Dara O’Shea says Albion must ’take the positives’ and move on following their 2-2 draw at AFC Bournemouth in the opening day of the 2021/22 Sky Bet Championship season.
The Baggies twice came from behind on the south coast to earn a point, with O’Shea equalising in the first half with a header following a Conor Townsend cross, before Alex Mowatt played in Callum Robinson to level things up again with just more than 20 minutes to play at the Vitality Stadium.
And Dara was pleased with his own start to the new campaign, and while he believes Albion could have brought three points back to the Midlands, he acknowledges it is a good point on the road against fellow promotion rivals.
“It was a good way to start the season personally, but as a team as well to get a point on the road is always good,” said Dara.
"We were unlucky not to get the three points that we wanted, but that’s the way the game went and that’s what we have got to take.
"Bournemouth are a great side - they were great last season and they were up there. We have got to take the positives from today. I think we are a great team as well and we are going to be battling up there.
"We have got to look at ourselves and take the positives from that. We put in a good performance and we got a point. We probably should have maybe got three points, but we take that and move on.
"I think we looked dangerous from set pieces today. We were aggressive and I don’t think they could handle us much. We had maybe two disallowed goals that could have potentially been goals, so you can take that as you want.
“I needed to add more goals to my game from last season. I’ve set myself a target this season to score more goals and get in the box and be determined to head it.
"When I saw Conor [Townsend] open up, I knew what a great delivery he has and I knew that was my chance there.
"The gaffer was happy with the performance. He just wants us to try and implement his way and style of play and I think he was happy we did that today. It was a point on the road and a good performance as well.
"There were spells when we were on top for the majority of it. We looked a good team and we looked really dangerous."