Express & Star

Alan Pardew stumped by first half but hopes second half rally will be appreciated by West Brom fans

Alan Pardew admitted that Albion's flat first-half performance at The Hawthorns left him 'scratching his head' but hopes the second-half rally will ingratiate the team to frustrated fans.

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Alan Pardew. (AMA)

The basement Baggies fell to their ninth successive defeat today, losing 2-1 to Burnley in front of a depleted home crowd.

Although the Clarets scored in either half, Albion were dreadful in the first period before improving after the break.

And Pardew, who kept the same 3-5-2 formation that he used at Bournemouth before matching Burnley's 4-4-2 at half-time, was left stumped.

"The first half at Bournemouth to today was a vast contrast," he said. "I’m scratching my head on the sideline.

"We’re not engaging, we’re not higher up the pitch. Pressure does strange things to you.

"We looked so tentative and defensive first half. We were not engaging Burnley at all.

"I had no option at half-time but to change the shape and try to engage the opposition and put some pressure on them.

"When we did it suddenly made it a much more even contest.

"It was 1-1 second-half and I think we should have won it and perhaps got a draw out of the game.

"But sitting here saying ‘nearly’ is what I’ve done for the last eight or nine games."

Those Albion fans who decided to use their tickets today started to turn in the first half, as groans grew louder with every misplaced pass.

The tide turned at the start of the second half, which the Baggies arguably shaded, and Pardew hopes that rally will go some way to keeping the relationship between team and fans from going completely down the pan.

"The way we played first half, at 1-0 down, that could have been a very embarrassing afternoon," said Pardew.

"But at least the second half we came out and engaged them and took ourselves almost man to man on the pitch.

"We said ‘let’s have a go at it’ and at least we did that."

Pardew brought Matt Phillips on for Kieran Gibbs at half-time and confirmed afterwards that the left-back was not injured.

"I had to change the shape," he said. "I wanted to go with four sound defenders for that particular second half.

"Protecting yourself is sometimes sitting back. We tried to get out of them the fear of stepping onto the team.

"We were causing ourselves more problems by being so nervous and edgy.

"I think a few of the players took that on board actually.

"I almost challenged them to go man for man and match them up and say come on then.

"At least they showed that to our fans second half, that they were prepared to do that.

"Anybody who is a football person would see that that team was not not trying, they were just nervous and under massive pressure.

"I have sympathy with them a little bit but there's also part of me saying come on then, you've got to be stronger than that. That's where I am with it today.

"The only thing I would say for our fans really, is I hope deep in their hearts they kind of understand that a little bit.

"Because it is difficult to understand that as a fan, watching that in the first half."

There has been some suggestion that Pardew's assistant John Carver entered into a verbal altercation with fans in Halford's Lane, but the head coach did not hear anything.

"I didn't notice it if I'm honest," he said. "Can you imagine, the fans are frustrated, we're frustrated, we're not going to get engaged in a situation where we're upsetting fans.

"We're trying to say 'stay with us', and it's very difficult in this situation. I don't want to add anymore to that.

"I've given my honest assessment of what happened today. It's not great, but it is what it is."