Defender Mason Holgate admits West Brom's defeat to Watford was a difficult one to take.
Albion lost 2-1 at Vicarage Road on Sunday, their first loss since Middlesbrough at the start of October, as goals from Vakoun Bayo saw off Carlos Corberan's men despite a Jayson Molumby consolation.
The defeat drops them out of the play offs, albeit with still over half of the season to go, and in eighth position, now below Watford, ahead of the hectic festive period coming up which starts with hosting Bristol City this Sunday and continues with tough trips to Derby on Boxing Day and league leaders Sheffield United on December 29 before returning to the Hawthorns to face Preston. It also ended their impressive 11-game unbeaten run.
And Holgate said: “It's disappointing to lose any game, but I think we're more disappointed with the fashion of how we lost.
“We had our chances, but, if we look at their goals and analyse them, there are definitely things we can work on.
“First half we were doing really well and had our chances. If anything, I'd say we were the better team so it was disappointing to come out of that one goal down. I don't think we deserved to be 1-0 down.
“Obviously, we then concede an avoidable goal to start the second half and then we’re uphill from there and giving ourselves a mountain to climb. We managed to get one back and we got some shots off, but we didn't quite do enough to get an equaliser which is frustrating.
“It's a busy period though, all we can do is dust ourselves down and go again. We can't dwell on it too much.
“Whether we win or whether we lose, we've just got to keep going and be the best team we can be each game. Obviously, we're disappointed but there's so many games coming over this period, it's all about how you react.
“It's tough to take, but we've got to react to it and keep going now.”