Carlos Corberan wasn’t in the mood to accept West Brom’s excellent performance as a consolation in the immediate aftermath of their 2-1 to Southampton on Saturday afternoon.

Adam Armstrong’s late goal sealed the victory for Albion, despite Corberan’s Baggies putting on a fantastic second half display.

Kyle Bartley had drawn Albion level when he cancelled out Will Smallbone’s early opener, bundling the ball home from close range after Brandon Thomas-Asante had turned Jed Wallace’s cross onto the bar.

But even though they dominated the second half, Albion was left with nothing at St Mary’s.

You could otherwise view this display, from a squad still without key personnel, as another glowing endorsement of Albion’s approach to their Championship workload under Corberan, but the collective performance on the afternoon won’t be enough to satisfy the Spaniard until he’s able to revisit how this match unfolded in depth in the days to come.

West Brom player ratings v Southampton as Albion fail to make dominance count

“I have because we lost,” Corberan angrily retorted when asked if he had any grievances with his team’s performance. “Football shows that, even when you play this game that we have done, we need to keep growing and to attack better the attacking box and to defend better our own box. We are not happy with the result. The feeling I have right now is for the result, not the performance.

I think they have been better than us in the last third of the pitch. Just in the box, not even in the last third. I don’t remember big opportunities for them, and I remember many possibilities for us. We need to do exactly what we’ve done in every international break.

“Unfortunately, every game before an international break we have lost, but at the same time after the break we’ve seen an improvement. If we are able to keep this performance as the standard, and we fix details, we are going to be a very competitive team. That’s the challenge in football – to keep the standards, against every type of opponent.”

Albion would’ve been good value for a point. If they’d have left the south coast with all three, the Saints could’ve had few complaints of their own. As it was, the points stayed put, when predatory marksman Armstrong was afforded the time and space at the back post to convert Ryan Fraser’s cross from close range.

“If you analyse the way how we competed, especially in the second half…in the first half we had some doubts in the press and they found a way to break the press. In the second half, we did exactly the same,” Corberan added. “Our volume of attacks in the second half was more than what they created in the first half, but it’s true that their level of accuracy in the box was better than ours, in both boxes – that’s why they achieved the result.”