Ryan Mason won't have 'judgement clouded' as West Brom crash out on penalties after late sting

Albion had been good value for their lead and, seemingly, the victory after Aune Heggebo's first goal for the club in the second half but paid the price for not putting the Hawthorns tie to bed.

Despite clear disappointment, however, Mason saw progress from much of the display ahead of a return to Championship action at ambition new boys Wrexham on Saturday lunchtime.

"Yes of course," Mason said of his frustration. "The nature of it, the timing of the goal, I think it's their first shot on target in the whole match.

"We played a good game, deserved to go through and football can be harsh sometimes.

"It (the performance) was good, we deserved to win the game. I think they pulled off three or four really good saves. We should have probably gone 2-0 up, it didn't happen, that's fine. That never felt in danger at all.

"I don't think they created really a thing all night, to be perfectly honest. So it's disappointing, it's frustrating because we really wanted to win the game. But that happens in football, it's not going to cloud my judgement on the overall performance."

Mason had made six changes to his starting line-up but stuck to a strong side and emphasised his desire was to book a place in the second round with a second win in four days to start the new season and his time as head coach.

Albion could have put the tie to bed but Isaac Price, Mikey Johnston and Josh Maja - back from a lengthy injury spell - were all denied by Derby's Josh Vickers, who went on to the be hero in the shootout as he saved from Jed Wallace and Karlan Grant. Maja hit the post with his effort.

Mason insisted he did not have a clear view of Caleb Taylor's foul in the 96th minute which led to Ward's dispatching the free-kick over past deputy Albion goalkeeper Joe Wildsmith from a tight angle.

"We want to win games of football," Mason said. "That's the reality, it's my job to win games of football. We fully deserve to win the game tonight.

"Like I say, unfortunate, harsh, but it's the reality of football. We have to accept it and move on. We've got another game Saturday. 

"Listen, the game's never over until the ref blows the whistle. So we've got six minutes added time again, which we had at the weekend ... But like I said, at the same time, I felt pretty calm. Obviously, set plays, things can happen. But overall throughout the game, they didn't really threaten our goal at all."

Callum Styles, Alex Mowatt, Tom Fellows, Price and Heggebo were the five to retain their place in the line-up from the victory over Blackburn. Changes included a full debut for new boy George Campbell and senior bow for academy right-back Alex Williams.

The one omission from the matchday squad of 20 was Torbjorn Heggem, the centre-back regular who has been linked with a move away to Bologna of Italy.

Mason added of the Norwegian's absence: "Well, Darnell (Furlong) is suspended. We're not blessed with loads of numbers in that backline. So we rested Nat (Phillips) tonight and we also rested Heggy and thought it was probably a wise decision to leave one of them at home and we chose Heggy.

"Hopefully for the weekend, everyone will be fine and ready to go."