Sam Allardyce: West Brom must stop conceding cheap goals

In a one-sided derby at The Hawthorns, an Anwar El Ghazi brace together with a Bertrand Traore strike saw Dean Smith’s men secure a deserved victory.

The visitors were helped on their way after skipper Livermore saw red in the 34th minute for a reckless challenge on Grealish.

At the time, Villa, were 1-0 up but they went on to stroll to victory with Allardyce’s men having just one shot over the course of the 90 minutes.

And when asked about the red, Allardyce showed his frustration with the new boss telling his players they must not get sent off shortly after his arrival on Wednesday.

“Yes I am upset - I couldn’t be anything else other than upset,” Allardcye said when asked about Livermore’s red.

“When I arrived one of the first things I said to the players was ‘lads one thing we can’t have is any more sendings off.’

“So it really is very disappointing.

“They had a couple before I arrived. I’ve done my homework. That can’t happen again if we want to get out of trouble.

“And we have got to stop letting in easy goals - which Villa’s first one was. It was easy.

“I really need to work as quickly as I can and as often as I can on these elements.

“I just won’t accept another sending off no matter what.

“If we keep doing that we’ll have no chance of getting out of trouble.

“But what I can do is keep working on the lads not allowing the opposition to score easy goals.”

Allardyce revealed Livermore apologised for his challenge post-match.

But with the former England man now set to miss the next three games, Allardyce hinted Albion's captaincy may now be up for grabs.

“He (Livermore) has apologised to the players and to us,” the former Bolton boss continued.

“He’s upset by it, but from my point of view an experienced player like him shouldn’t have put himself in that position.

“We can’t pick him for the next three games. We need every player we can.

“We’ll see who wants to be captain after this, and who can handle the armband and being captain.

“If I consider them good enough, then they can keep it for me.”

Villa’s second and third goals arrived after the 80th minute and Allardyce thought the 10 players who remained on the pitch deserved credit for keeping Albion in the game for so long.

“I think the 10 men we were left with battled bravely to try and stay in the game for as long as possible,” he said.

“I think they tried and tried and tried against a Villa side who are playing very well and picking up a lot of points. They beat Arsenal 3-0 away from home.

“We knew it would be difficult, but we made it more difficult by losing a goal after minutes.

“It was a simple cross, we lost our man and let their man into our six yard box with nobody marking him and free. Hugely disappointing.

“I think we have to give the 10 men who stayed on some credit for sticking to the task and keeping us in the game at 1-0 for as long as they did.”

Another big talking point in the game arrived shortly after Livermore’s red with Kourtney Hause fortunate not to be sent off for a challenge which could have broken Grady Diangana’s ankle.

After initially giving Livermore a yellow card, referee Martin Atkinson was told to consult his pitch-side monitor by VAR.

But he wasn’t asked to look again at the Hause challenge - a decision which surprised Allardyce.

“I’m disappointed they didn’t ask the referee to look at it,” Allardyce added.

“I don’t know why they didn’t. I think that should have been the least thing that should be instructed, particularly after Jake was sent off, that there was a review and he go over to the screen to look at it.

“I’m convinced that it would’ve been mighty close that the ref would’ve seen the same situation.

“It was a different challenge, but it was late and dangerous and it certainly was an ankle or leg threatening, breaking challenge.”