Albion completed their pre-season schedule with a 4-3 defeat at Bolton Wanderers on Saturday afternoon.
Brandon Thomas-Asante (2) and Jed Wallace netted in the north west for the Baggies, while the hosts grabbed their four goals through Kyle Dempsey (2), Will Forrester and Aaron Morley.
The competitive action begins next weekend for Carlos Corberán’s men, who kick-off the 2023/24 Sky Bet Championship campaign by travelling to Blackburn Rovers.
Albion started strongly and thought they had taken the lead inside six minutes as Okay Yokuslu poked home from close-range – only to see the assistant referee’s flag raised for offside.
They didn’t have to wait long for the opener, though. An eye-catching back-to-front flowing move ended excellently when Darnell Furlong played Wallace in, and the winger made no mistake to smash past Nathan Baxter.
Both teams created chances following the goal, however it wasn’t until first-half stoppage time that another one came, Bolton equalising via Dempsey’s long-range effort.
Albion did manage to re-establish their advantage early in the second period, Thomas-Asante converting Wallace’s pinpoint cross to complete another good passing sequence.
But Wanderers turned the game on its head with two quick efforts around the hour mark – Dempsey firing a low shot into the bottom corner before substitute Forrester soon did the same to make it 3-2.
The scoring wasn’t done and this time it was the Baggies who equalised, Thomas-Asante’s first-time finish punishing a defensive mishap and making the entertaining clash all-square.
Yet, much to Albion’s frustration, Bolton stole the victory during six minutes of added time, Morley curling in and helping Ian Evatt’s team edge the seven-goal contest.
Albion: Griffiths; Furlong (Hall 84), Kipre, Ajayi (Bartley 71), Townsend (Pieters 71); Yokuslu (Chalobah 71), Mowatt; Wallace (Fellows 84), Swift (Gardner-Hickman 78), Phillips (Malcolm 78); Thomas-Asante (Faal 84).
Substitutes: Button, Cann.