ROY Hodgson threw a comforting arm around Craig Dawson after his error gifted Norwich an FA Cup winner - but admitted no words of consolation could ease the young defender's heartache.
The 21-year-old centre-half, who was playing League One football at Rochdale last season, was recalled to the starting line-up in place of Jonas Olsson.
And he produced the kind of solid performance that has made him a regular for England Under-21s this term, only to blot his copybook five minutes from time.
Dawson mis-controlled Joe Mattock's throw-in inside his penalty area five minutes from the end of the fourth-round tie, allowing Canaries sub Simeon Jackson to nip in and make it 2-1.
But Hodgson had nothing but words of encouragement for the 6ft 2in player, who he believes has a bright future in the game.
"It was a great pity for the game to end that way and, of course, a great pity for the player involved, because young Craig is making his way in the game," said the head coach.
"It was really unfortunate for him because he didn't play at all badly in the game.
"He's had a few games recently where he's been deputising for either Jonas or Gareth McAuley and has conducted himself well.
"He concentrates well but, today, it was one of those glaring errors which no coach or manager can say too much about.
"We also can't say too much to him that will ease the pain because he realises it was that mistake which cost us at least a replay.
"Having said that, and as I've said to him, the only thing he can do is forget it and get on with it because it was a genuine mistake.
"These things do happen and maybe we should've been more conservative with our throw-in.
"It was probably our ambition to score a goal which stopped us just throwing the ball down the line and playing for the 1-1."
Hodgson revealed he made a beeline in the dressing room for Dawson after the game.
"I told him to shrug it off as best he can," he added.
"But they are only words.
"Craig's a very serious footballer and he'll be devastated by his mistake.
"Me telling him not to worry is a nice thing to say but it doesn't help a great deal.
"There's nothing that anybody can say or do other than make it clear to him that he has our sympathy, that we're not blaming him, and that these things do happen in football.
"In fact, mistakes are a part of football.
"For our goal, I think Russell Martin slipped and let us in.
"All goals are the result of an error somewhere. It's just that some errors are more obvious than others.
"Unfortunately, his was one of the obvious ones and he will have to learn from that.
"The major learning part for him will be getting over it.
"It's one of those no-brainer mistakes that people make and you feel sorry for them.
"But there's no point criticising them. It happens."
It is the second time in a fortnight that Norwich have earned a late 2-1 victory at The Hawthorns.
And Hodgson feels that, on both occasions, the Baggies have not got their just desserts.
"It's sad to lose because I don't think our performance warranted a defeat," he added.
"We asked them lots of questions throughout the second half.
"If you reflect on the footballing activity in this match, it was far more in their penalty area than in ours.
"But this game isn't about how many times you get in the opposing team's penalty area.
"It's about how many goals you score. They scored two and we scored one so you end up losing.
"Of course, we feel a little hard done by in that respect, but we've got to do more.
"We've got to make more of the opportunities we do create.
"Against teams that are going to put a lot of players behind the ball and defend in numbers, you're not going to get one-on-ones with their goalkeeper, and that type of clear opportunity.
"You're going to get opportunities to do something when the ball is bouncing around in the opposition's penalty area."
Albion haven't won a league game at The Hawthorns since November and Hodgson feels the poor run of results is becoming a real burden.
"Today was déjà-vu," he added.
"It's followed an incredible pattern of league games where you've done more than enough during the 90 minutes with your play to get a positive result and you come away with nothing at all, due to some occurrence in the game which you could have easily avoided.
"Today is part of a hoodoo we seem to be suffering from. We needed a victory to dispel it.
"We didn't get it, so the hoodoo continues.
"Our home results have been very, very poor.
"We seem to be getting nothing at all out of our home performances - and that's a bit difficult to stomach.
"It would be easier if we were playing badly, allowing the opposition to have lots of goal chances and were dependent on our goalkeeper making save after save.
"But for large periods of all of those games, our goalkeeper has been nothing more than a passenger, really, and yet he still has had to take the ball out of his net more times than the opposition.
"There's nothing I can really say that changes that. Feeling sorry for ourselves isn't going to help."
