Soccer-Morrison's early strike lifts West Brom past Stoke

* West Bromwich Albion beat Stoke City 1-0

* Morrison opened the scoring after six minutes

* Shawcross denied by the post shortly before halftime

* Pieters missed glorious late chance to level

* West Brom visit West Ham next, Stoke host Crystal Palace

WEST BROMWICH ALBION 1 STOKE CITY 0

Feb 4 ( Reuters) - Midfielder James Morrison scored the only goal of the game early in the first half to earn West Bromwich Albion a 1-0 win over Stoke City at the Hawthorns on Saturday.

Morrison latched on to Nacer Chadli's pass to beat Stoke goalkeeper Lee Grant at his far post in the sixth minute.

Stoke's Ryan Shawcross had a deflected header clip the outside of the post and Joe Allen missed a glorious chance to level matters before halftime.

Stoke kept knocking on the door in the second half and Erik Pieters headed Phil Bardsley's cross wide with the goal gaping but West Brom hung on to stay eighth in the table, three places above their opponents. (Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)