Ryan Mason accepted Albion’s defeat at Leicester City in the Sky Bet Championship on Monday was an extremely “painful” one.
The Baggies dominated proceedings at King Power Stadium but were beaten 2-1 by the Foxes on a freezing night in the East Midlands.
Abdul Fatawu scored with virtually the final kick of the game after the visitors missed a number of clear goalscoring opportunities to take the lead in the second period.
Mason said: “It’s incredibly frustrating. I thought the fans were incredible tonight and I’m devastated they’re not going home with a win.
“We didn’t deserve it (to lose). We deserved so much more because we played such a good game. We created so many chances, again. We conceded so little, again. However, we’ve been punished and that’s been the reality for us and the story of a lot of our games this season.
“We’re on a terrible run. We don’t concede many shots at our goal, but we seem to concede a lot of goals. We create a lot of chances and have a lot of shots, but we’re not able to make them count.
“It’s the reality of where we are. It’s not okay and we’re hurting. I think you can see the players are hurting. I thought the effort was incredible today, but, for whatever reason, it’s just not happening.
“As a coach, you stand there and you watch your team play and I had a lot of pride in the performance. There was so much quality and we showed a lot of personality. We lacked that killer instinct at times and also that understanding that if you can’t win the game then you certainly don’t lose it.
“We certainly didn’t deserve to lose that game. If anything, it would have been harsh to draw it. For some bizarre reason, that seems to be the reality for us at the moment.
“It didn’t feel like that type of game where anyone saw a Leicester winner coming. We felt secure and we played a good game.
“It is disappointing to concede the way we did in terms of it being a principle thing. We had the bodies back, but the players are in the wrong positions and the ball falls where we always have a player and where we speak about having a player.
“That side of it is hard to accept. It’s not a work rate thing or a desire thing, it’s a discipline thing. It’s a discipline thing to keep carrying out the same thing.
“It’s cost us today and I think it’s cost us a lot in recent times – a lack of discipline for 95-100 minutes to get what you deserve from the game.
“Every defeat hurts. We’ve certainly got an incredible ability to lose games we shouldn’t. That’s a reality. Every defeat is painful and there’s not one defeat which feels more painful. This is the freshest one. This is hurting and it’s killing me and the players.
“If you strip the last seven or eight games back, we’ve had a lot more shots on target than oppositions and we’ve created more chances, but we’ve come away with nothing. It’s incredible and it’s tough to take.”
