Albion boss Tony Mowbray admits the dramatic late loss of Abdoulaye Meite before kick-off was a major blow to Albion’s derby hopes against Villa.

The Baggies centre-half, who started the first three games of the season, missed last weekend’s 3-2 win over West Ham with a calf injury but was named in the original starting XI.

Mowbray wanted that extra height and power to deal with the aerial threat of John Carew but the luckless Meite suffered a recurrence of the problem, in the warm-up just 10 minutes before kick-off.

The Albion manager had to scrub the Ivory Coast international’s name from the team-sheet and promote Leon Barnett from the bench.

Mowbray said: “It was disappointing to lose Abou. It’s easy for me to say it would have made a difference. But you’ve got to have your quality on the pitch. I would suggest that perhaps both Villa goals might not have occurred with different personnel.

“Meite has been recovering from a calf injury he picked up at Bolton but trained all week without any problems. But it gave way on him again in the warm-up and we had to change things.”

It was a problematical day for Albion, with Chris Brunt barely making it past the 20 minute mark, while the Albion manager also explained his decision to bring on strike duo Ishmael Miller and ex-Villain Luke Moore in the 57th minute, for Roman Bednar and Borja Valero.

He said: “If Ishmael had come on and scored and Luke had put his good chance away, we’d have been saying what good substitutions.

“You live and die by your substitutions. I’ve got no qualms about Ishmael. As I said about Roman the other week, he was bursting out of his shirt and wants to play.

“Sometimes, you’ve got to give them an opportunity. Luke almost scored from something that dropped in the box but a deflection took it past the post.

“They’re there to compete with each other for a shirt and they’re all doing it at the moment.”

Mowbray is convinced that lessons have to be learned and learned quickly by his players, as they now prepare for the trip to Middlesbrough on Saturday.

He added: “We started very well. Before they scored, most of the play was going towards their goal and I thought we dominated the game early on.

“It was a bit like the Everton game, when they scored two quick goals, and it was all uphill after that. Generally, I can’t fault the effort and desire and, at times, the quality.

“There was some very, very poor defending. The bottom line is if you defend like that you’re going to lose games. That’s what this league is all about and we need to eradicate the mistakes.

“John Carew should never have been allowed to head the ball into the net. Centre halves are there to stop him heading into the net.

“Football can’t be that easy where you let the centre forward head the ball in. It’s about the personnel.

“When we get the right personnel on the pitch, it won’t be a problem – I’m pretty sure of that.

“Teams aren’t having to work very hard to score against us. It’s been an Achilles heel for us since I’ve been here. That’s why over the summer we have tried to strengthen that department and we will continue to work on it.”