Steve Bruce: West Brom performance totally unacceptable

The Baggies were beaten 1-0 at St Andrew's with Lyle Taylor netting the only goal of the game from the penalty spot.

But it was the manner of the defeat that left Bruce and the 1,800 travelling Albion fans so angry with the team failing to register a single shot on target.

That result leaves the Baggies sitting 12th in the Championship table, having massively underperformed for the last four months.

"We are a team that goes up and down and that's the reason why we’re in the middle of the pack," Bruce said.

"We can play well against Hull. We played really well against Fulham. Really well against Blackburn.

"But then we've thrown in another performance like that which is completely unacceptable.

“That’s the big disappointment. It’s not acceptable for a team who are supposed to be at the top end.

"Why we’re not is because we go up and down with our performances far too often.

"That's not good enough and this club is entitled to make change.

"We’re not going to accept being halfway in the division. We’ll look at that, have those conversations and let’s see what we can do.

"If you’re playing for West Brom, in the Championship, you have got to be up there.

"That’s the life of a professional footballer, you should always be looking over your shoulder.

Bruce was asked if the performance at St Andrew's was the worst Albion have put in since he became manager.

"No, and there has been too many which, for me, is worrying," he continued.

"But it's got to one of the worst games of football I’ve seen in a long time.

"We didn’t possess any real quality at the top end of the pitch.

"We had some moments, but it was lacking in quality on both sides in my opinion.”

While Albion's performance was woeful, they should have been awarded a penalty in the fourth minute when Marc Roberts handled a long throw from Darnell Furlong.

Incredibly, though, referee Dean Whitestone gave the hosts a free-kick when he should have pointed to the spot.

"It's a stonewall penalty and I think the referee has blown his whistle and thought s*** what have I done," Bruce said.

"And then he’s invented a free-kick to them – our players hadn’t even gone for the ball. They had both collided into each other.

"It was a poor decision. We should have had a penalty after three or four minutes – a blatant one which the referee has missed."

Incredibly, Albion would have been just five points outside the play-offs if they had won at St Andrew's.

"The results on Saturday gave us a wonderful opportunity and we haven’t taken it," Bruce added.

"The reason why we are where we are is because we’ve thrown in another performance which is not acceptable."