West Bromwich Albion bid to finish in the Championship play-offs took another hit on Friday evening in the form of a 2-0 defeat at Hull City.

The Baggies created chances consistently throughout the match but were unable to beat Karl Darlow and in the end conceded a couple of sloppy goals to leave empty-handed.

In a way comparable to Mark Bonner and Cambridge United, the Baggies' form has dropped off significantly following Carlos Corberan having talks around becoming Leeds United manager and the Spaniard now has an uphill task to lift Albion into a top six berth.

A lot has been made of their form at home compared to on their travels, but Corberan does not subscribe to that way of thinking too much and explained why when he spoke to BirminghamLive.

He said: "I understand that people will have to give me the same question, but I have to analyse the performances individually.

"Today we were much better with our goals expected of the team, if you see the goals expected of the opponent...we were performing well.

"We didn't win the game, though, and that means that there are things we need to improve.

"Attacking in the last third, and concentration and solving better the few opportunities they had to create a chance.

"This is the summary.

"If we played this game at home, it would be the same.

"If we don't score chances and they score, you have the same result.

"I can understand the difference if we played away to what we do at home, then you could say why the team isn't playing at the same level home and away.

"Against Birmingham, we had 70% of the ball.

"Today, we had 70% of the ball.

"Sometimes the more we have the ball, the less we are scoring, but what you have to do is to be better than the opponent by creating enough chances and of course you can be attacking well, but the defence is the key one.

"Today, in defence we didn't find a way to better solve.

"That's why we have a defeat, which I don't care if it's at home or away, being honest.

"We don't want it, and we missed a big opportunity to add three points that were massive for us.

"We have to move to the next one to take three points that we couldn't add here.

"Next one will be at home, but I will have the same confidence as if we were away - we need to perform well both home and away."

The Verdict

Some of the finishing issues that were common in Steve Bruce's time in the Black Country are resurfacing and having a devastating impact on the club's promotion hopes.

 

 

Albion now have a six-point gap to make up in just 12 games to keep their promotion hopes alive, and though they have the talent in the squad to overcome that, the revival needs to start very soon.

They host Wigan Athletic and Huddersfield Town in their next two matches before a trip to Cardiff City, it feels like that trio of fixtures must see a maximum return of nine points for them to ruffle some feathers at the top of the play-off chasing pack.