West Brom hit back to move six points clear
West Bromwich Albion strengthened their grip on automatic promotion with a third win in succession after coming from behind to beat Reading.
Slaven Bilic’s side were better throughout, but had to do it the hard way after Reading had led through George Puscas’s early penalty. They showed skill and composure in abundance, twice striking the crossbar and creating numerous good chances as they asserted their dominance.
But goals from the outstanding Matheus Pereira and a header from Kyle Bartley, who had handled to concede the penalty, were enough for another precious victory ahead of Nottingham Forest’s visit to the Hawthorns on Saturday. It leaves West Brom six points clear of thirdplaced Fulham.
“The key is not to talk about points or a gap or anything like that. There’s a long way to go,” Bilic said. “We limited them to few situations. We kept them away from our goal.
“The only negative is that, after the second goal, we should have put this game in the bag. But we are a good team with the ball. We are shooting, we are causing panic for the opposition.”
West Brom were lively early on, before surprisingly falling behind. Filip Krovinovic burst from midfield to fire in a shot which slithered beneath Rafael Cabral and deflected up on to the crossbar in the seventh minute.
Two minutes after that escape, Reading were given a penalty when Bartley inexplicably handled from a corner. Matt Donohue pointed to the spot and Puscas sent the goalkeeper the wrong way.
West Brom instantly sought a response and many of their supporters thought they had scored when Pereira’s free-kick curled into the side-netting.
Pereira did not have long to wait to make his mark. The lively Brazilian darted in from the right and scored at the second attempt after Cabral had stopped his initial effort.
West Brom side turned the screw at the start of the second half. They struck the woodwork again with a 20-yard shot from the impressive Callum Robinson. Then, Bartley atoned for his earlier error as he looped a header into the net from Krovinovic’s deep cross.
Reading did not fold and Mark Bowen’s side thought they had equalised via Yakou Meite’s late header but the linesman raised his flag for offside. It is seven league games without a win for Reading, having had an excellent run over Christmas to pull clear of danger.
“We’ve got to win a game. It’s been too long since we’ve won,” Bowen said. “I thought the team gave me everything they could give. Slaven said that they were the ones crying for the final whistle.”