Comment: Five dropped points the focus for frustrated West Brom

Instead, the focus is on five points dropped from winning positions, with the narrative still fixed on a team struggling for momentum due to a frustrating habit of letting opponents off the hook.

Wednesday night’s 1-1 derby draw with Blues wasn’t quite so galling as Saturday’s 3-2 collapse at Coventry.

There was no mindless sending-off to turn the tide, or scrutiny of the head coach’s substitutions.

Yet the Baggies were still essentially masters of their own downfall, failing to take the second half chances which would have killed off sub-par visitors and secured a win to lift them into the top half of the table.

Instead, they remain 17th, still only five points off the top-six but with the pressure increased just a notch more ahead of Saturday’s visit of Swansea, their easiest test on paper since the international break.

Internally, there is a belief the past two matches have seen an improvement in performance, if not the points to show for it.

There is certainly a case to be made for that. Against both Coventry and Blues, Albion were quick out of the blocks and in command. On Wednesday they managed five shots on goal and one of those gave them the lead, Alex Mowatt’s drive taking a nick off Phil Neumann and in off the post.

The trouble, as it has already too often been the case this season, is what came next. A second goal remained elusive and with 12 minutes to go Marvin Ducksch, anonymous for most of the evening, headed an equaliser.

That was the seventh goal the Baggies have conceded inside the final 15 minutes of matches this season and though it is true Blues had barely looked like scoring to that point, after it they never looked like losing.

Come the last of five minutes stoppage time, swathes of empty seats were already visible in the home areas. That doesn’t smack of a fanbase which has a huge amount of belief in their team. You wondered just how much that sentiment is shared on the pitch.

Mason maintains his team are not far away from cracking it but at some point you need the results to prove it.

The statistics right now make for telling reading. Albion are currently the Championship’s third-best first half team and the second-worst after the break.

There is certainly nothing to quibble about their commitment. Against Blues they chased and harried, put their bodies on the line. A second half block from George Campbell drew cheers of “USA, USA” from the crowd.

But the killer touch once more eluded them. Twice in the space of a few second half minutes the Baggies broke clear only to foul their lines.

After first failing to find Aune Heggebo with a cross, Isaac Price seemed to decide going for it himself was the best course of action, only to blast wide. Heggebo was perhaps too honest when challenged in the box. It summed up a team in need of a ruthless streak.

There is still time to develop one, in a division of fine margins, yet until then Albion risk staying a team stuck in neutral.