West Bromwich Albion 0-2 Swansea City: Piroe and Christie strike for visitors

Joel Piroe's goal was his 15th of the season as Swansea completed a first league double over West Brom since the 2011-12 campaign, when the sides were in the Premier League and the Swans were managed by Brendan Rodgers.

West Bromwich Albion's miserable run continued as Swansea City further hit their fading promotion hopes with a deserved 2-0 win at The Hawthorns.

Cyrus Christie then fired home with a powerful effort with six minutes left.

Callum Robinson twice hit the post for West Brom, who are still looking for a first win after five games since Steve Bruce took charge.

The Baggies were a fixture in the play-off berths earlier this term, but continue to slide off the promotion pace and are now 13th, eight points off the play-off spots, while Swansea rise to 16th.

West Brom's season has gone from bad to worse in recent weeks, but boss Bruce made just one change to the side which started Tuesday's 2-1 defeat at Middlesbrough with Robinson replacing Karlan Grant.

Russell Martin made three alterations to the Swansea side beaten 4-0 at Sheffield United nine days ago with Kyle Naughton - returning after a month out with a thigh problem - and Hannes Wolf returning from injury, and Michael Obafemi recalled in attack.

This was a contest between two sides in wretched goalscoring form and that proved to be the decisive factor in a game lacking in incident, with both goalkeepers largely afforded a quiet evening, which should not have been a surprise.

West Brom had failed to score in their previous two Championship games at The Hawthorns and had only found the net once in the previous six games.

The stats on the road for Swansea were equally poor, scoring only once in six away games in 2022, so it was somewhat predictable that neither side created a clear chance in a sluggish opening 20 minutes.

The hosts thought they had taken the lead on 21 minutes with the first clear chance of the contest, but Robinson's header hit the post after Dara O'Shea's cross. It was as close as Albion would come to scoring.

A flat atmosphere and a lack of chances meant a lack of intensity in a first half in which it took Swansea a full 40 minutes to create an effort.

Matt Grimes curled just wide of goal from 25 yards before Sam Johnstone saved Christie's header - the Swans' first attempt on target - and easily stopped Jamie Paterson's weak effort.

The hosts did not manage a single shot on target as the game moved past the hour mark, but Swansea could not take advantage with Piroe's fierce shot hitting the outside of the post.

However, it was Swansea who were beginning to apply serious pressure in search the win.

Obafemi missed a great chance to break the deadlock when he headed Ryan Manning's fantastic cross over the crossbar with 20 minutes remaining.

Shortly after he prodded wide from Wolf's cross as Swansea looked every bit like a side who had failed to find the net in over seven hours on the road.

The hosts finally managed a first shot on target on 74 minutes, but substitute Quevin Castro's shot lacked power, before Robinson's clever curling effort from 20 yards struck the outside of the post as the forward struck the woodwork for the second time.

The miss proved decisive as Swansea finally found a moment of quality with substitute Olivier Ntcham's run and cross teeing up Piroe, who slammed the ball home from 12 yards.

It was a deserved goal for the Swans and they made the points safe when Christie controlled and powered the ball into the net after West Brom failed to cut out Wolf's cross from the left.

West Brom registered just one shot on target in the match and boos rang out from the Baggies fans as the final whistle sounded.