West Brom continue late resurgence

Cape Town - West Brom have now gone four games unbeaten in the Premier League after a 1-0 win over Newcastle at St James Park on Saturday, to stave off relegation for another day.

On a day in which defeat would have seen their relegation to the Championship confirmed, West Brom dug deep and started strongly.

While Newcastle were appealing for an apparent foul on Dwight Gayle on the edge of the area, the Baggies took full advantage by launching a counter attack through Salomon Rondon. The Venezuelan teed up James McClean beautifully, but the winger snatched at the chance, pulling his shot wide of goal.

Around the half hour mark the visitors began to pile on the pressure with Rondon and Matt Philips both going close. The Baggies did not waste their period of pressure and found the breakthrough on 29 minutes.

Jake Livermore reacted well to snap up a loose ball in midfield before lobbing a beautiful ball over the defence for Phillips, who took a touch before sliding the ball into the back of the net to make it 1-0.

However, their performance dipped instantly after the goal and it was abundantly clear that they were now only interested in protecting their lead. Newcastle almost responded straight away with Kenedy smashing a shot against the post.

The chances began to come thick and fast for the hosts with Mohamed Diame slicing a shot wide and Dwight Gayle denied by a fantastic save from Ben Foster before the break.

After half time, the Baggies had a brief resurgence but it was mostly the hosts in the ascendancy throughout the rest of the match, to little or no effect unfortunately.

The frustration of the home fans began to become audibly clear as they watched their side frivolously try to restore parity before ultimately running out of ideas and resorting to route-one tactics.

With Newcastle's place in mid-table relatively assured, this match definitely meant more to West Brom and it showed, but they can still count themselves very fortunate to walk away from St James Park with three points.