer.

Reading remain 21st, just two points clear of danger, having won just two of their past 20 games going into next Saturday's home match against Luton Town.

West Bromwich Albion boss Val Ismael told BBC Radio WM:

"A real team spirit performance. Togetherness. A desire to overcome the current situation.

"We had a very difficult week. Every day there were players testing positive one minute and negative the next. Staff members too. We tried to postpone the game but the EFL forced us to play.

"As soon as we heard that the EFL said we have to play, we were focused. We controlled the game throughout. And we should have scored more goals. 13 shots on target."

Reading boss Veljko Paunovic:

"Overall, it wasn't a bad performance but it was definitely not the result we were looking for. We missed important players.

"We had a lack of power. There were some good individual performances but we need to put all the pieces together

"We have no time or room for negativity. We are where we are and we know why we are where we are. We also know what we have to do."

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