'Quality' - Cardiff City boss delivers verdict on defeat to West Brom

Cardiff City manager Erol Bulut bemoaned his side's lack of cutting edge in the final third as they were hit with two killer blows by West Brom.

The Baggies delivered the worst possible start to the Bluebirds as they took the lead through Celtic loanee Mikey Johnston inside thirty seconds. Cardiff had one key opportunity of note which was Kion Etete missing from just a few yards out after being teed up by Aaron Ramsey.

West Brom had to deal with a wave of Cardiff attacks, but after weathering the storm, they confirmed the victory late on as Andi Weimann netted the all important second which meant there was no way back for the Welsh side. The win saw WBA bridge the gap on Ipswich Town to eight points who play this evening whilst Cardiff fell further away from the play-off picture.

Speaking to WalesOnline after the game, Bulut said: "It's difficult when you concede a goal in the first minute against West Brom, who are at home, with quality players. It's not easy but we pushed really hard, especially in the second half, we had chances to score and make it 1-1, with Kion and with Ramsey.

"If you don't score, it's normal that at the end they get the second one, because we were pushing to get the second one. We conceded the first goal easily, the concentration from the first second is important. We lost a one-v-one situation. Opponents, when they get those chances they are scoring and we are not scoring. This is the difference.

"We were just missing the goals from the chances we had. In the second half, to concede the goal, it was a problem. The opponent didn't have many chances, the shots on goal were the same (as us). But they scored two and we scored nothing.

"We have scored goals with our defenders from set pieces. We don't have enough and this has to change. These chances that we do create, we are not scoring, this is one issue. We cannot say we don't create. We create but we are not finalising. This is about the individual player; whether this is the defender, midfielder or striker.

"The opponent had two chances, had a quality pass with timing and they scored. Small details and these small details decide about winning or losing. Right now it's negative a little bit."

West Brom completed the league double over Cardiff after defeating them in South Wales back in November thanks to a Jeremy Sarmiento effort. Cardiff could not call upon Karlan Grant who was ineligible to play against his former club but he could feature against Norwich City at the weekend.

Cardiff's goalkeeper Ethan Horvath made a classy gesture by wearing one of the shirts that adorned Daryl Dike's number. Horvath is an international teammate of Dike's. West Brom star Cedric Kipre who was at Cardiff last season meanwhile showed his appreciation to the travelling supporters who remembered his efforts last season.