Steve Bruce fires 'unacceptable' warning ahead of West Brom's summer

Steve Bruce considers West Bromwich Albion’s dismal 1-0 defeat to Birmingham City on Sunday as the worst game of football he has seen in a long time. The Baggies’ lingering play-off hopes were snuffed out immediately after the international break courtesy of Lyle Taylor’s second half penalty.

It leaves them in 12th with seven matches left to play but still eight adrift of the top six - indeed further cut off than they were at the beginning of this weekend. In what has been a largely harrowing season with precious few redeeming qualities, Albion have now lost almost as many Championship games as they’ve won.

Bruce spoke as bluntly post-match as his strikers were on the pitch at St Andrew’s - this was not acceptable, the quality was desperately lacking and the fact that they could turn over leaders Fulham prior to the break, only to then turn in the displays at Bristol and Blues that infuriated supporters since, was a huge reason as to why they are exactly where they are in the league table - nowhere near where they should be.

“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. That’s the frustration I have, after being here for seven or eight weeks. We go up and down, the reason why we’re in the middle of the pack.

“We can play really well against Fulham. Really well. Really well against Blackburn. Bristol City we change in the second half. That’s my biggest disappointment, what we got. It’s not acceptable for a team who are supposed to be at the top end. Why we’re not is because we go up and down with our performances far too often.”

This is a group of players