Eric Ramsay says it’s important to be “constructive” after Friday’s Sky Bet Championship defeat to Middlesbrough.
The head coach saw his side go two goals down, before Isaac Price and Jed Wallace harnessed a buoyant Hawthorns crowd to equalise for the hosts.
It was the visitors who grabbed a late winner, though, as Delano Burgzorg scored in the 90th minute to give 'Boro all three points.
Ramsay says he’s “frustrated” with the loss, but maintains there are plenty of reasons to be positive following his first game in charge.
He said: “I’m really disappointed and frustrated but I can see the good in the second half.
"I can see the good in the performance and the way forward from a constructive perspective.
“It’s very difficult to leave without that feeling of disappointment. We showed character and a real sense of personality to claw back from two goals down and we connected with the crowd.
“To concede the third goal was disappointed and in the way that we did. They’re a top team around the top of the box, but they are quite predictable that they’ll score goals when you give them the space that we did – that was disappointing.
“We want to see the best of the first half combined with the best of the second. In the first, we were very difficult to play against, were compact and we made life tough for a very good team on the ball.
“We of course made some mistakes that we’d certainly don’t want to repeat. When we had the opportunity to step up, we were late and we lost a number of duels in the lead up to the second goal.
“In the second half, we were super aggressive, started to force turnovers in the opposition half and were really composed on the ball. We clawed the game back in our favour and showed that real dominance that we should be trying to show at home.
“That comes at the expense of some control defensively. The best of the first half and the best of the second half, combined, is what we’re striving for as we move forward.
“It was so important today that the crowd felt behind me in this stadium, that there was a response from the players. We needed to be able to respond as coaching staff too, had that not been the case, then the disappointment would’ve been doubled – I’m constructive enough to see that tonight.
“Whilst everyone is incredibly disappointed, to a person, in this stadium, everyone will reflect on how important that sense of energy was ahead of Tuesday night.
“It’s normally important to speak to the players at the end of the game, so that everyone leaves on the same page. In a situation like this, there are never magic words that make this situation better, but I know we’ve got an honest group of players who are calling for what we’ve talked about.
“We want to know what we set out to do, where we fell short and where we achieved. I’ve learned about the group tonight, and that was a really important thing, irrespective of outcome - we needed that information for us to take forwards.
“I will go to bed disappointed, but I’ll wake up constructive.”
