Albion were beaten 2-1 by Stoke City in the Carabao Cup First Round on Tuesday evening.
The Potters were ahead at half-time thanks to a Josh Griffiths own-goal, but were pegged back early in the second period through Brandon Thomas-Asante’s flick.
Stoke’s Andre Vidigal was the one to grab the tie’s all-important final goal 25 minutes from time as they edged into Round Two.
Next up, the Baggies return to Sky Bet Championship action this Saturday when they host Swansea City at The Hawthorns.
Carlos Corberán made eight changes and switched to a 3-5-2 formation for the short trip to Staffordshire.
But his team had to withstand heavy Stoke pressure in the opening stages before the hosts took a 27th-minute lead – Griffiths unfortunate seeing Wesley’s shot cannon off the post, onto his back and narrowly over the goal-line.
Albion did cause the occasional scare on the break as the interval approached, the best via Ethan Ingram’s cross which Jovan Malcolm headed over, but they were behind at half-time.
Roared back out by more than 1,300 travelling supporters, the Baggies came close to equalising 10 minutes after the restart – John Swift having a finish cleared off the line and Erik Pieters forcing a great save from Mark Travers with his long-range rebound.
They didn’t have to wait long for that leveller, though, the goal coming via substitute Thomas-Asante, who flicked in Conor Townsend’s cross.
However, Stoke responded and took the lead again almost instantly, former Baggie Dwight Gayle setting up Vidigal to make it 2-1.
Corberán’s men attempted to find another – Kyle Bartley and Ingram both heading decent opportunities over – yet they were unable to force a penalty shootout and Stoke advanced to Round Two.
Albion: Griffiths; Taylor, Bartley, Pieters; Ingram, Gardner-Hickman (Molumby 69), Chalobah (Yokuslu 57), Mowatt (Sarmiento 74), Townsend (Fellows 69); Swift, Malcolm (Thomas-Asante 57).
Substitutes: Cann, Ajayi, Andrews, Faal.
Attendance: 10,583 (1,357)