Paulo Sousa described the 1-0 victory over Coca-Cola Championship leaders West Brom as the finest moment to date of his short reign at Swansea.

Craig Beattie was the matchwinner for the Swans, coming back to haunt the club he left back in August to become the Welsh side's record signing.

The Scottish striker only managed four league goals during two injury-plagued years at The Hawthorns but his second in as many games in a white shirt proved enough to settle a dour encounter.

And having taken over from Roberto Martinez in the summer, Swans manager Sousa rated the Beattie-inspired triumph as his best victory at the helm.

"To win away against the top team in the table is an important night for me," he said.

"It was an important three points for us, it gives us a lot more confidence.

"When you win an important game like this one, an away game, against the team that's top of the table, a team that is going for promotion, it is always important.

"It tells us we are in a good way and this is what we wanted.

"When you get victories, you get more conviction and more confidence."

Swansea enjoyed the better of an uninspiring opening 45 minutes and they grabbed the only goal of the game five minutes after the restart.

Beattie latched onto Mark Gower's through-ball before firing a low effort past Scott Carson.

And Sousa reserved special praise for the striker.

"He's one of the players who is improving a lot but everyone has got a job and when everyone does their job it helps us to score," added the Swans boss.

"And for Craig, as a striker, you need to score and if you score then it's important for your confidence."

West Brom head coach Roberto Di Matteo felt under the weather and so did not attend the post-match press conference.

But assistant Eddie Newton admitted the Black Country outfit had spoken about Beattie beforehand.

"We know what Craig can do, we told the boys what he possesses - the negatives and the positives," he said.

"And we got hit on the sucker punch, a little bit of naivety and we got punished for it."

The defeat was Albion's third in their last five games and ended any hopes of kick-starting a revival after Saturday's triumph over Reading.

Worringly, it was also the fifth game in succession the Baggies have conceded first at home, something Newton put down to naivety and a lack of experience within a young squad.

"It's something we are talking about and seeing how we can do something else," he said.

"It just seems, at present, it takes a goal against us before we start really kicking into gear.

"It's something we are trying to tackle but it takes time. It's not always as easy as that."