Darren Moore: West Brom must learn from Leeds defeat
Darren Moore has refused to rule out automatic promotion while urging his Albion side to learn from their 4-0 dismantling at Elland Road.
The Baggies were outplayed from minute one against rivals Leeds, and fell six points behind the top two with their second defeat in a row.
But Moore wants his team to regroup after their heaviest defeat in the second tier for nearly 20 years.
"I think anything's possible because of the way the league is," he said. "You can't throw your toys out of the pram because of this result, the big thing is to regroup and look back at it.
"Sometimes when you win games, it doesn't teach you. Losses teach you things. It's about looking back on the result and finding out what went wrong."
It was the sort of one-sided defeat that could have a psychological impact on a team, but Moore insists it will not.
"It won't be hard to lift the players because of the strength of the group," he said. "I don't see any problem lifting the group, we just want to get back and work next week. That's the best thing we can to do."
Moore's decision to replace the injured Kieran Gibbs with Tosin Adarabioyo backfired, and the makeshift left-back was partly at fault for both goals.
When asked to explain the decision, Albion's boss said: "We wanted to come up here and be solid.
"We thought with his physical presence he would cause problems and give them extra to think about with set plays. It didn't quite materialise."
And when asked to explain why his side lacked energy compared to Leeds, despite Marcelo Bielsa's team playing in midweek, he said: "From the minute we conceded the goal [16 seconds in] it gave them the upper hand to hold onto.
"It was up to us to stay in the game. I felt to go a goal down as early as we did was always a tall mountain to climb.
"Conceding a goal in the first minute gave Leeds the upper hand and momentum in the game. They got a quick foothold in the game.
"We showed a little bit more impetus second half and the next goal was going to be important and unfortunately for us they got it.
"It's a tough one to take, when you lose by that margin. It's now about analysing the game and see why and where it went on."
