"Baller" - Cedric Kipre & Matheus Pereira react to Karlan Grant breaking West Brom drought | OneFootball

The Baggies forward netted his first in 2025 against the Hornets

West Brom kept their play-off hopes alive this past weekend with an important win at The Hawthorns against fellow top-six chasers Watford, with forward Karlan Grant breaking a significant duck.

The Baggies had lost their last three games going into Saturday's clash, with a late midweek defeat against Bristol City seeing them fall six points behind the Robins.

However, an important 2-1 victory over Watford now sees West Brom move onto 60 points alongside Millwall and Middlesbrough, and are now within touching distance of the top six again, sitting four points behind Bristol City and two behind Coventry City, albeit with the Sky Blues yet to play this weekend.

Matheus Pereira and Cedric Kipre issue supporting messages to former West Brom team-mate Karlan Grant

A welcome place on the scoresheet came to Baggies forward Karlan Grant too, who scored his seventh of the season, and his first since December 29.

You get the feeling that if the 27-year-old can get firing again in the last four games of the season, especially with Josh Maja still missing, Tony Mowbray's side may find themselves sneaking into the top six come May 3.

With Grant starting each of the last six games, he clearly has the support of Tony Mowbray and his fellow players ahead of the run-in, but he also has the support of a few past team-mates as well.

Two former West Brom stars who know what it's like to be embroiled in a promotion battle offered their support to Baggies forward Grant after the Watford victory in the form of Matheus Pereira and Cedric Kipre

Following the win, Grant posted to his Instagram: "Passion!! Big 3 points at home. We needed that 🙏🏽 4 big games to go💙."

Alongside words of support from West Brom fans, 2019/20 promotion hero Pereira - currently at Cruzeiro in his home country of Brazil - and Kipre, who is playing regularly in France's top tier for Stade Reims, and was a major part of last season's West Brom side who finished in the top six, offered comments of support as well.

Pereira labelled Grant as a "Baller🔥" and Kipre simply commented: "🔥," showing their support for their former team-mate ahead of this important run.

All three played for West Brom in their latest season in the top flight. The Brazilian maestro Pereira contributed 20 assists in the Championship in the 2019/20 season to help the side to promotion, whilst Kipre joined Grant in being signed by the club ahead of the 2020/21 campaign.

Both of them will have eyes on their former club as they look to mount a second successive play-off charge, although it's set to be a hotly-contested battle between multiple clubs for the final four matches of the campaign.

West Brom will hope that Karlan Grant's goal will see him return to form at the right time

Three years ago, Grant was seen as one of the more dangerous forwards in the Championship, with his first season back in the second tier with West Brom seeing an 18-goal return.

Since then, though, Grant has struggled massively and has scored just 10 in his last two seasons, and in 2023-24 he was even sent out on loan to fellow Championship side, Cardiff City, but was unable to reignite his goalscoring exploits in South Wales.

However, his strike against Watford sees him move onto seven for the season, exceeding his tallies in the past two, and West Brom fans will be hoping that this could be a sign of a forward starting to grow in confidence.

West Brom will need a few key players to find form if they were to end up in the top six at the end of the season, and if Grant's goal over the weekend is a sign of things to come, it couldn't have come at a better time. Tony Mowbray's side take on Coventry City on Good Friday in yet another vital clash in the race for the play-offs.