Albion boss Roberto Di Matteo admits his team must still improve defensively after they slumped to a pre-season defeat at Swindon.

The head coach saw his side lose 1-0 to the League One outfit, with crosses into the box a constant threat for the Baggies.

While he is happy with his squad’s fitness three weeks into pre-season, Di Matteo confessed they have not made the progress he hoped for at the back.

He said: “I would have liked to be a bit further ahead in terms of the work we have done, but I realise it is not going to happen over three weeks.

“Fitness-wise I have no complaints. We still have a lot of work ahead of us, especially on the defensive side of our team.

“Going forward I think we have enough quality to be dangerous but we have make sure we get a lot tighter and don’t concede.”

Di Matteo used the penultimate senior friendly to hand much-needed match time to players who had previously been injured or on the periphery of the team.

Simon Cox, returning to his old club, completed his first 90 minutes after ankle trouble, Abdoulaye Meite and Shelton Martis started after illness and injury respectively, while Filipe Teixeira got his first start.

But Luke Moore, Jonathan Greening and Jonas Olsson were rested after spending the majority of the previous warm-up games on the field.

Di Matteo insists he can still take positives from last night’s defeat.

He said: “When we have possession and we pass the ball there is good quality. There were also a few players who played 90 minutes last night.

“I rotated the team a little bit, because we have now played three games in six days and we have another one on Saturday.”