'We'll be fine' - Alan Pardew encouraged by first game as West Brom boss

Albion drew 0-0 with Crystal Palace at The Hawthorns today, but their new head coach believed his team should have beaten the bottom side.

Pardew named an attacking line-up with three strikers in it, and the Baggies, who had 20 shots in total, played on the front foot for most of the game.

They couldn't find the breakthrough, but Pardew, who was missing key players like Matt Phillips, Nacer Chadli, James Morrison and Chris Brunt to injury, reckons it was a promising performance.

"I was encouraged because I'm still missing five or six you could argue might be starters, certainly three or four," he said. "If that's the quality of the group I have then we'll be fine.

"I thought we had some really good performances today and the application in the first two days and the game today I couldn't fault. It's just disappointing we couldn't send our fans home today with a win."

The Baggies came flying out of the blocks with a three-pronged strike force, but Roy Hodgson's Palace finished the first-half on top and might have had a penalty when Ahmed Hegazi kicked Wilfried Zaha in the box.

Pardew was concerned by that dip towards the end of the half, but was pleased with the reaction after the break.

"We started as I would have liked," said the new boss. "We tried to unhinge them at the start and knock them out of their stride.

"Then we just let them off at set plays, our set plays weren't quite right. And then unfortunately we lost our way in the first half, 15 minutes before half-time was concerning really.

"We looked like we lost confidence in what we were doing.

"We managed to get them in at half time, re-allign them a little bit and then second half was really good, I was really pleased.

"Sam (Field) on the left hand side did great for us, Jay (Rodriguez) looked more efficient with Salomon (Rondon) and the back four with Claudio (Yacob) were great in terms of our transition and momentum in the game.

"Palace hardly had an incident second half, maybe one great moment from (Ruben) Loftus-Cheek, that's all I can remember.

"So we did a really good job second half and a break or a little bit more quality or belief around the box and we might have won it."

Albion's winless streak is now 14 games in all competitions but the Baggies did keep their first clean sheet for 11 matches and Pardew reckons it's something to build on.

"I think Fozzy had to make one good save, he wasn't particularly troubled," said Pardew. "I expected the two centre-halves to play well and obviously I've got Gareth McAuley which is a lovely luxury to have.

"But the two full-backs did well today because that's as severe a test they're going to have from any team outside the top six. That was a good sign."

The Baggies looked far more adventurous going forward, and had 20 shots during the game, but Pardew didn't believe it was wayward finishing that cost them.

"I wouldn't say wayward, but sometimes a lack of belief or a few ricochets that fell for them, last minute blocks that could have fell for us but didn't," he said.

"I'm disappointed we haven't won and that's not a bad feeling, but I'm also buoyed by the commitment they've given me. I'm looking forward to working with the guys."

And there are a few tweaks he noticed today that need working on in his first full week in charge.

"In that spell before half-time we got deep, stopped pressing, started getting pulled around a little bit," he said. " We can't do that.

"Just that little spell and a couple of other things we can improve immediately, throw-ins we can improve, set-plays, those areas we can nail down for next week, but we've got stay on game plan."

But he enjoyed being back in the dug-out after 11 months away from the game.

"You enjoy the camaraderie and feeling of the dressing room," he said. "I'm not sure I enjoyed the smells of the dressing room but other than that it was nice!

"There are some good pros in there, they were very focused before the game, there's a lot of experience in there so I'm looking forward to working with them."