West Bromwich Albion delivered a knockout blow to Stoke City in their 2-1 win at The Hawthorns on the weekend.
Tony Pulis' Baggies came up with an injury-time winner from Jonny Evans to down Mark Hughes' Potters who were searching for three Premier League victories in a row.
The opening goal came for Albion on the hour-mark when James Morrison found Stephane Sessegnon in space with a superbly slipped ball and the attacking midfielder duly rocketed into the roof of the net giving Jack Butland absolutely no chance.
Stoke responded in the 81st minute when Jon Walters got on the end of fellow substitute Joselu's clever lofted ball to head home past Boaz Myhill.
Two minutes later and the visitors were reduced to men when Geoff Cameron was questionably sent off for a push on Claudio Yacob after the midfielder had caught him with a heavy tackle.
The Baggies took advantage of the having an extra man and produced a last-gasp winner when centre-back Evans supplied a poacher's goal from an errant ball across the six-yard box to send the West Midlands outfit up to 12th with a second straight win.
For the Potters, remain 10th have accumulated 29 points in 20 matches.
MATCH OVERVIEW
West Bromwich Albion: 2 (Stephane Sessegnon 60', Jonny Evans 90+3')
Stoke City: 1 (Jon Walters 81', red card: Geoff Cameron 83')
The Hawthorns, West Bromwich - 23,218
TALKING POINTS
- West Brom fight until the end to get another home win. They are now nine points clear of the bottom three as Pulis looks towards the top half.
- Stoke harshly done by with the red to Cameron. It was needless but the contact was minimal and Yacob made the most of it.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Albion look ahead to the 3rd round FA Cup clash with Bristol City on Saturday before travelling to Chelsea for the league fixture next Wednesday.
Stoke are next up against Liverpool in the Capital One Cup semi-final first leg on Tuesday, then meet Doncaster Rovers in the FA Cup on the weekend before hosting Norwich City in a vital league match next week.
TWITTER INSIGHT
Get in Johnnyyy!!! What a finish to the game and what a great week!!
— Victor Anichebe (@VictorAnichebe) January 2, 2016Lads were excellent today again.. Great win #boingboing
— James McClean (@JamesMcC14) January 2, 2016Yesterday wasn't a good day for us, but now we have to focus on what's next. We need to give 100% for @CapitalOne_Cup semifinal. #SCFC
— Bojan Krkic (@BoKrkic) January 3, 2016
QUOTES CORNER
West Brom boss Pulis on the result:
"Irrespective of whether it's against Stoke or anyone the most important thing is three points and back-to-back victories. It's a busy period and we have gone into the game without four players.
"To put in a performance we have done without four major players is fantastic."
Stoke's Hughes on the red card:
"We weren't too happy with the reaction of the lad Yacob to be perfectly honest. I thought he has gone down with the intention of maybe getting Geoff sent off and unfortunately for us that's what he's able to do."
