Steven Reid's first goal for West Bromwich Albion moved them another step closer to promotion as Coventry City's lingering play-off hopes suffered a potentially fatal setback following a 1-0 defeat at The Hawthorns.
Reid, who is on a month's loan from Blackburn Rovers, made the decisive breakthrough in the 22nd minute as Albion recorded a fifth successive victory - their best run since 2004.
The win, also a seventh successive victory at home, once again opened up an eight-point advantage for Albion over third-placed Nottingham Forest and pushed them just two points behind leaders Newcastle United.
The defeat for Coventry was only their second in seven games, but it leaves them eight points away from the play-offs with just seven games remaining.
But they had enough of the play to have taken something from the game - especially in the second-half - and Jon Stead will know he should have done better with the golden chance that fell to him in the 62nd minute.
The on-loan Ipswich Town striker was picked out just six yards from goal by a neat cross from Sammy Clingan but flashed his shot wide to sum up a frustrating evening for Chris Coleman's side.
Coventry, who had battled back from 2-0 down in their previous game at Leicester City to salvage a point, had created the better of the early chances when Clingan saw his free-kick flash just wide and Stead had a low shot saved by Scott Carson.
Albion had not really forced Keiren Westwood into a save before Reid struck the key blow as Coventry paid the ultimate price for failing to deal with a Chris Brunt corner.
Abdoulaye Meite just failed to covert Brunt's centre with a header before Reid pounced with a neat angled finish from six yards.
Albion thought they had doubled their advantage four minutes before half-time when Robert Koren met a Graham Dorrans free-kick from six yards.
Koren's shot looked to be over the line before Westwood got to it but the assistant referee thought otherwise.
After that near miss, Albion struggled to threaten again with Koren and Ishmael Miller seeing their efforts deflected wide as Coventry dominated affairs after the interval only to fail to turn that possession into a goal.