The abuse of Jonas Olsson was outrageous and even the reaction to Luke Moore was out of character.

But the Albion duo found themselves as the unwitting victims as weeks of simmering fans’ frustration finally spilled over at the Ricoh Arena.

A third match in four without an Albion goal left them outside the Championship’s top two, with just one win in seven games since their historic demolition of Middlesbrough on Teesside.

Yet Baggies supporters have rarely been slaves to short-term results. It takes genuine worries for them to lose their composure. Their concerns are increasing. One glance at the season’s facts and figures shows it is hardly crisis time at the Hawthorns.

Victory at home to Watford this weekend could restore them to the summit, while another clean sheet on Saturday offered further evidence that Roberto Di Matteo is adding extra solidity to the brittle team he took over.

But, at the other end of the field, where the Albion faithful have been spoiled in recent times, there are mounting questions.

Since Chris Brunt and Co’s famous goal-spree at the Riverside, there have been precious few answers.

The Baggies have no divine right to victories. Their followers have spent too long in recent years watching the rough and tumble of the Championship to expect a cake-walk. But they do expect goals and they expect ambition.

It was the perceived lack of daring-do in Saturday’s West Midlands derby that brought the uncharacteristic sound of booing from the visitors’ end at the final whistle.

While it would be unfair to accuse the visitors of playing for a draw – they enjoyed more possession and chances than their hosts – there was more than a suspicion from their line-up and demeanour that they were willing to take a point.

Their fans have become used to a little more adventure in the time since Tony Mowbray arrived promising a new spirit of ambition. And they have become accustomed to goalscorers displaying their art.

Just one striker started for the Baggies on Saturday. After a start to the season tantalised fans with a hint of endeavour, Luke Moore has fallen back into the lethargy that prompted Mowbray to freeze him out at the end of last season.

The travelling legions clearly could not fathom how Moore lasted for 84 flat-footed minutes, or how the man signed in the summer to add goals to the squad once more remained on the bench.

For all the positive noises emanating from the inner sanctum, Roberto Di Matteo appears unconvinced so far by Simon Cox’s Championship credentials.

If the man who struck 32 goals last season is not considered ready, it leaves the squad looking painfully short of firepower, even allowing for the imminent return of Roman Bednar.

Chris Wood, who missed Saturday’s best chance after replacing Moore, is a teenager learning on the job. Ishmael Miller has been sidelined for too long now to be seen as a sure-fire trump card for this season.

While goals were spread around the team impressively during some dominant displays in the early weeks of the season, it is forwards who more often than not sniff out a winner when things get tight.

Sooner or later, either Albion’s forwards must step up to the mark or reinforcements must arrive. It was that lack of spark from both sides that characterised a dreadful game.

Albion offered fine protection to keeper Scott Carson with solid centre-backs Jonas Olsson and Abdoulaye Meite and tenacious midfielders Gonzalo Jara and Youssouf Mulumbu forming a shield of steel.

Full-backs Gianni Zuiverloon and Joe Mattock played their part defensively too, but having established a sound defensive platform Albion rarely looked capable of adding offensive inspiration.

Graham Dorrans was employed in the same attacking midfield role he filled at Preston, but his performance could hardly have been more different on his most frustrating day of the campaign so far.

On the left, Jerome Thomas offered only fleeting moments of menace, while on the opposite flank Robert Koren again cut the worrying figure of a man frustrated by his role and searching for any kind of form.

A few positive moments came when he swapped placed with Dorrans and took up a more accustomed berth. But he remains well short of the player who starred in the Championship triumph of two years ago.

Carson was never truly extended by a desperately poor Sky Blues outfit, while Albion threatened on just a handful of occasions to give the game a goal it never truly deserved.

A long-range drive from Dorrans midway through the first half was well held by substitute keeper Dimi Konstantopoulos before a rare jinking run from Thomas on the stroke of half-time offered hope of a Baggies penalty.

The winger looked to be caught in the area by Martin Cranie, but a yellow card for ‘diving’ was all the indignant wideman got for his efforts.

That was the end of the drama until the closing moments, when a Dorrans through-ball picked out the intelligent run of Wood, the New Zealander doing everything right until the finish, which was far too close to the grateful Konstantapoulos.

A Wood goal would have spared his side their boos, but it would not have changed the essential truths of a flat attacking display.

Just five weeks after the merciless disposal of Boro delivered a chilling warning to the Championship, reality has come calling for Baggies fans.

If the North East swagger raised unrealistic hopes of a promotion procession, subsequent events have provided an unwelcome refresher course of the true, uncompromising nature of Championship football.

The first damp, filthy day of the season brought a damp, filthy spectacle. It was a sobering reminder that the swashbuckling success of two seasons ago was the exception, not the rule.

Moments after the final whistle put supporters out of their misery, one fan enquired of the press box “can any of you scribes find anything good to say about that?”

Just one man mustered a response – “It’s over!”