West Brom boss Carlos Coberan says the loss of two key players made life difficult for the Baggies in their thrilling 2-2 draw at Ipswich Town yesterday.
Corberan's men twice went ahead in the dramatic match at Portman Road, only for the never-say-die Blues to battle back for a point.
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And, while praising Town, the Baggies boss said that injuries to defender Kyle Bartley, who was replaced at half-time, and striker Daryl Dike, who lasted just ten minutes as a second half sub, had an impact on the result.
"Unfortunately we didn’t achieve the result we wanted to achieve," he told the club website. "We came here with a target to win it.
“We managed the game well in some moments and maybe in others, we didn’t create enough or attack enough.
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“We were defending for too long against one team which has a lot of quality in attack.
“I value the effort and the commitment the players put into the game. We had a couple of difficult moments with the two injuries.
“Bartley first, who was a key a player today in terms of set-pieces and defending in their key areas.
“After we lost Bartley, we lost our striker Daryl Dike in the second half. The team put a lot of effort in to compensate these difficulties."
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Corberan continued: “Against Ipswich, the more that you defend, the less of a chance you have of winning the game.
“Only one team have beaten them here in the league and that was Leeds back in the summer.
“We were very close to winning, even though in some moments they were better than us.
“It’s a pity that we’ve conceded two goals in the second phase of a set-piece. The first one at the start of the second period and the second right at the end.
“We scored our second goal but there were still lots of things to do. We knew that we would have to defend a lot and protect our lead.
“For me, the key was to try and attack more, but unfortunately we couldn’t and it was a pity that they scored in added time.
“If the players hadn’t put that much energy into the game, it would have been really difficult to leave with a point.”
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