Steve Bruce spotted something to build around as West Brom prepare for defining week

Steve Bruce’s first game in charge of West Bromwich Albion in front of a home crowd ended in a low-key goalless draw with Blackburn Rovers at The Hawthorns.

Albion battled, especially in the second half, but were thankful for Sam Johnstone on a couple of occasions in that time. Adam Reach might’ve won it late on with a header from a long throw, but it was cleared off the line in the nick of time.

The Baggies are up to eighth, while Rovers remain in third after this.

Here are the talking points from The Hawthorns.

It’s baby steps. Albion have taken a point here and it was probably, on the face of it, a fair outcome. The quality was desperately thin on the ground across the pitch, but they looked as likely as scoring as they did at Sheffield United, and at Millwall. Against Preston, too, for that matter.

If you can’t score, don’t concede, I suppose. Ben Brereton-Diaz is among the best marksmen in this division and he looked sharp here, but Matt Clarke and Semi Ajayi were both more assured here after lining up for the first time as a duo in the defeat at Bramall Lane.

With Kyle Bartley soon to return and Dara O’Shea waiting in the wings, Bruce has options there. Thankfully Albion’s defence showed signs of its usual solidity here, and it’s form that must be maintained until May.

It’s now 10 matches in the last 14 league games where Albion have failed to hit the back of the net. It’s becoming farcical.

For no significant period of play on Monday night did they look particularly likely to breach a defence which had inconveniently lost the towering Daniel Ayala to injury in the warm-up.

Karlan Grant and Callum Robinson were both desperately poor in the inside forward roles, and Grady Diangana didn’t have much better luck when