Tony Pulis made a triumphant return to the Britannia Stadium as Stoke City paid a heavy price for having two players sent off in the space of six crazy first-half minutes.
Ibrahim Afellay and Charlie Adam both saw red for off-the-ball incidents and Pulis’s West Bromwich Albion took advantage to claim their first Premier League win of the season.
It was Albion’s record signing, Salomon Rondon, who repaid a proportion of his £12 million fee by heading home the winner in injury time at the end of the first half.
Though the outcome rarely looked in much doubt after the dismissals of Afellay and Adam, Albion - again without the unsettled Saido Berahino - struggled to press home the fact that they had a two-man advantage for almost an hour and had to survive some anxious moments before securing the win.
It was Pulis’s first time back at the Britannia Stadium, but the win maintained his 100 per cent record against Stoke since he parted company with the club in 2013.
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The game was barely two minutes old when Xherdan Shaqiri made the first impact of his home debut, delivering a menacing cross from the left that was crying out for a decisive touch before Charlie Adam was fractionally too high with a long-range effort.
Stoke continued to carry the greater threat in the opening stages and Glen Johnson’s penetrating run paved the way for Adam to deliver a pinpoint cross onto the head of Mame Diouf, but he directed his close-range effort straight at goalkeeper Boaz Myhill.
Having soaked up plenty of pressure in the opening stages, Albion then gained encouragement on two counts as first James Morrison forced an excellent reflex save out of Jack Butland and then the home side were reduced to ten men when Afellay was sent off.
The former Barcelona winger reacted to a tangle with Craig Gardner by raising his hand to the Albion defender, and Michael Oliver deemed it a red-card offence.
If anything, though, it was Stoke who went closer to breaking the deadlock when Gareth McAuley got in a tangle with an attempted clearance but then recovered his composure to head over the bar when Diouf seemed poised to head home from close range.
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Oliver incensed the Stoke fans again on the half-hour when he brandished his red card again, this time to Adam, after his assistant had spotted the Scotland international catch Craig Dawson on the thigh with his studs, which the officials decided was a stamp.
Pulis wasted no time in throwing on Rickie Lambert in place of Yacob to give Albion more firepower up front and Stoke immediately found themselves on the back foot.
After Butland had made a couple of relatively comfortable saves from long-range efforts, the visitors struck right on the stroke of half-time when Lambert whipped in a cross which gave Rondon a gilt-edged opportunity to open his Premier League account with a header from close range.
Pulis was taking no chances after that boost to Albion’s hopes of a first win of the season, withdrawing Gardner, who had received a yellow card after the clash with Afellay.
The visitors continued to dominate possession after the break and went close to a second when Darren Fletcher’s shot from the edge of the box deflected off Geoff Cameron and rolled inches past Butland’s left-hand post with the ‘keeper a helpless onlooker.
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Despite the odds being stacked against them, Stoke continued to battle away in the hope that if they could keep the deficit down to one goal going into the closing stages, they might get an opportunity to salvage a point in the unlikeliest of circumstances.
There was encouragement for them when they earned a couple of corners in quick succession, and if nothing else that helped to raise the volume in the stadium.
Set-pieces were clearly their best hope, but although they created further opportunities, Albion managed to hold on to claim their first win of the season.