Albion manager Tony Mowbray hailed the loyalty of the Baggies fans after his beaten team were given a standing ovation at the final whistle.

The home players were applauded from the field as supporters turned their anger on referee Rob Styles.

And the boss insisted the heavy defeat to the European champions would not destroy belief in his squad ahead of crucial meetings with Hull and Newcastle.

“I can’t speak highly enough of the supporters,” said Mowbray.

“I know it’s not an ideal scenario and it’s hard to take when you lose so heavily on your own soil.

“But the fans were very supportive of the team and maybe they had a ‘bad guy’ in the middle to have a shout at.

“That maybe kept them on board as much as they were but great credit to them. They created a great atmosphere and we just wish we could have made it into a more competitive match for them.

“I don’t think the scoreline will dent confidence in this instance.

“The players realise where we are at this moment, with the team we’re putting out on the field.

“The group realise we’re a little bit short from our best starting XI.

“To give them a really good game we would have to have our best team out and even then it’s not a guarantee you will give them a good game. Losing a man makes it very, very difficult.

“So, I don’t think it will damage confidence or belief.

“The belief comes from beating Manchester City, Tottenham and Middlesbrough in our last three home games.

“When Newcastle come in a fortnight’s time we’ve got to be ready for that to try and win another home game.

“We’ve got a game at Hull at the weekend and I’m sure it will be a lot tighter affair and we’ll try to pick up some points. We played against a pretty good football team. You have to accept sometimes that you get beaten by a better team.

“Obviously the sending off didn’t help our cause but they are still a top team.

“You’ve got to play these teams with your best team to give yourself the best chance of getting a result and, with respect to the players we had out there, there were probably five or six who might have started who weren’t available.

“We will put it behind us very quickly and we will move on.

“Of course we don’t like losing so heavily at home but we have to respect that we were playing Manchester United, who won the Champions League, the World Club Championships and everything else.

“We could all see the quality that they had. I read that they had 12 injured but it wasn’t a bad side that they had out.

“I would hope it might have been a different story for us with 11 men on the pitch because we were able to ask them a few questions. Generally when you play these sides it’s very difficult to trouble these sides and their goalkeeper and back four and yet in the first 20 minutes we did have a few efforts and opportunities before the sending-off. But it wasn’t to be and we have to move on very quickly to the next game.”