West Brom took a 'backwards step' against Norwich, admits Tony Pulis

Tony Pulis admitted that defeat to Norwich was a backward step for his West Brom side, coming on the back of a three-match unbeaten run.

Robbie Brady scored the only goal of the game at The Hawthorns for Norwich and the Baggies rarely looked like finding an equaliser as they failed to muster a shot on target in the entire match.

West Brom stay in 11th, on 39 points, despite the defeat and are effectively safe from relegation but that did little to take away from the former Stoke manager's disappointment.

"That's not the point," Pulis told Sky Sports. "The point is that every game we play, whether it is against a team struggling at the bottom end or a team at the top, we should be at the same level and today we weren't."

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Asked if the result was a backwards step, Pulis replied: "Very much so. You can pick on anyone, you look at the 11 players that started and the ones we brought on and there was no spark, it was just so, so flat after the first 20 minutes.

"I thought we started okay but we still didn't get enough balls in the box, didn't get enough people in the box. Norwich get the three points and good luck to them."

Pulis was also critical of his side's defending for the Norwich goal and the way his side failed to build on a positive start to the match.

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"It was a really poor game and it had 0-0 written all over it," Pulis said. "When it's a scrappy affair like it was today you get really disappointed if you give them a goal and that's what we did, we gave them a goal.

"It was really poor defending - I know they had a break, a little bit of luck when it comes off the back of Jarvis and drops to the lad [Brady].

"The way we've played lately, we've played really well, the players have been on top of their game and we've turned up today and after the first 20 minutes it just seemed to drift away from us."