West Brom's John Swift scores a second goal to secure victory over Oxford
West Bromwich Albion moved back into the Championship play-off places with a well deserved victory over Oxford United at The Hawthorns.
Alex Mowatt's early strike, a composed finish after a slick through pass from Isaac Price, put the Baggies in front in a game they dominated from start to finish.
But it took a second, deep in stoppage time from John Swift, to finally confirm the result as the U's were undone on a counter attack searching for an equaliser.
Victory for Tony Mowbray's side, a third in seven games since he took over in January, moved West Brom back up to fifth in the table and showed they are tracking in the right direction.
In complete contrast, the result provided further evidence that the bounce delivered by Gary Rowett's appointment at Oxford in December has flattened, with this defeat a sixth league game without a win.
More worryingly the goals have dried up, with Rowett's side scoring just once in their past six games.
With Oxford winning just one game away from home all season the travelling support will have experienced an all-too familiar sinking feeling when they fell behind after just 11 minutes.
Mowatt's goal, a left-footed finish from seven yards after the impressive former Everton academy product Price delivered neatly into the right channel, was deserved after a bright and dominant start from the Baggies.
However, despite dominating for the remainder of the first half and bulk of the second, increasingly nervy Baggies fans had to wait until the 11th minute of stoppage time, to be sure of the points.
With 22 shots to five from the visitors, the statistics told the story but for all the vibrant performances across the Baggies' front end, they were wasteful with the chances created.
The best of them came in the second period, Mowatt going close to doubling West Brom's and his own tally when firing a superb shot from 25 yards only for Jamie Cumming to tip it over the upright at full stretch.
Price and Mikey Johnston joined in by clearing the crossbar when they might have done better, while Darnell Furlong should have put the match beyond Oxford only to lose his footing with the goal at his mercy after Price cut back from the byeline to the far post.
As it was, Oxford ensured an uncomfortable end, pushing hard for an equaliser and having what looked a good shout for a penalty when Swift appeared to have blocked a shot with his left arm eight minutes from the end of normal time.
Swift may have been fortunate and, after Baggies weathered that storm, he got lucky for a second time. With Cumming joining the U's attack deep into stoppage time, West Brom broke on a rapid counter-attack.
Tammer Bany, on for his Albion debut, kept his head to feed Swift, who drove towards an unoccupied Oxford goal, and rolled the ball home.
'We need to be more clinical' - reaction
West Brom manager Tony Mowbray speaking to BBC Radio WM:
"I haven't seen the stats yet but I can't remember our goalkeeper making a save. Theirs didn't make enough saves either though and that is something we need to address.
"You can't keep having 20 plus shots and only having five on target, you have to increase the efforts on goal. We need to keep working on that and be more clinical.
"We would like to have killed the game off pretty soon into the second half and we talked about that in the dressing room. Ultimately it said it was 2-0 but it was probably a little bit tighter than that.
"It was nice for the team to get their rewards."
Oxford United manager Gary Rowett speaking to BBC Radio Oxford:
"Away games at places like this are a real challenge for a team like us. I think the second goal you can almost forget that because we were throwing everybody forward but at 1-0 they had control of the game too easily.
"I thought we spent too long trying to build play in a nice way and today it was kind of a nice performance in some ways where we needed a little bit more of an edge about us.
On the late penalty shout: "I have watched it again and it is a blatant penalty. Cammy [Brannagan] shoots and the lad's arm ends up stretched out with a little bit of a kink in it and it catches him on the bicep and the ball diverts.
"If you see seven players jump straight up instantly for a penalty I don't know what the referee said, I'll have a word with him in there. But I am disappointed we didn't get that."
