A brilliant brace of goals from Bob Taylor dragged West Brom out of the bottom three and kept alive their determined bid to avoid relegation.

The dangerous Taylor was always a thorn in the side of the Grimsby defence and his superb finishing made it four goals in four games for Gary Megson's strugglers.

It was the first time in six games Albion managed to hang on for maximum points after opening the scoring.

They made it 1-0 in the 14th minute when Taylor, who moved back to The Hawthorns on transfer deadline day for a bargain £100,000, cracked the Town defence for the first time.

Dutch midfielder Richard Sneekes chipped a perfect free-kick into the heart of the Town defence and Taylor charged in to find the target with a powerful diving header.

Taylor was on the mark again just three minutes after the break after another perfect free-kick from the hard working Sneekes.

Taylor's first shot was blocked by defender Mark Lever but he made no mistake with his second effort to make it 2-0.

But Kingsley Black guaranteed a nail-biting finish when he reduced the arrears for Grimsby with a magnificent free kick from 25 yards in the 52nd minute.

Grimsby, now without a win in nine games, were reduced to 10 men with just six minutes left on the clock when Stacy Coldicott was given his marching orders after being booked for the second time.

Teams West Brom: Jensen, Burgess, Clement, Butler, Lyttle, Sneekes, Santos, Flynn, Van Blerk, Taylor, Quinn (Evans 62).

Subs Not Used: Adamson, Oliver, G. Potter, J. Chambers.

Goals: Taylor 14, 48.

Grimsby: Coyne, McDermott, Lever, Groves, Gallimore (Butterfield 57), Donovan, Coldicott, Pouton, D. Smith (Black 18), Ashcroft, Allen (Clare 67).

Subs Not Used: Croudson, Bloomer.

Sent Off: Coldicott (84).

Booked: Coldicott, Clare.

Goals: Black 52.

Att: 15,291

Ref: G Frankland (Middlesbrough).