Carlos Corberán was pleased with the effort his players put in against Millwall on Saturday, but was also left frustrated at the fact his side couldn’t carve out enough clear chances to win the contest.
The Baggies were held to a 0-0 draw by their Play-Off rivals at The Hawthorns, a result which means they remain five points off the top six with eight matches now remaining.
The boss believes it was a difficult game to try and control and admitted his side didn’t manipulate the ball as well as they perhaps could’ve done.
Corberán also made reference to two contentious decisions in the match, where the referee waved away Albion appeals for a penalty and a free-kick following challenges on USA international forward Daryl Dike.
Carlos said: “I am pleased with the effort the players put in today on the pitch, because in the moment they weren’t complaining with the difficulty of the game in terms of the situations that have happened over the last week.
“Watching the team, there was a lot of effort, commitment and desire to win the game, and that’s what I want to see, this level of desire.
“Sometimes, with this desire you move in the right direction and manage the games well, sometimes you cannot. Sometimes today we found some continuity in attacks and could create some chances.
“But sometimes Millwall were putting the game in the way they wanted to play, with a lot of long balls, a lot of second balls, a lot of free kicks and a lot of corners.
“They are one team that require a lot of effort and concentration to have the clean sheet that we got today, and unfortunately we couldn’t score the goal with any of the opportunities that we had.”
“It was a game in which it was not easy to create any clear chances because there were many challenges.
“It’s true that first half we didn’t find enough calm in the middle of the pitch to manipulate the ball well enough. I think if we had manipulated the ball a bit better, we would have a better connection with the final third of the pitch or the last part of the team.
“We weren’t able to create everything that we wanted to create.
“It was difficult to put the ball on the floor in the second half. We decided to play with two strikers and to be a bit more direct and play less to try something else.
“I think when the referee watches the game back, I think he will see that he got some actions wrong.
“We know that football is complicated and it’s tough for referees, even in the Premier League when VAR is used.
“I know how difficult the job of a referee is.
“Both teams were competing really well and there were a lot of second balls and duels.
“With the challenge on Daryl Dike, we think it could have been a penalty. If it’s not a penalty then it’s a corner. If it’s not a corner then the challenge on Okay comes off the Millwall player last, so it can’t be offside.
“There was a moment also when Thomas-Asante had the ball and he wanted to pass to Dike, but he couldn’t because Dike had been fouled on the edge of the box.
“However, being a referee is not easy and maybe there were some actions which were wrong decisions for Millwall too.
“These things can happen in games when lots of actions are happening.”