Ryan Mason says Albion were “too passive” in the first half of their Boxing Day encounter with Bristol City.
The Baggies were 2-0 down at the break following strikes from Anis Mehmeti and Ross McCrorie in front of the Birmingham Road End.
Mason’s men pulled one back late on when Ousmane Diakité nodded in his first for the club following a Mikey Johnston corner.
The hosts had a number of opportunities throughout the 90 minutes, but could only take one of them on a day where their seven-game unbeaten home run came to an end.
The boss said: “It’s incredibly disappointing to lose our recent unbeaten home record. It was a tough afternoon.
“To concede so early on means the feeling isn’t great and it changes the whole feeling of the stadium. It’s an offside goal. It’s clearly offside.
“I thought we reacted well. Isaac Price had an opportunity going two-v-one with the goalkeeper and he had Mikey Johnston there with him too. Those are the opportunities we need to take. We weren’t able to do that.
“There was then a clear red card with the elbow. It doesn’t seem to be going our way at the moment from that side.
“It’s difficult when you go 2-0 down at home. It’s extremely tough to come back from. We’ve done it once this year, but it’s not something you can do all the time.
“We responded well and created loads of opportunities. Ousmane Diakité has had a header from four yards and hit the keeper, Aune Heggebø has had a header in the second half and Karlan Grant has hit the bar at the end. There were others too.
“There were chances there, but it wasn’t enough.
“The reality is goals change games and they change the feeling. They change momentum in games.
“We were a lot more aggressive in the second half and we were a lot braver. We had a different mentality and a different mindset, but that’s the thing you need all of the time, regardless of what happens and the setbacks you have in games.
“We were too passive in the first half and we didn’t play with enough personality and belief, even though we did create two or three massive goalscoring opportunities.
“If you look at the goalmouth action and penalty box action, we’ve probably battered them in terms of opportunities and big chances. We haven’t converted them, though. If you don’t convert them, you can’t win games.
“We’ll continue to keep working and trying to help the players in that specific area, and that’s the challenge for us.
“We’re at home on Monday and we need to try and respond. We don’t have many available players at the moment so the lads need to recover and be in the right headspace to go again.”
