Jason Steele admitted that Nottingham Forest made the most of the ‘big moments’ to deal Albion’s European hopes a blow at the City Ground.
Steele saved Brennan Johnson’s 10th-minute penalty but Albion were beaten 3-1 despite going in front through Facundo Buonanotte’s goal on his first Premier League start.
Steele, restored to the starting line-up after recovering from a hamstring injury, said, “Big moments in the game seemed to go against us at big times and when they got theirs they took them.
“The atmosphere was electric throughout which we knew it would be but I thought we played well and controlled the first half. But they took their chances in the second half.”
Steele insisted playing 120 minutes at Wembley in the FA Cup semi-final three days ago did not hamper Albion’s performance.
“I don’t think Sunday had an effect,” he said. “We had enough time to get over that, it was just one of those nights when the big moments went against us.
“But we’ll get this out of our system. We’ve got a big home game on Saturday against Wolves and hopefully at the Amex we can get back on track with three points.”