Ryan Mason pleased with the progress made by West Brom on opening day

The Baggies saw off visitors Blackburn Rovers 1-0 at a booming Hawthorns as Isaac Price netted the winner after 15 minutes.

It was a deserved victory with the hosts having the lion's share of the openings at goal and home shot-stopper Josh Griffiths rarely troubled. Mason's men finished with 10 men with Darnell Furlong shown a second yellow card. He will serve his one-match suspension in Tuesday's EFL Cup game against Derby.

Mason outlined how important he felt the opening fixture was in beginning the journey to creating a togetherness at the club - between players and supporters - and in a dogged finale holding on against Valerien Ismael's visitors he felt Albion made progress.

"Yeah, a good win," Mason said. "I'm really happy. It's really important to start the season well and we've kind of created a good feeling today.

"A clean sheet as well. I thought it was good value for the win in terms of chance creation. The goalkeeper pulled off a couple of good saves. I thought we played a good match. I'm really happy with the win. Ultimately, that was the most important thing today to get three points."

Debutant Aune Heggebo was denied a second by goalkeeper Balazs Toth, who saved from goalscorer Price in the second half. Price also saw a goalbound strike blocked.

"The reality is we're six weeks into something and I hope and fully expect it's going to look a lot different as time goes on," added the head coach. "That's natural. Although, I thought we created a couple of good chances in the first half.

"I think Bo's (Heggebo) shot that pulled off the good save from the keeper was a real good move. I can't really remember Josh (Griffiths) having to pull off many saves in the game. So yeah, we played a really good game.

"I'm really happy with it. But the reality is that this league and the nature of this league, you have to suffer at times and when you're in those moments, like we probably were in the last five or 10 minutes, defending our box, putting bodies on the line, that was a pleasing thing for me today."

Blackburn laid siege with a series of dead balls late on - but Albion stood tall to repel everything, with another summer recruit Nat Phillips a commanding presence.

Even late Baggies substitutes Ousmane Diakite and George Campbell, two more physical presence, made their mark with clearances. The Hawthorns faithful enjoyed what they saw in what was a good opening-day atmosphere.

"The feeling I got from the group, the willingness to work for each other, to fight for each other, to get that feeling when you win is important," Mason said.

"And we're going to need that going forward. I watched the game last night. I watched the early kick-off earlier.

"This league, the game's not finished until the whistle goes. You have to be fighting in every moment. And I thought we showed a real desire to protect each other and fight for each other and that's certainly a foundation that we're going to need going forward."

The head coach added: "I think we need to understand we need to fight for each other - and you don't get anything in life, even outside of football, that you really want unless you work for it.

"You put time, you put energy and sacrifice into it. And it's no different on the football pitch. They're a good side, a very good side. They finished above us in the league last season so we understood the test.

"It was a test because I thought they posed threats. But the most important thing now and going into any game, regardless of how it looks, is to see and feel a team that are working for each other. I feel like we felt that today. And if the fans can see that, and we can transmit that to the fans in every game, then it's certainly going to help us."