It was Charlie Austin who spoke in the week about West Bromwich Albion’s final push for promotion not needing to be ‘pretty’ in any way, shape or form.
There was no need for a beauty contest, just performances that hauled them over the line. Clearly his team-mates were listening.
There were moments of ugliness here, not least in defence as Hull City were twice allowed to equalise and threatened often, but the Baggies got the job done in the end.
MATCH FACTS
West Bromwich Albion (4-2-3-1): Johnstone; O’Shea, Hegazi, Bartley (c), Gibbs (Townsend 36); Sawyers (Livermore 62), Harper (Diangana 72); Pereira, Krovinovic (Brunt 72), Grosicki; Austin (Robson-Kanu 62)
Substitutes not used: Bond (GK); Furlong, Ajayi, Robinson
Manager: Slaven Bilic
Scorers: Austin 4; Hegazi 37; Grosicki 49; Diangana 76
Booked: Hegazi, Bartley
Sent off: Hegazi
Hull City (4-2-3-1): Long; Pennington, De Wijs (c), Burke, Da Silva Lopes; Samuelsen (Lewis-Potter 46), Stewart (Batty 72); Wilks, Honeyman, Toral (Scott 90+2); Magennis (Eaves 66)
Substitutes not used: Ingram (GK); Tafazolli, MacDonald, McLoughlin, Jones
Manager: Grant McCann
Scorers: Stewart 24; Wilks 48
Booked: Toral
Referee: Oliver Langford (West Midlands)
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Five points ahead of the relentless Brentford, five matches to play.