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Bristol City's third goal from defender Jack Hunt was the summer signing's first for the club

Bristol City were made to hang on nervously to beat West Bromwich Albion as the Championship promotion race took another twist at Ashton Gate.

Play-off hopefuls City stunned Albion by going 3-0 up inside 19 minutes with goals from Josh Brownhill, Andi Weimann and Jack Hunt.

But Dwight Gayle headed home to reduce the deficit two minutes into the second half, before strike partner Jay Rodriguez also netted on 74 minutes.

That set up a frantic final 20 minutes, but the closest Albion came to levelling was when home keeper Max O'Leary dived to his left to keep out Kieran Gibbs' header.

That edged City up into fifth, five points behind fourth-placed managerless Albion, who went down to a second defeat inside four days under their caretaker boss, first-team coach Jimmy Shan.

Since losing four in a row in November, in-form City have lost just three times in 22 league matches.

Early goals cost Albion at Ashton Gate

Without suspended Egyptian defender Ahmed Hegazi, the Baggies looked all over the place at the back right from the off and barely a minute had gone when City went in front with a goal created by a catalogue of Albion errors.

From a poor back pass by Kyle Bartley which put goalkeeper Sam Johnstone under unnecessary pressure, the Albion keeper cleared his lines but only as far as Jake Livermore.

The midfielder was then caught in possession by Marlon Pack, allowing the ball to skew into the path of Brownhill. And, after he fed Weimann to his right, he then got a return ball back which he controlled neatly before firing right-footed through the legs of both the desperately sliding Craig Dawson and Johnstone.

Stunned Albion then conceded two more in the space of three minutes.

From Brownhill's long throw on the right, Rodriguez's headed clearance went straight back to him and the City man simply nodded it back across towards the near post where the alert Weimann stuck out his left foot to divert the ball over the line, again through Johnstone's legs.

And there was worse to come for the visitors when, after his first cross from the left was only half cleared, Jay Dasilva cut back onto his right foot and his wickedly dipping far-post cross evaded Conor Townsend, allowing Hunt to soar behind him and head home his first goal for the Robins.

Two minutes into the second half, the Baggies got one back when Gayle headed home Stefan Johansen's free-kick to make it four goals in as many league appearances against City. And, from Gayle's long throw flicked on by Dawson, Rodriguez also netted from close range.

But City held their nerve to claim only a second win over Albion in their past 10 meetings, while the Baggies went down to a third defeat in four away matches, having won eight out of nine prior to that.

Bristol City head coach Lee Johnson told BBC Radio Bristol:

"We blew them away in the first 20 minutes and I was delighted with the application, aggression, attitude and skill.

"We had a couple of warning shots after that, you see their bits of quality, and then it became tense when we conceded so early in the second half.

"Credit to the players and also to the fans, who kept us going when there were a few tired legs out there. Everybody deserved that in the end."

Albion caretaker boss Jimmy Shan told BBC WM:

"We gave ourselves far too much work to do. After 19 minutes, you find yourselves 3-0 down and at the side of the pitch you're thinking 'what else can go wrong?'

"We said at half-time that we needed a reaction and this group of players has an unbelievable ability to take on board information and execute to the best of their ability. They did that really well in the second half.

"Looking at the stats, we had one less shot than them and one less shot on target, so it's fine margins - not to dismiss the nature of how we conceded the three goals.

"That wasn't acceptable and, against any team at any level, you give yourselves a massive task."