West Brom's Conor Townsend: We went away from what we're good at

Experienced defender Conor Townsend has urged Albion to get back on their game after the international break following Sunday’s Wolves humbling.

The left-back was part of the Baggies side that put in their poorest display of the season so far in the Black Country derby at Molineux, where the hosts’ 1-0 win flattered the visitors.

Townsend found it tough going to deal with the lively Rodrigo Gomes as Wolves proved too strong for James Morrison’s side.

Albion conceded the game’s only goal to Fer Lopez through a Nat Phillips error, while trying to play possession football around their own penalty area, a feature under Morrison. Left-back Townsend does not feel the side were anywhere near good enough at what has been done well so far this season.

"We've been brilliant at playing out and building and we didn't do it anywhere nearly good enough,” Townsend said.

"We seemed to go away from what we've been good at. I'm not too sure why. We've got to get back to what we're good at.

"We've got to believe in what we're doing if we're going to have any success in this league.”

Townsend, 33, said there is no blame game after Phillips’ blind pass was picked off by Wolves’ Lopez and suggested those kind of errors come with the territory of the style of play.

“It happens in football,” he said. “We're playing a certain type of way and have had loads of success with it.

"It's a mistake but we could've been 3-0 down at half-time. As a team we need to be better, it's not just on Nat, it's on us all as a squad and unit.

"We didn't show ourselves. If we play how we can it would've been a much more competitive game, that's on us.”

Townsend returned to The Hawthorns on a free transfer in the summer to play a deputy role to star man Callum Styles.

The former has found himself in Morrison’s team of late with Styles required to cover at right-back, with injury and suspension to Nolan Galves and Brayann Pereira respectively. Pereira is likely to return at right-back after the break.

Townsend was the only Albion player to have previously sampled a Black Country derby prior to Sunday.

He said: “As a team we didn't get up to anywhere near the level we have been.

"There have been a lot of plaudits for the dressing room, from fans, for the start of the season and rightly so, some of the boys have been brilliant throughout this first period.

"It just wasn't quite there for us. We didn't threaten their goal. Max (O’Leary) played fantastic, he kept us in it with two or three world class saves.

"It's a tough one to take. It's our worst performance of the season and to come in this game is hard to take. The dressing room was really despondent after as you'd imagine.”

But the left-back added a call for unity. “We've had a good start to the season in general,” he said. “There's a lot of positives, it's a young dressing room in general.

"Now's the point we need to stick together as a team, club, players, staff, fans, stick together and believe in what we're doing. We'll go away to work hard and put it right.”