Chris Brunt says it was an honour to lead "his club" into a Boxing Day battle with Derby County despite ultimately suffering a narrow loss at Pride Park.
Brunt was alongside Damia Abella and former team-mate Boaz Myhill in the dugout as the visitors fell to a 2-1 defeat against the Rams.
Substitute Grady Diangana pulled one back late on for the Baggies after two earlier Derby strikes, but Brunt's team just couldn't quite find the leveller.
The club legend says the players gave their all in the second 45 to try and salvage something, yet also admits the Baggies paid the price following a "sloppy start".
He said: “I got a call towards late afternoon on Christmas eve after a couple of things had rumbled on during the day in the press. We knew it was pretty much done that Carlos would be leaving.
“Here I am. That’s all I can say really. It’s not ideal at Christmas because stuff gets turned on its head, but it is what it is and I’m here to help.
“Over the next few weeks the club will have lists and lists of applicants for the job because it’s one of the most attractive jobs in the country at the minute.
“I’ll do my best to steady the ship and do a good job and get as many points on the board between now and an appointment.
“Tonight was disappointing, but that’s football in the Championship.
“It was an honour. This my club, I’ve said it before. I love the people at this club and I loved playing for this club through the good times and the bad. Of course it was an honour, but it would’ve been more of an honour if we could have got three points out of the game.
“The lads gave everything they could out there, but there were a couple of things which let us down on the evening.
“Credit to Derby, they took their chances and they defended well. There’s a lot to work on, but hopefully, on Sunday, we’ll be right and ready to go again.
“I think we suffered from a slow start and think we were a little bit sloppy in the first half. They came out of the traps quite quickly. I think they had an extra couple of days rest from their last game compared to ours. I don’t know if that played into it or not.
“We can’t go on too much about that because that’s football and that’s the football fixtures this season – they’re all over the place.
“It was a sloppy start and we conceded a goal, but then got a bit more control of the game and hit the post a couple of times. On another day we could’ve gone in level at the break.
“We tweaked a few things at half time and spoke well with the lads and they responded really well. The killer blow was the second goal. It’s a massive deflection which can happen.
“That gave Derby something to cling on to and they defended well. Our lads kept going and we scored a good goal, it was just too little too late and too big a hill to climb.”
