Valerien Ismael: West Brom not good enough in draw

In what was a drab opening 45 minutes, striker Josh Coburn put the visitors ahead with the only shot on target in the first-half.

Albion improved after the interval and had Neil Warnock’s side pegged back for long spells.

But the visiting players – who were told 10 minutes before kick-off by Warnock that he would be leaving the club after the game – defended superbly throughout.

Grady Diangana did pull Albion level with his first goal of the season.

But overall, the Baggies created very little.

And they were then indebted to goalkeeper Sam Johnstone who made an outstanding save in stoppage time to deny Warnock and Middlesbrough a late winner.

“It’s a frustrating afternoon for us, or a frustrating day,” said Ismael who was without skipper Jake Livermore after he picked up a hamstring injury.

“It started this morning with Jake Livermore when he was out and it continued after 30 seconds with Matt Clarke getting injured so we needed again to change the players.

“After that the main message from the game is that we didn’t put in the performance with consistency in the game to win.

“Ten or 15 minutes were really good then 10 or 15 minutes were sloppy and poor and the problem was our quality in the last third was not good enough.

“We put the players in position to cross but the crosses were too high, too short or too long or the last passes were too short or too long or the last touch in the box wasn’t good enough.

“You need that quality in such a game in the last third and this is the reason why it was not enough to win this afternoon.”

Albion had looked much brighter in their previous home games against Bristol City and Hull.Asked why he felt his team fell below those standards, Ismael said: “It was a difficult one because the opponents played with a back six - 6-2-2, a new formation it was something new.

“So you need to be really clinical in the last third because you have a lot of bodies around to have the quality to come through.

“It was a lack of quality in the last third and we need to work on it.

“We need to be more clinical with our crosses and the last pass and especially the first half was too sloppy.

“When we had a breakthrough or the chance to create a chance we just lost the ball and this is the main concern for me from the performance.”