Alan Pardew announces he will speak to West Brom board about his position

In a remarkable post-match press conference delayed by a fire alarm, Pardew criticised his players for downing tools in the last 15 minutes of their 4-1 defeat to Leicester City and laid into Grzegorz Krychowiak for refusing to shake his hand when he was brought off.

Although he reiterated that he will 'continue to fight', he does plan to seek out chief executive Mark Jenkins tomorrow to make sure he is still required as head coach.

Pardew said that his pride was hurt by Albion's performance, and responded to a supporter who shouted 'You don't care' at him during the game, claiming 'He couldn't be more incorrect'.

However, at times he was almost daring the board to sack him, and he feels like a dead man working following his harsh words for his players.

He said: "Before you even ask me the question, will I speak to those upstairs? Yes I will. Of course I will because it's getting difficult.

“My pride on the sidelines is such that I don't want to stand and watch that last 15, 20 minutes.

“My teams are better than that and I want my team here to be better than that.

“So I'm going to make sure – and I told the players afterwards that that was unacceptable, that last period of the game.

“In terms of the team, the results and everything it is what it is and I want the best for West Brom.

“For me, it's about planning for next week and getting ready for a difficult game at Bournemouth and that's what I will do.

“But I will still talk to them and get a feeling of what they think because they might think a change is a better thing for the club, I don't know.

“But the one thing I'm not going to do is what I said on Thursday, is I'm not going to lay down tools.

“I said to the players they have got to fight to the end and I'm criticising them for the last 20 minutes because they weren't fighting.

“They've got to fight to the end. I don't care whatever job or workplace you're in, if you're under pressure and you don't want to fight, don't bother turning up.

“So I will continue to fight because that's always been in me, through more difficult times than this by the way, at other clubs.

“I've been there, I'm an experienced manager, I think I know how to set a team up, I know how to make a team strong and resilient but at the moment, when you look at that last 20 minutes, you couldn't argue that.

“I'm not going to accept that and I don't want that going forwards. That's really all I want to say.

“I will see them (board) when I've had a good night's sleep and a glass of wine.”

Albion actually started brightly at The Hawthorns and took the lead through Salomon Rondon in the eighth minute.

But Jamie Vardy's stunning volley levelled things up before the break and then Albion collapsed in the second half.

"It's difficult," added Pardew. "We put so much work in this week. I had a fan shouting 'You don't care' at me from the sidelines. He couldn't be more incorrect.

"We've worked so hard on the team this week in terms of trying to change things, trying to inspire the team.

"That gets more difficult when you're putting that amount of work in the team. I'm going to have to sleep on this result and come up with how we're going to go forward."

Pardew called Leicester's first two goals 'outstanding' but when it was put to him that Vardy's leveller came from a simple ball over the top, he said: "But it's the way he's taken it that's killed us. He's taking it first time coming over his shoulder.

"I thought at that point we should have been 2-0 up after Schmeichel's great save.

"Those two moments were key to the game, they changed the game.

"We got in at half time and we was ok. We came out second half and I thought it was even.

"We had an open period. I thought the referee made a couple of bad calls for us particularly when Salomon was through and perhaps should have been booked I thought, Morgan.

"They went straight down the other end with a class bit of moment from them.

"From that moment on we lost our belief, there's no doubt about that. We lost our shape and our spirit to a degree.

"That is something I've only experienced once before here, in the Huddersfield game, when I thought our spirit and our confidence hit the floor.

"That is a worry, and in the run we're on. I still don't think it's an excuse, so I made that clear to the players after. The third and fourth goals were always coming."