Head coach Mark Beard admits his players learned a valuable lesson in their latest Premier League Under-18 game.
Albion lost 3-2 after failing to break down a West Ham side who sat deep and counter-attacked effectively.
Beard said, “Their coach Kevin Keen apologised after the game. He had seen us beat Arsenal 5-0 the previous week and decided the only way to beat us was to sit deep, get 11 men behind the ball and use their pace on the counter-attack.
“We’d obviously watched their previous matches against Fulham and Arsenal when they were quite open and based our own game plan on that.
"It’s disappointing that we didn’t figure out how to break them down but there was a 40mph wind blowing as well. That’s not an excuse, but it didn’t help us move the ball quickly as we’d like.”
The Hammers led 2-0 thanks to two goals from Sonny Perkins before Todd Miller pulled one back on the stroke of half-time when he cut in from the right and bent his shot into the bottom corner.
Kai Corbett made it 3-1 with 12 minutes to go before Matt Everitt got Albion’s second in the final minute after Odelgua Offiah, who is the nephew of former rugby league legend Martin, had won a challenge in the air with the visiting keeper.
Albion are back in action on Saturday at home to Leicester City and Beard won’t be surprised if other teams adopt similar tactics to West Ham in future.
“We have to be prepared for that and adapt,” he added.