Comment: Faith in Alan Pardew's West Brom methods beginning to falter

The FA Cup was arguably Alan Pardew's saving grace, the competition he had pedigree in, his route back to the heartstrings of the fanbase.

But a second defeat at home to Southampton in the past two weeks has now left nothing but a grim survival fight that is highly likely to end in failure.

Mauricio Pellegrino has now beaten the Baggies three times this season. He's only won four games against the other 18 clubs in the Premier League.

Southampton could still go down, and if that doesn't hit home how desperate this Albion team is then nothing will.

Pardew's men had 23 shots to Southampton's five, but the Saints had a cutting edge the Baggies have lacked all season.

When was the last time someone in blue and white showed the sort of composure Dusan Tadic did when he lifted the ball over Ben Foster?

If you were being kind, you'd call it unlucky. Ahmed Hegazi hit the bar, Salomon Rondon had one cleared off the line, Alex McCarthy was man of the match.

But we've seen this show too many times before this season to put it down to luck. This squad is just catastrophically incapable of winning.

It's becoming increasingly apparently that the new head coach is not helping.

Pardew endeared himself to supporters early on, improving the style of play while being honest to the fans.

But after three wins from 16 games, and just one in the league, it seems that maybe he just benefited from being somebody that wasn't Tony Pulis.

Pardew insists the senior players still respect him, but his decision to keep Jonny Evans and Gareth Barry in the line-up after their flagrant disregard for his curfew three days previously was a weak one.

He argued it was borne out of necessity, because Evans and Barry are too important to the team.

But he had four centre-backs on the pitch, plus two defenders and Sam Field on the bench.

If he wanted to make a statement, leaving them out of the team would have been better than removing Evans's armband.

The senior players left their head coach in a tricky position. He would have been left open to just as much criticism had he left them out and lost and he wasn't helped by Barry's awful performance.

The veteran midfielder has been much better than that in recent weeks, but he played on Saturday like a man nearing his 37th birthday still reeling from a late night out. Probably because he was.

Evans put in a more respectable performance, but their inclusion in the team would have really only been accepted by the fans had Albion won.

More important though, is the message it sends to the rest of the squad. Discipline doesn't matter, as long as you're good enough.

And that's the issue many have with football at the elite level, where morals go out the window, and why more and more are begin to question Pardew.

At least the rules were enforced under Pulis, as suffocating as they were. Just ask Callum McManaman or Nacer Chadli.

After such a calamitous week it would be surprising if the powers that be decided to throw another grenade onto the burning wreckage, but Pardew is under increasing pressure following four straight defeats.

Although the overall mood during the match was supportive, for the first time during his reign, boos greeted the final whistle.

Lose to Huddersfield on Saturday and faith in his methods will fall even further. Time to knuckle down and prove the growing number of doubters wrong.