Chris Brunt believes the Baggies displayed plenty of heart and fighting spirt at Bramall Lane on Sunday afternoon.
Albion held the Sky Bet Championship title-chasers to a 1-1 draw, with forward Karlan Grant brilliantly cancelling out Andre Brooks’ opener in first-half added time.
The visitors had opportunities to win it in the second 45, while at the other end, produced several moments of bravery to keep the ball out of Alex Palmer’s net.
Brunt described the overall performance as “really, really good” and reserved a special mention for the two central midfielders, Jayson Molumby and Ousmane Diakité.
He said: “The bare minimum you can ask from any team is to go out there and try their best, run around, scrap, compete and fight.
“We knew we had to do that today. We started slowly at Derby, but we got up to speed much, much quicker today.
“I thought, overall, for the whole game we were really, really good. On another day, we probably could have won the game.
“We started well and then we’ve made a mistake in the middle of the pitch. They’ve capitalised well on it. Kieffer Moore, Gustavo Hamer and Callum O’Hare are all handfuls. They are always around the second balls.
“We knew that was going to be their plan. I think their goal was probably only thing Ousmane Diakité did wrong today. I thought him and Jayson Molumby in the middle of the park were fantastic.
“Credit to him, he’s had to wait for his chance and I thought he coped with the game really well.
“Jayson Molumby was absolutely everywhere – in and out of possession. He has so much commitment and heart. He always gives you everything he’s got.
“I thought he was the best player on the pitch. He caused them all sorts of problems.
“When we were under a bit of pressure, Jayson comes out of nowhere and tackles somebody. Even the little dark arts he’s good at, pulling shirts and giving little free-kicks away which are important in games like today.
“The two in the middle were brilliant.
“You need to dig in at this time of year when there’s lots of games to play. It speaks volumes for the group that we’ve done that. We’ve got a honest bunch of lads and there have been no complaints.
“We’ll recover as best we can now and go again on New Year’s Day against Preston.”
