West Bromwich Albion held on to beat Crystal Palace 3-2 at The Hawthorns on the weekend.
Tony Pulis' Baggies skipped away to a three-goal lead inside 31 minutes before conceding twice late as Alan Pardew's Eagles mounted a comeback.
Craig Gardner gave Albion the advantage in the 12th minute when he followed up Salomon Rondon's initial effort, which had been saved by Wayne Hennessey, to slot home from close range.
The lead was doubled eight minutes later through Craig Dawson who sent home a bullet header from Gardner's free-kick before Saido Berahino added a third in the 31st minute with a brilliant left-footed volley from Stephane Sessegnon's floated cross.
Palace pulled one back three minutes into the second half when Connor Wickham pounced on a calamitous error from Jonas Olsson before flicking a bouncing ball over an onrushing Ben Foster before coolly finishing with a side-footer from an angle.
With 10 minutes remaining, Wickham reduced the deficit to just one goal with a sublime volley but in the end, it wasn't enough for the visitors.
The Baggies moved up to 13th on the table with their second win on the trot as Palace dropped to 14th having extended their winless run to 10 matches.
MATCH OVERVIEW
West Bromwich Albion: 3 (Craig Gardner 12', Craig Dawson 20', Saido Berahino 31')
Crystal Palace: 2 (Connor Wickham 48'/80')
The Hawthorns, West Bromwich - 24,806
TALKING POINTS
- Can a win like this rally West Brom and see them clear of a relegation battle?
- How do Palace get a win? They desperately need one before they drop into the mire.
WHAT'S NEXT?
West Brom head to league leaders Leicester on Tuesday as Palace prepare to visit Sunderland on the same day.
TWITTER INSIGHT
Deserved win last night, hope the fans enjoyed that. Onto the next #BoingBoing#GlorytoGodpic.twitter.com/JaqSTPE6h1
— Saido Berahino (@SBerahino) February 28, 2016
QUOTES CORNER
West Brom boss Pulis on the importance of Berahino:
"He's got wonderful ability and, as I keep saying to him, God's given him a gift and he should be squeezing the life out of that gift to show everybody how good he is.
"If you take (Jamie) Vardy out of Leicester's team and you take (Harry) Kane out of Tottenham's team, then it would be interesting to see how many points they had. Saido is that important to us."
Palace's Pardew on attempting to mount a comeback:
"We knew they were going to come out of the blocks and we just didn't deal with it. Luckily half-time came.
"At 3-1 we should have had a penalty and that would have come at a crucial time.
"I've been in that situation before when I was 4-0 down at Arsenal (as Newcastle boss) and we came back to 4-4. It kind of gave me that memory."
STATS SPECIALS
*Thanks to Opta
2 - In his 240th Premier League appearance, Craig Gardner has scored and assisted in the same game for the first time. Dig.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 27, 2016
2 - WBA have scored 3+ goals in a PL game for only the second time in their last 59 attempts. Bonanza.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 27, 2016
2 - Connor Wickham has scored more than once in a PL game for the first time since April 2014. Technique.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 27, 2016
