West Bromwich Albion stayed top of the Championship table after a late Hal Robson-Kanu winner at Middlesbrough.
Middlesbrough had the pick of the chances in an uneventful first half with George Saville seeing his effort cleared off the line by Kyle Bartley.
But Robson-Kanu was on hand to put the league leaders in front, tapping the ball in at the back post following a goalmouth scramble.
And the Baggies held on to move two points clear of second-placed Leeds.
West Brom had gone into the international break at the top of the Championship after a fine performance to defeat Cardiff 4-2 at The Hawthorns.
But they were disjointed at the Riverside with Middlesbrough nearly opening the scoring at the end of a cagey first half, as Sam Johnstone saved Britt Assombalonga’s header and Bartley cleared Saville’s rebound off the line.
At the other end, Matheus Pereira attempted a spectacular overhead-kick from Grady Diangana’s cross but Darren Randolph was equal to it before Johnstone parried a stinging effort from Jonny Howson as both sides improved at the start of the second half.
Boro had a golden chance to open the scoring 15 minutes from time, but Saville smashed the ball over following Ashley Fletcher’s cutback.
And it was West Brom who the left with all three points thanks to Robson-Kanu, while Boro dropped to 21st.
West Brom boss Slaven Bilic told BBC WM:
“We were okay in terms of (the) quality we created. But I wasn’t happy with that, we brought them back into the game for a spell when they had a few corners. And that got the crowd back.
“So at half-time I said this is not us. (We need to) raise the tempo. And we (did that).
“It was going to happen, that we were going to create (chances) with the quality we have on the front foot. And that’s what happened (when we scored).
“It’s a brilliant win for us to be fair.”
