Morrison had promised his side would be compact, defend the box and break quickly through the wide areas. They did all of it. West Ham had more of the ball and more of the corners, but West Brom made the better chances: 2.05 expected goals to the Hammers' 1.03.

Mohamadou Kanté had the first sight of goal, firing high and wide from a corner inside the opening minute, and Pablo dragged one just past the post on ten. But when the first goal came it was West Brom's, and it came the way Morrison had drawn it up. A clinical break ended with Jimmy-Jay Morgan supplying Felix Myhre, who finished from close range in the 20th minute. Isaac Price then spurned a golden chance to double the lead.

West Ham made them pay. Kanté turned provider on 29 minutes and Bowen's angled shot from the right of the box deflected in off the near post, via the studs of Styles. The captain had his equaliser, and for the rest of the half West Ham looked the likelier side without seriously testing Max O'Leary again.

Whatever was said at half-time, West Brom heard it better. Inside three minutes of the second half Airidas Golambeckis made an error, Myhre and Morgan swapped roles, and Morgan tucked a right-footed shot into the bottom right corner.

West Ham threw bodies forward. Max Kilman's header from Bowen's cross was kept out by O'Leary in the top corner, and Kyle Walker-Peters had a shot from distance saved too. West Brom almost made it three on the hour when Ousmane Diakité poked wide from close range after a corner.

Nuno sent on Joël Piroe and Manor Solomon, then Tomás Souček, Valentín Castellanos and Joël Veltman, the last of them for the injured Walker-Peters. It was from the corner Veltman conceded moments later that the game ended as a contest. Morato slipped, and Callum Styles lashed a left-footed shot through a crowd and into the bottom left corner on 72 minutes.

Morgan went off injured five minutes later, replaced by Aune Heggebø, and West Brom saw it out without much alarm. Castellanos had a shot saved from outside the box, blazed another over on the break and was denied again by O'Leary in stoppage time. O'Leary needed treatment late on, and Jayson Molumby's booking was the only blot on a disciplined away display.

West Ham had 14 shots but only five on target, and Nuno has now gone four home games without a win in all competitions, losing three. For West Brom it was a third win in four. Bowen's programme notes asked for the talking to be done on the pitch. On this evidence, West Brom did it better.

Before the final whistle the West Brom end was singing "You're getting sacked in the morning" at Nuno, and West Ham supporters joined in. Afterwards he did not pretend otherwise.

Morrison, on the other hand, called it his side's best away win under him because it was "a complete performance".

He went further after the game.

Kim Hellberg named the same XI that won 5-1 at Bolton last Friday. Nathan Jones made five changes after Charlton's home defeat by Norwich, handing Harvey Knibbs his first start of the season, and picked a big side built to defend and attack set-pieces. It lasted 12 minutes.

Charlton were already living dangerously. Tyler Bindon was booked inside ten minutes for a cynical foul on Aidan Morris. Then Amario Cozier-Duberry worked the ball to Sebastian Berhalter outside the box, and the American's right-footed shot found the bottom left corner.

To their credit, the Addicks didn't fold. Joe Rankin-Costello tried to poke one in from close range and Radek Vitek kept it out. Miles Leaburn got on the end of one of Bindon's long throws and headed wide. For half an hour there was a nervousness about the place.

Arthur Okonkwo saved low from Morris. Then, a minute before the break, Berhalter turned provider. His angled ball bisected the Charlton defence, and Lankshear, with all the assurance of a striker in a purple patch, dinked it over the onrushing Okonkwo.

That made it 12 league goals for the season. By then he had also scored in five games running.

The second half was a grind. Charlton lost Kayne Ramsay to a first-half knock and brought on Dan McNamara at the break, then Karlan Grant and Tyreece Campbell, and they won free-kicks and corners. Charlie Kelman headed over from Campbell's cross. Billy Koumetio headed high and wide from a McNamara corner. None of it troubled the goal.

Boro kept probing. Cozier-Duberry sent one just past the post, Okonkwo got down to keep out a Lankshear shot from the centre of the box, and Hellberg sent on Myles Peart-Harris, and Sam Byram for his league debut for the club, to see it through.

Lankshear finished it anyway. Eight minutes from time Berhalter's press forced a Charlton error, and Lankshear spun away from his marker and fired a left-footed shot from 20 yards into the top corner. That's his second double in successive matches, 13 league goals in 13 games and 15 for the season, already one more than Morgan Whittaker managed to finish as Boro's top scorer last term. He went off a minute later with cramp, the one worry on an otherwise perfect afternoon.

Okonkwo still had to save from substitute Jeremy Sarmiento after Callum Brittain's cross, and by the end Boro had 16 shots to Charlton's seven. Not one of the visitors' efforts was on target all afternoon.

Sebastian Berhalter, who scored the first and made the second, knows exactly what he has up front.

Kim Hellberg was pleased, though not entirely satisfied.

On Lankshear, he gave the credit to the service.

Nathan Jones, whose side have not won since August, saw the problem at his own end.

The leaders were good. With Lankshear in this form, they look like they could be very good indeed.