Leicester City 1 West Bromwich 2: Beattie bags a belter to keep Albion looking up

Midlands post-codes and distant top-flight traditions are all these clubs currently have in common. West Bromwich Albion, even with nine players injured or suspended, again looked the finished promotion article on a foul afternoon on which their supremacy was more pronounced than their reliance on an 88th-minute winner would suggest.

They remain the Championship's leading scorers and are playing the best football outside the Premier League, their aesthetic qualities contrasting sharply with the demeanour of their manager.

Along with the purest of principles and a talented squad now considered to be his, Tony Mowbray possesses the look of an insomniac with raging toothache. You wouldn't want to hear him describing a relegation battle.

Staying up is much more on the agenda than going up for Leicester City, who have won only three home games in all competitions in 2007. Yet their manager Ian Holloway is compulsive listening.

"What I didn't know when I arrived was how down the players were," he said. "I didn't gauge the depths of despair on and off the pitch. I've been here 14 days and I'm worn out. I lost it with the players on Thursday because it was starting to affect my energy levels.

"I don't like depressing atmospheres. They need my encouragement and energy. There was no confidence among them. But they haven't had anything to be positive about at this club for a long, long time.

"I had four different boards and Paladini at QPR. Milan Mandaric is a kitten compared to that. I'm meeting him [today] about who we get in. I'm also getting calls from agents around the world. Players want to come here. I had to beat 'em up, drug 'em and drag 'em down to Plymouth."

Leicester desperately need a spark. Apart from Patrick Kisnorbo's brilliantly saved first-half header, they failed to trouble Albion's debutant keeper Luke Steele until Marton Fulop's huge drop-kick and Iain Hume's borderline challenge brought a disputed and undeserved equaliser. Albion, leading for half the game through Zoltan Gera's header and with Shelton Martis and Jared Hodgkiss given first Championship starts, still had time to plunder a terrific curled winner from their substitute Craig Beattie.

Kevin Phillips and Ishmael Miller, among others, are now challenging for comebacks and promotion should follow if Albion avoid the sort of self-destruction that brought about their defeat against Coventry City last week.

"To be honest, I would swap my goal for a tap-in because I definitely need to add that to my game," said Beattie after deciding the 100th meeting of these clubs. "I just can't find it at the moment. I have to keep working on sniffing out strikers' goals. This one's just a bonus."

Goals: Gera (32) 0-1; Hume (75) 1-1; Beattie (88) 1-2.

Leicester City (4-3-3): Fulop; Stearman, McCarthy, Kisnorbo, Mattock; Wesolowski (King, 40), Kenton, Clemence; Chambers (Hayes, 60), Cort, Hume. Substitutes not used: N'Gotty, Sheehan, Odhiambo.

West Bromwich Albion (4-3-3): Steele; Martis, Barnett, Pele, Hodgkiss; Koren (Chaplow, 78), Greening, Teixeira; Gera, Bednar (Beattie, 72), Brunt. Substitutes not used: MacDonald, Tininho, Worrall.

Referee: M Russell (Hertfordshire).

Booked: West Bromwich: Martis.

Attendance: 22,088.

Man of the match: Greening.