Ryan Mason was left incredibly frustrated by a “lack of discipline” and a number of wasted goalscoring opportunities up at Hull City on Saturday afternoon.
The Baggies suffered a disappointing 1-0 defeat to the Tigers in the Sky Bet Championship despite being the dominant side in the opening 45 minutes.
Oli McBurnie scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot on the stroke of half time following a handball by Nat Phillips inside the box.
Alfie Gilchrist was then dismissed with 15 to go at the MKM Stadium for a foul on winger Liam Miller.
The boss admitted events of the afternoon “hurt” him and says certain aspects are “impossible” to accept.
Ryan said: “It’s frustrating and there are so many emotions. The reality is, is that we’ve come away with absolutely nothing.
“Of course, it’s difficult to accept and to understand why. The manner in which we lose the game is so disappointing. We’ve spoken about that a lot recently.
“We’ve spoken about mistakes, individual errors and gifts to the opposition. For how well we played in that first half, to come in 1-0 down in the way that we did and the way the penalty was awarded was hard to understand. It’s a lack of discipline and it’s not good enough.
“There’s a lot of pain at the moment. It’s about understanding and taking responsibility. We have to own it and change it. That’s the only way we move forward.
“You miss chances. That happens in football, but I think, for me, it’s more the pain of the gift that we’ve lost the game for. When there are things that happen that are principle-based or structural that you can work on on the training pitch and improve in, then that’s one thing. However, that hasn’t been the case recently.
“It’s been nothing to do with that. It’s been about a lack of discipline and not making good decisions. We’ve been punished once again today.
“I thought we were excellent in the first half, but football is football and if you don’t take your chances then you won’t get your rewards.
“The worst thing we should have come away with today was a 0-0 draw, but we haven’t been able to do that and away from home, that’s killing us.
“We didn’t create a great deal in the 20 minutes after half time. We made a couple of subs that we thought might be able to help with that, but we also understand that 45/50 minutes is a long time in football.
“In terms of the red card decision, I think you can always tell with the player reactions. I don’t think anyone reacted. The referee was ten yards away and it took him about 15 seconds to give the red card, so I’m not sure about that.
“I thought it was a tough game for the referee today, but I can’t make excuses for us and our lack of discipline. The reality is, that’s what’s cost us the game today.
“We’ve lost 1-0. It was a tight game and the pitch wasn’t great. That’s normal and you have to deal with that and accept it. We managed that well in the first half and we should’ve come in at half time winning, but we came in losing by gifting the opposition a goal.
“It's a really, really difficult one to take.”
