Alan Pardew: West Brom's reaction bodes well for rest of the season

The Baggies lost 3-1 at the Bet365 Stadium against an out-of-form Potters side to leave them second-bottom for Christmas.

The team have now gone 18 games in all competitions without a win and have picked up just two points from Pardew's first five games.

But Albion enjoyed large spells on top and were the better side, particularly in the second half.

They had 57 per cent possession, 17 shots to Stoke's nine and 11 corners to Stoke's one.

"The first two goals are errors on our part and that's been unusual since I've been here, we've been pretty sound defensively," said Pardew.

"I don't think we deserved to go 2-0 down, we had a couple of big chances to be not just level, but in the lead.

"But this team's gone a long time without winning. All credit to them second half, not only did they show the commitment and desire you'd want as a manager or a fan, they showed great quality.

"With a little bit of luck here and there we could have got an equaliser."

Albion were knocking on the door for large parts of the second period, and went close twice in injury time before Ramadan wrapped the points up with Stoke's third in the dying embers of the game.

Pardew was adamant his team should have come away with at least a point.

"Of coursem" he said. "It's hard to look at those players who have gone so long without a win to come in 2-0 down.

"I didn't think we played that badly first half actually. Salomon (Rondon) was kicking himself, Butland made a great save from him, but he also had a big miss.

"I thought it was important he played well second half for his confidence and to get the goal was a bonus really.

"To score it as quickly as we did, I did sense we were going to get a point today and it didn't come."

Albion lacked quality in the final third, particularly in front of goal, epitomised by Rondon's blazing miss in the first half.

"There was some good stuff in and around the box today but yeah, if you're going to win games at this level you probably need to score two plus," said Pardew.

"Unfortunately we haven't done that today. For as much possession we had, so many balls into the box, so many set plays, that has to improve for sure.

"I actually thought the performance today was strong all through the game apart from a couple of errors we made.

"If we cut out those errors, we may have come away with a good result, but we haven't.

"The scoreline doesn't lie. We conceded right on 45 minutes and right on 90 minutes and that game management side needs to improve."

Albion should have had a penalty when Rodriguez was clipped by Geoff Cameron in the second half but the Baggies man stayed on his feet.

"I haven't really seen the replays," said Pardew, when asked about that incident. "Jonny was unlucky because his header hits the centre-half's arm and loops over the bar.

"It's little breaks like that we need and didn't get. But we deserved a break today, particularly in the second half when the players were at full tilt and still showed composure.

"That bodes well, we have half a season left and realistically we've got to find seven or eight games to win. It needs to start soon for us and Everton will be a key game."