EPL: Newcastle 0-1 West Brom
Matt Phillips celebrates scoring for West Bromwich Albion during at St. James Park
West Brom lived to fight another day in the Premier League with a 1-0 victory over Newcastle at St. James' Park.
Matt Phillips' 29th-minute strike proved enough to overcome a lacklustre Newcastle outfit as Darren Moore extended his unbeaten run as Baggies caretaker to four games.
Newcastle struck the post and saw Ben Foster pull off a stunning save to keep a Dwight Gayle header out in a frustrating performance, although they will take comfort from the fact their top-flight status is secure.
The same, however, cannot be said for the Baggies, whose end-of-season rally looks to have come too late to prevent relegation.
Victory leaves them with a glimmer of hope of avoiding the drop but Swansea can seal their fate if they beat Chelsea on Saturday evening.
With both teams struggling to assert themselves in the opening exchanges, it took until 17 minutes for the first effort on target, Gayle drawing a save from Foster with a pop shot from 20 yards.
From there on, though, the Baggies steadily grabbed the initiative, spurning two chances before finally breaking the deadlock as Jake Livermore's lofted pass released Phillips and he clinically fired past Martin Dubravka.
Newcastle so nearly found an immediate response as Kenedy played a neat one-two with Ayoze Perez to get in behind the West Brom defence, but his low, toe poke clipped the outside of the post on 34 minutes.
Newcastle pushed hard for an equaliser before the break but Mohamed Diame saw his attempt to convert a Florian Lejeune knockdown deflect behind for a corner from which a wonder save from Foster clawed Gayle's goal-bound header away from goal.
Newcastle returned with much greater intensity but continued to look vulnerable at the back with Rodriguez mis-hitting a 53rd-minute attempt from Phillips' knockdown and Rondon slicing wastefully wide from Livermore's pass eight minutes later.
Chris Brunt whistled a long-range effort just wide with 21 minutes remaining, but the Magpies continued to pile forward in search of an equaliser as substitute Joselu headed wide on 85 minutes.
As their hopes of a comeback faded, frustration appeared to get the better of Newcastle, with Islam Slimani kicking out at defender Craig Dawson in an ugly incident which could yield more severe consequences.