West Brom have five more hurdles to clear if they are to seal a return to the Premier League but Slaven Bilic will hope they do not make life as difficult as they did here in their quest to get over the line. Some slapstick defending ensured six goals and chances aplenty in a preposterously open and ill-tempered game, in which Ahmed Hegazi was sent off late on.
Hull, fighting for their lives at the other end of the table, were never out of a frenetic contest until the substitute Grady Diangana completed the scoring 15 minutes from time, after home goals by Hegazi, Charlie Austin and Kamil Grosicki.
Middlesbrough’s defeat at home to Queens Park Rangers meant Hull would remain above the relegation zone regardless of the result and goals from Kevin Stewart and Mallik Wilks twice hauled them level in a topsy-turvy match.
But Diangana stepped off the bench to clinically open up a two-goal cushion and restore West Brom’s five-point buffer to third-placed Brentford, who were breathing down their necks after five successive victories.
Albion have aspirations of toppling Leeds at the summit but, as exciting as his team were going forward, Bilic conceded they looked jittery.
“The pressure is on us and Leeds,” he said. “The teams below us are hoping [we slip up]. But we have to cope with it and we wouldn’t swap places with any of them. We have to be more brave, more relaxed but in a positive way. But we feel that pressure, more than we should. At times we played with fear.”
West Brom will welcome Derby to the Hawthorns on Wednesday while Hull, who recorded their first league victory since New Year’s Day in midweek, will travel to Bristol City with renewed belief despite conceding 18 goals in their last six matches.
Before kick-off here a montage of motivational messages from supporters played out on the big screens but it was Matheus Pereira who gave West Brom the impetus with a hat-trick of assists. For the first goal Austin benefited from a slice of good fortune, with Stewart dangling a leg at Pereira’s arrowed cross and inadvertently deflecting the ball into the path of the striker, grateful of the gift on his 31st birthday.
QPR inflicted a second straight defeat on Middlesbrough to keep Neil Warnock’s side in the bottom three, thanks to Jordan Hugill’s 32nd-minute effort.
The forward endured a difficult loan spell at hometown club Middlesbrough last season and came back to haunt them with a superb effort from 30 yards.
It would prove Hugill’s last action of the afternoon after he appeared to injure himself while firing the R’s ahead, but the visitors held on to secure a 1-0 victory which moves them up to 13th and keeps the home side in the relegation zone.
Rhian Brewster and André Ayew kept Swansea in the race for a play-off berth with a 2-1 home win over Sheffield Wednesday.
After a goalless first half, Steve Cooper saw his side take the lead through on-loan Liverpool forward Brewster when he pounced quickest after 52 minutes from Connor Roberts’ cross.
The Swans doubled their advantage 14 minutes later when Ayew fired home from the penalty spot after Roberts had been fouled by Adam Reach.
Atdhe Nuhiu pulled one back for Garry Monk’s team at his old club, but it was too little, too late and the hosts sit eighth and four points behind rivals Cardiff in sixth.
Stewart then atoned for his error, thumping in a shot from the edge of the area after a corner, the ball going in off Austin.
Bilic threw his hands up in the air in exasperation throughout, never more intensely than when Wilks headed in just after the break for Hull’s second equaliser, Hegazi having powered home a Pereira corner eight minutes before the interval.
West Brom had wasted a flurry of chances towards the end of the first half to put the game out of sight, with Rekeem Harper blazing over and Austin failing to convert a Conor Townsend cross, but Grosicki, who arrived from Hull in January, slotted in a third after a delicious pass by Pereira, who was primed to get on the scoresheet himself only for Jordy de Wijs to intervene superbly.
Only the bottom club, Luton, have conceded more goals than Hull and it was abundantly clear why, but West Brom were also frail defensively. Sam Johnstone, the West Brom goalkeeper, superbly denied Jon Toral with a fingertip save, while Wilks’s pace and trickery caused an unconvincing West Brom defence numerous problems, Hegazi picking up his second booking in the final moments.
“This cannot happen any more,” said an angry Kyle Bartley, the West Brom defender, as Hull poured forward with promise. The chances kept coming for the visitors until Diangana’s cool finish calmed the nerves.
Bilic was upbeat:“Not only seven goals in two games but the number of chances and the way we scored the goals, it was us back on track.”
