Roy Hodgson today told Albion goal hero Somen Tchoyi he must improve his defending to earn a starting place for the Baggies.

The Cameroon international stepped off the bench to earn his side a point with a late equaliser at Fulham last night.

But Hodgson revealed Tchoyi’s defensive weakness is costing him a regular place in the starting XI.

“Tchoyi is a dangerous player,” said Hodgson. “He’s unpredictable but he has ability.

“As it was 1-0 with 12 minutes to go I thought it was the right time to give him the chance and luckily a chance came his way and he took it with great skill.

“He made it look quite easy but it was a good strike.

“I think he can play from the start as well but we’re without a lot of players at the moment.

“Steven Reid and Billy Jones were unable to start. We’ve got Jerome Thomas and Shane Long, who would normally play, missing.

“In actual fact, to some extent, we were slightly unbalanced.

“And when you put Somen on you are always worried what he’ll give you offensively he might not be able to replicate defensively.

“That’s why we put him up front in the end and brought Marc-Antoine Fortune into the wide position because he knows a little bit more about what we’re trying to do.”

The Baggies return to The Hawthorns on Saturday looking to improve their dreadful home record by beating Swansea.

And Hodgson believes his side must simply cut out costly errors to ensure their home form matches their record on the road, which is the best outside the Premier League’s top four.

“What we saw last night was pretty much how we’ve been in the best part of the games,” he said.

“Where we’ve really let ourselves down is we’ve conceded late goals and goals to horrendous errors.

“We’ve certainly transformed draws into defeats and wins into draws.

“It’s the points lost at home that have served us so badly.

“It would be easier in some ways if were able to say a form is good away but poor at home.

“But it’s not as simple as that – it’s pretty much the same.

“The types of mistakes that led to their opening goal are the types of things that have often cost us a point or even more at times.

“We do need to start putting that right and getting points at home.

“It’s going to be a tough task if we’re going to have to get all our victories away from home to keep us in the league.”