Ex-Sunderland and Newcastle United boss Steve Bruce's West Brom spell goes from bad to worse

The former Sunderland and Newcastle United boss – who left St James’s Park earlier this season after the takeover to be replaced by Eddie Howe – has only won two of his 10 games in charge of West Brom.

He described the latest defeat as the ‘worst game of football I’ve seen in a long time’.

Lyle Taylor’s fourth goal since arriving at the club was the difference in the 67th minute after Conor Townsend was penalised for handball.

Albion failed to register a shot on target all game and now face a large task of reaching the play-offs with an eight-point gap between themselves and Blackburn.

Bruce expressed his frustrations on the defeat for his side.

“It’s got to be the worst game of football I’ve seen in a long time,” Bruce admitted.

“We didn’t possess any real quality in the top end of the pitch. We had some moments but it lacked quality on both sides.

“After being here for seven weeks, we go up and down. The reason why we’re in the middle of the pack in the Championship is because of that.

“We can play really well against Fulham and that’s my biggest disappointment, it’s not acceptable. For a team that should be, or supposed to be, at the top end, we go up and down far too often.”

Albion were denied a spot-kick early on when Marc Roberts seemed to handle the ball, but nothing was given before Birmingham won one themselves.

Despite admitting that Blues’ penalty was the right decision, Bruce was not hesitant on venting his frustration on the earlier decision.

“It’s a stonewall penalty,” he continued. “I think the referee has blown his whistle and then invented a free-kick for them when none of our players went for the ball.

“Conor’s got his hand in a position where he shouldn’t so I’ve got no qualms about that one, but we should have had a blatant penalty after three minutes.”