Tony Mowbray's words of caution prior to the Preston game fell on deaf ears as
Albion wasted a number of chances and saw
"We were the team in the ascendancy from start to finish," a despondent Mowbray said.
"We had plenty of chances, didn't take them and got punished.
"They obviously had threats from dead-ball situations and the odd counter-attack.
"I was very confident we would score with the numerous chances we were creating.
"But our Achilles heel at the moment came back to bite us.
"If you can't defend set-plays, and give goals away, you'll end up chasing matches and leaving yourself vulnerable to counter-attacks.
"That was the case tonight.
"But you've got to give
"They got their rewards in the end."
The failure to defend set-pieces again came back to haunt Mowbray with the Albion manager admitting further work needs to be done in training to prevent teams causing unnecessary problems for the Baggies.
"Any manager in the country probably complains about their team not defending set-plays properly," Mowbray continued.
"But set-plays are part and parcel of football.
"Teams work very hard on them.
"We try to work very hard on stopping teams scoring against us but it's frustrating when they do.
"I couldn't really see
"But they tended to get the first contact on the ball from set-plays.
"That's something we've worked long and hard on the training ground.
"We're still suffering from it and we've got to put it right.
"Otherwise, any team in any league will give us problems."