And Baggies right-back reveals Popov has apologised to team-mates as well as fans
STEVEN Reid has urged his team-mates to stop shooting themselves in the foot following Goran Popov's unnecessary sending-off in yesterday’s 1-0 defeat by Tottenham at The Hawthorns.
The Macedonia international left the Baggies with ten men, with the game goalless, after seeing red in the 48th minute for spitting in the direction of Kyle Walker.
Popov later said sorry to his team-mates and apologised to fans via a team-mate's Twitter account as he does not have his own.
Popov later said sorry to his team-mates and apologised to fans via a team-mate's Twitter account as he does not have his own.
And Reid insists Albion must cut needless mistakes out of their game if they are to return to the kind of form which saw them record four-successive Premier League victories in November.
“At the start of the second half we shot ourselves in the foot and we were up against it with ten men against a team with the pace and power of Tottenham,” said Reid.
“In recent weeks we’ve been shooting ourselves in the foot by going one and two down which makes it difficult.
“Yesterday, at the start of the second half, Goran’s let us down with the red card.
“He’s apologised and he’s let us down, so what more can I say?
“He’s got a suspension now and we’ve got Ridgey [Liam Ridgewell] to come in and fill that gap.
“I can’t stress how difficult it is when you go down to ten men.
“It’s just a moment of madness and it happens in football - but as I say we can’t keep shooting ourselves in the foot like that.
“We need to give ourselves a better opportunity to stay in the game."
Reid has now urged his team-mates to dwell on the positives from the game against Champions League-chasing Spurs.
“The atmosphere in the dressing room is pretty positive to be honest," he added.
"We’ve fought well, we created chances and we feel if it was 11 against 11 we could have gone on and got something from the game.
“The atmosphere in the dressing room is pretty positive to be honest," he added.
"We’ve fought well, we created chances and we feel if it was 11 against 11 we could have gone on and got something from the game.
“It’s more positive than it has been in previous weeks and all we can do is get back to training and hopefully dig ourselves out of the run of form we’re in.
“In recent weeks we’ve been doing that and yesterday was a much better performance -- but once again it’s disappointing to lose.
“We’re confident in the dressing room with the performance and I think in the first half we were outstanding, and we dealt with everything they threw at us.
"We also had a few chances ourselves.
"We also had a few chances ourselves.
“I don’t think we need to dwell on the defeat, it’s disappointing, but there are plenty of positives from the game, especially first half, and we’ve shown glimpses of the early season form.”