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West Brom caretaker Darren Moore doesn't want final day defeat to ruin recent progress

Darren Moore doesn't want today's defeat against Crystal Palace to undo all the good work of the last six weeks.

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Darren Moore claps the West Brom fans. (AMA)

Albion's caretaker boss put his side's lacklustre 2-0 defeat to Roy Hodgson's Palace side down to a 'hangover' from Tuesday night, when relegation was confirmed.

The Baggies didn't reach the heights they have under Moore at Selhurst Park, where they were outclassed, and defeat has sent them down as the bottom club of the Premier League.

But Moore said it was 'understandable' considering the strong opposition and the deflating feeling of relegation.

The 44-year-old has unified the club at the end of a sorry season, and won as many games in his six-match stint as Tony Pulis and Alan Pardew managed together in 30 league fixtures this season.

And he doesn't want the defeat to sully the rebuild of the summer, that he began earlier than anybody expected.

"I feel really proud up here despite today," he said. "There's a feel-good factor in me in terms of what's happened.

"There's no way I'm going to sit here and let one result throw out what's happened in the last six weeks.

"Any defeat is not good," he added. "We knew it would be a very difficult game against strong opposition.

"But also mentally from the result on Tuesday night. It was very difficult for us to manage both against strong opposition and the mind-set which is quite understandable."

Albion struggled to create any chances of note in the game but they kept Palace at bay until the 70th minute, when Wilfried Zaha opened the scoring.

Eight minutes later, Patrick Van Aanholt wrapped up the tie with the home side's second.

"Before the first goal went in, we kept it tight and had one or two chances ourselves," said Moore. "But when the first goal went in it was very difficult to come back.

"Taking nothing away from Palace, they're a good team with wonderful individual players, match-winners all over the pitch. I thought they played ever so well today.

"We always want to create chances for goals. But I have to say we weren't at our fluid best.

"As well as that we were up against a Crystal Palace team that was excellent.

"It was difficult to get over Tuesday so definitely a hangover there.

"At the same time, I said to the players and the staff, please don't be disappointed and let this one result throw out what we've done in the last six weeks."

Thoughts now immediately turn to Albion's new head coach, who is expected to be revealed towards the end of next week.

Moore is one of the leading contenders for the job alongside Brentford boss Dean Smith.

When he was asked if he wanted it, he said: "It would be wrong to speak about Darren Moore now, I know you need to ask the questions, but once we know where we are I'll be happy to speak to you.

"What I've done is answer a call from the club to step in as a caretaker, it's been an honour and a proud moment for me.

"I'm pleased the way we responded over the last six weeks. It's been a real togetherness by everybody."

"The biggest thing for me is that the club moves forward. The biggest thing is to learn what's happened here this season.

"We've been eight consecutive years in the Premier League, it's come to an end. The main thing is to learn from this season.

"Certainly, in the confines of this club is the right ingredients to move forward."