West Brom moved to within a point of the Championship play-off spots when they brushed aside Preston at The Hawthorns.
Lilywhites goalkeeper Freddie Woodman made a fine save before beating OK Yoxlow’s powerful 20-yard drive which found the bottom corner.
John Swift crashed a long-range shot over the bar within two minutes of coming on as a second-half substitute as the hosts continued to threaten.
Swift then pounced when Preston won possession outside his own box and played in Yoxlow, who fired in his second to seal a seventh win in eight matches.
The result takes Carlos Corbyn’s record to seven wins and six clean sheets in nine games since replacing Steve Bruce in October, a run that has lifted Albion from second bottom to ninth.
The resurgent Baggies were roared to a fourth successive home win by a sold-out Hawthorns, and gradually dominated the first half, with only the woodwork and a superb Woodman keeping them at bay.
Jed Wallace cut into the box to guide Woodman a shot against the far post, and moments later forced the Preston keeper into a perfectly acrobatic save with a curling long-range effort.
Woodman then stuck out a right hand to somehow keep out a powerful close-range strike from Brandon Thomas-Assante, and then pulled off a double save from Wallace’s deflected effort and Thomas-Assante’s follow-up.
The dam finally burst when Yokoslow beat the 25-year-old with a smart finish, and when the Turkish midfielder doubled the lead with half an hour remaining, the Baggies looked certain winners.
Preston arrived with the second-best away record in the Championship, 21 points from 11 outings, and almost pulled one back when Alastair McCann’s flick came back off the post, but they were well beaten.
West Bromwich Albion head coach Carlos Corburn told:
“I thought the team played really well from the first minute to the 80th minute.
“For the last 10 minutes we didn’t control the game enough, we allowed them to take some free-kicks and set-pieces, which we stopped for the first 80 minutes, but I thought the team’s performance in attack and The defense was outstanding today.
“It’s obviously positive when the opposition’s goalkeeper is the best player because it means the team is creating a lot of things.”
Preston North End boss Ryan Lowe told:
“I thought they [West Brom] were very good, but in terms of them being very good, we weren’t quite on it with or without the ball.
“We had a spell in the first half where we were moving the ball around and creating moments and getting the ball in our final third, and in the second half we came out and rallied a bit.
“But you can’t give a team that’s in form two golden chances, which we did.
“We knew it was going to be a difficult evening because of the form they are in, but we wanted to stay positive and believe we could get something out of it. In the end it wasn’t because we He was gifted two goals.”
