Ipswich Town 1 West Brom 2: Rodriguez and Barnes send Baggies second

Jay Rodriguez and Harvey Barnes scored as West Brom saw off struggling Ipswich Town 2-1 at Portman Road.

Rodriguez opened the scoring after 26 minutes and Barnes capped a swift break 13 minutes from full-time.

Kayden Jackson pulled one back for Paul Lambert’s men with five minutes to go but it could not prevent the Baggies moving up to second in the Championship – ahead of the remaining weekend fixtures – while Ipswich remain five points adrift at the bottom.

The visitors had already wasted an excellent chance to open the scoring, Ahmed Hegazi volleying wastefully wide after 23 minutes, before Rodriguez struck.

Matt Phillips’ deep cross eluded those in the box but found Kieran Gibbs and he headed back across goal for Rodriguez to tap in.

Barnes hit the post either side of two further chances for Rodriguez before West Brom finally got the second goal their pressure deserved, although it demonstrated perfectly why Ipswich are facing a fight to stay up.

The hosts’ Teddy Bishop completely fluffed a corner, allowing Phillips to break. The former QPR winger picked out Barnes and he fired inside Bartosz Bialkowski’s left-hand post.

Jackson set up an interesting finish, capitalising on a slip up from Tosin Adarabioyo, and Ipswich could have snatched an unlikely point deep into stoppage time when Jack Lankester’s free-kick clipped the outside of the post.

FULL-TIME | Town 1 @WBA 2

Blues beaten at Portman Road. pic.twitter.com/VKwn6ODz23

— Ipswich Town FC (@Official_ITFC) November 23, 2018