Nicky Shorey has called on his Albion colleagues to start taking responsibility at the back after admitting defensive slips cost them against Blackburn.

Albion fell to 14th in the Premier League — just four points off the drop zone — after Rovers ran out 3-1 winners at The Hawthorns yesterday, despite the Baggies bossing most of the game.

It was their third straight defeat and seventh in 10 games, leaving boss Roberto Di Matteo to slam his defenders afterwards.

And Shorey echoed his manager’s thoughts after Nikola Kalinic’s double and a Mame Biram Diouf’s header sealed victory for Rovers.

“We need to take responsibility,” he said.  “We dominated the first half and obviously it was disappointing to get back and then concede from two set-pieces, which has been our downfall. It’s just set-pieces that have cost us. The overall outfield game hasn’t been bad but if you concede goals from set-pieces you’re going to lose games.

“I thought we were well in the game but to come out after the first half and concede two from two corners was pretty easy for them.”

Jerome Thomas had equalised Kalinic’s third-minute opener before the Croatian was sent off for a rash second-half challenge on Paul Scharner.

Gabriel Tamas was also dismissed three minutes from time, meaning he will miss Saturday’s visit of Manchester United.

But Shorey insisted the stretched squad know what they have to do to turn their fortunes around.

He said: “We’ve got quite a few young players in the team who have only known success after getting promoted from the Championship, but we know it’s a tough league and we can go on losing streaks.

“We’re on one at the minute and we’ve got to stop it.”

The former Villa ace had been recalled in favour of Marek Cech for his first start in six weeks and said, despite the result, it was a welcome return.

“All I want to do is go out there and play,” said the left-back. “It’s been frustrating for me not playing and it’s nice to get back out there.

“I was a bit tired but I’ve got that under my belt now.”

Rovers boss Steve Kean, in charge for the rest of the season after the shock sacking of Sam Allardyce this month, was delighted with his first win. He said: “We showed the togetherness of the group, we’ve got a very good group.

“We said to them it’s a time where we need to stick together.

“We’ve got a few injuries in key areas and don’t have massive scope to change things so it’s about keeping together.

“In spells of the game we had to be really disciplined as West Brom are an excellent passing side.

“We had to be disciplined with our shape because we had quite an effective team out there.

“I’m delighted for the travelling fans. We don’t get too many away wins so the fact they have made the trip and kept with us is great.”

“They travelled in their numbers and I think what they’ve seen is a spirited performance.”