Bristol City moved into the Championship play-off places with victory at West Bromwich Albion.

Early goals from Anis Mehmeti and Ross McCrorie put the visitors in control despite West Brom creating several first-half chances themselves.

The hosts applied pressure after the break and searched throughout the second half to get on the scoresheet.

They did eventually pull a goal back through Ousmane Diakite's header from a corner with five minutes of normal time left.

Albion forward Karlan Grant struck the bar from the very last kick of the match as Bristol City held on for their third consecutive Boxing Day victory to move up to sixth in the table, while the Baggies stay 16th.

Much last week's 2-0 win over Middlesbrough - during which Boro had 71.5% possession and 28 shots - the stats suggested that Gerhard Struber's side had it far from their own way in the West Midlands.

Ryan Mason's Baggies conjured an expected goals of 2.36 compared to City's 0.74 and had the same number of touches in the box as the visitors during the first half (8), yet it was the Robins who ended the opening period two goals up.

After suffering their 10th loss of the season last week at Hull, Mason said that Albion "didn't take our chances when we got them in the first half", and the former Tottenham caretaker boss was left ruing similar issues as they ended the match with 16 shots and the majority of possession (64.5%).

City's Mehmeti opened the scoring in the fourth minute with a low effort from distance that crept through a crowded area and past a static Joe Wildsmith.

The Robins then doubled their lead when wing-back McCrorie lashed home at the near post following a swift move across the pitch.

Albion had chances before the break, with Robins keeper Max O'Leary making key saves to deny Diakite and Isaac Price.

Albion dominated even more in the second half with City seemingly happy to sit off and finally broke through when Diakite headed in from Mikey Johnston's corner for his first Baggies goal.

Grant then went close to snatching a point when he slashed the ball against the crossbar following a corner in what was the final play of the game.

West Bromwich Albion head coach Ryan Mason told BBC Radio WM:

"To concede the [first] goal, it's clearly offside. It completely changes the energy. It disrupts us and that's a big challenge to overcome.

"We have a massive opportunity very soon after, a two-on-one against their keeper, and we don't take it and then a clear red card, five yards from the referee, that he chose not to send the player off for a really dangerous elbow that's probably broken Cal's [Callum Styles] nose.

"It was a poor challenge, really poor, dangerous, reckless. We had a player sent off last week for not touching the opposition, and it wasn't rescinded either.

"So that seems to be the way at the minute, those types of things. It seems ok to make these decisions against us and we'll probably get our 10th email in a couple of days saying there were a couple of massive mistakes again.

"The players responded? Yes. Did we create opportunities? Yes. Did we have loads of penalty box action? There were opportunities but we need to take them."

Bristol City head coach Gerhard Struber told BBC Radio Bristol:

"I would say this was, again, a big fighting victory, how we invested and tried to bring everything out to pick up points here.

"As we know from the last few weeks they give nothing away points-wise and we know we have to come today [be] on our ball for energy, but also efficiency.

"In both directions, the boys were really committed, in all directions against the ball. We were also in on-the-ball moments, especially in the first half, really efficient but also really creative."

"I think this [efficiency] is something where we're growing at the moment and now the key word is consistency."