Tony Pulis laments 'worst away performance' after West Brom defeat

Tony Pulis believes West Brom were fortunate to only lose by a single goal against Newcastle on Saturday after the "worst away performance" of his tenure.

The Magpies came under little threat until the closing stages of their 1-0 win at St James' Park as substitute Salomon Rondon squandered the Baggies' best opportunity to level in stoppage time.

West Brom are winless in their last seven away games, but Pulis was unhappy with his side's showing. 

"That was probably our worst away performance since I've been here," said Pulis who moved to the Baggies in 2015.

"We got beat 1-0, but it could have been a lot more and we didn't show enough. It's a great group of lads and we have to take this on the chin and make sure we get it sorted out. It was only in the last 15 minutes that we had two or three opportunities to score."

Aleksandar Mitrovic scored the winner after a pass from Jonjo Shelvey, who along with fellow January signing Andros Townsend caused problems throughout, but Pulis was disappointed with the manner in which West Brom fell behind.

"The goal was a poor one to concede, that gave them a lift and the crowd was wonderful for them.That really pushed them on, but we just weren't at the races from the beginning.

"They've got good players, you look at who they've recruited and brought in, and they're good players. They most probably need the same as everybody else in this league, and that's a bit of luck to go for you. They were better than us, full stop."

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The defeat leaves West Brom six points off the relegation zone, but Pulis believes the return of key players from injury will be crucial to their hopes against Peterborough in their FA Cup replay, and against Everton next weekend.

"We know what number of points we need to get," he added. "We have to get players back, that's very important for us. Every game is tough because there is no easy game in the Premier League.

"We've come up against a team that's spent a lot of money, a big club, and they've beaten us. Now we have to dust ourselves down for the cup game on Wednesday and away to Everton, which will be tough. We've got one or two knocks again, which isn't going to help, but we will move forward."