Saido Berahino came off the bench to inspire West Bromwich Albion to a 2-0 win over struggling Crystal Palace on Saturday.

Berahino replaced the injured Billy Jones after 31 minutes at the Hawthorns and the Burundi-born England Under-21 striker opened the scoring just before half-time.

It was Berahino's sixth goal of the season in all competitions and the 20-year-old's second in the Premier League following his strike at Manchester United in September.

Gareth McAuley bagged the second goal for Albion in the closing stages as Steve Clarke's team won for the third time in the league this season.

Palace, still managerless following Ian Holloway's departure, remain bottom of the table after their seventh successive defeat and their ninth loss in 10 league matches this season.

The visitors had threatened first when Adlene Guedioura collected the ball from Marouane Chamakh's flick-on and cracked a shot inside the box that Boaz Myhill managed to parry at his near post.

But Guedioura then collided with Myhill moments later and appeared to take a knee to the chest.

Having been down for some time receiving treatment, the Algeria international was carried from the pitch on a stretcher, with Jason Puncheon replacing him.

Around 10 minutes later Albion were forced into an early substitution of their own as Jones, nursing an apparent hamstring problem, came off for Berahino.

And it was the substitute who broke the deadlock in the 44th minute.

Collecting the ball from Chris Brunt on the left, Stephane Sessegnon found the space to drift into the Palace box and provided a cutback for Berahino, who took one touch with his right foot before finishing with his left.

Palace tried to hit back in the second half and after Myhill pushed a deflected Puncheon shot behind, Mile Jedinak connected with Jerome Thomas' corner but sent his header narrowly wide.

At the other end, Dean Moxey made a superb last-ditch tackle to take the ball away from Shane Long, who had looked set to score following good work from Berahino, before Brunt steered an effort just wide.

West Brom's second goal finally arrived in the 83rd minute when defender McAuley crashed in Brunt's cross.