West Brom head coach Ryan Mason was disappointed and frustrated with his team’s 1-0 defeat to the Blues at Portman Road, but admitted they didn’t do enough to win the game.

Jack Clarke’s fifth goal of the season in the 83rd minute was enough to Town their fourth home win of the season, while keeping their second clean sheet of the campaign.

Clarke slammed into the net after Jens Cajuste had caught Alex Mowatt in possession after the Baggies’ skipper had received a pass from keeper Josh Griffiths just outside the area. Griffiths saved from Ivan Azon but Clarke was on hand to finish confidently.

“Disappointed, frustrated, I think to concede in the nature we did is extremely disappointing,” Mason said. “I don’t think we did enough to win the game, for sure. Disappointed. We’re angry.”

Albion took a conservative approach throughout, frustrating the Blues while creating little at the other end, which Mason says was in part due to his team having played at Watford as recently as Wednesday evening, losing 2-1 to the Hornets, and with his personnel options limited at present due to injuries.

“We played away from home on Wednesday night, they played Tuesday night, they were able to make quite a few changes. We’re not really in a position where we could freshen it up,” he said.

“I think [after] the nature of the result on Wednesday night, we prioritised certain things to try and be as compact as possible, to grow into the game, which I believe we did in the second half.

“But when we were having our moments, we didn’t really create a great deal, there was no real end product or we didn’t really threaten their goal or their penalty box, so that’s something that’s disappointing that we need to work on.

“And, of course, to concede relatively late in the game and I think the nature that we did as well, it’s tough to accept and we need to work.”

Reflecting on his team’s approach further, he added: “I don’t want to sit here with just a point at places, but at the same time we’ve put [in] a lot of energy, the same team to roll out three games in a week and the lack of recovery time naturally is challenging, against a team that played on Tuesday night at home that had an extra amount of time to recover and made numerous changes.

“Having said that, I felt like we were inside of the game and I think from 50 minutes to 60, 65, I felt like it was there for us.

“I just don’t know whether we had enough belief or enough productivity in the final third to really go and threaten and make things happen. It’s a disappointing day.”

Regarding the manner of the goal, he said: “It’s for all of us to learn and take responsibility for. I think you see in the game, normally we play through the middle a lot from our goalkeeper and it’s a big part of our game, but we didn’t today.

“We wanted to take that away from them inside of their stadium. If you look throughout the whole game, I don’t know how many times we played it in there because that wasn’t what we wanted to do, but we did and I think it’s a reminder that if your concentration slips for a brief moment, you get punished, that’s the reality.

“We need to make sure we’re focused for 95 minutes and it’s something that we all take responsibility for.”

Photo: TWTD

Roburmsyenna added 17:27 - Oct 25 Every points a prisoner Ryan
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jayceee added 05:07 - Oct 26 So, he's using the excuse that we were able to freshen up. Should our fans' moaning about the number of changes we made re-evaluate that criticism?
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