Albion Under-21s were defeated 3-1 by fifth-tier outfit Forest Green Rovers during their opening National League Cup group match on Wednesday night.
Ollie Bostock reduced the damage after Jose Marquez and Tom Knowles had given the hosts a two-goal advantage midway through the second period, and Harry Whitwell came agonisingly close to a second when he smashed a shot against the crossbar.
Unfortunately, Thomas Conteh's late finish quelled the young Baggies' chances of gaining a point and ensured they lost their first game of the new season at the Bolt New Lawn stadium.
Typically, it was a dominant start from Robbie Savage’s team, who swarmed the visiting penalty area early on; heading over goalkeeper Joe Wallis’ goal, shooting just wide of the target, and looping a header onto the roof of the net.
Still, the youngsters from the Black Country grew into the clash, got the ball down and created some good openings. Last year’s Academy Player of the Year Matt Crowther struck an effort straight at Rovers shot-stopper Fiachra Pagel, Akeel Higgins managed some space but fired wide from distance, before Bostock came closest to a breakthrough.
Having worked his way into the box, the Wales U19 international found Pagel in the way - stretching to pull off a fine stop which, as a result, allowed his team to take a 1-0 advantage in at the break - Marquez sliding in at the back post to finish off a swift counter attack from left-to-right.
Bostock tried to level things up during the early knockings of the second half. An acute shot hit the side netting following a short-corner routine, and it proved to be a costly miss as a mistake from ‘keeper Wallis meant the away team went further behind.
The Kiwi was caught off his line, allowing Knowles to loop a simple finish in for 2-0, but the young Baggies weren’t behind by two for long.
Terrific, tenacious work by Whitwell down the left caused havoc in the Forest Green box - resulting in the ball eventually being cleared to Bostock, who drilled low into the left corner to halve the arrears.
Creator almost turned provider when the midfielder - who signed a new contract last week - crashed a shot off the crossbar on his weaker side.
Sadly, Savage's men were on-hand to punish Albion's academy hopefuls again with four minutes remaining of normal time - repeating another flowing move, as they did for the opener, allowing Conteh to ghost in behind left-back Michael Parker to send Albion 21s back to The Hawthorns empty-handed from their first group game.
Albion: Wallis, Nelson, Diomande, Mohammed, Parker, Whitwell ©️ (Maughan 79), Crowther, Higgins (Mfuamba 57), Ntege (Ranger 46), Chimeziri, Bostock (Iddrisa 90+1).
Substitutes: Brady, Humphries.
