Express & Star

Ally Robertson: West Brom's trip to the seaside typical of the season

The events at Bournemouth this past weekend completely summed up Albion’s season.

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A dejected Jay Rodriguez of West Bromwich Albion after conceding a goal to make the score 1-1 (AMA)

We didn’t play badly, scored the opener, but lost the game. Another defeat from a winning position.

It has been the same for about six or seven weeks now, and these are the sorts of things that happen when you’re down at the bottom when confidence is low – you end up with nothing, having done enough to at least pick up a point.

In another season, the Baggies would have held on to win the game.

If you are higher in the table, sometimes you get that bit of luck.

When Albion won at Liverpool in the FA Cup in January, I thought that might prove to be a turning point in the season.

I really thought we may have been on to something, that the tables were turning.

Sadly, though, they did not build on that win at all – it was straight back to the status quo.

So what can you do? As Alan Pardew said afterwards, the lads gave their all.

After it seemed some were not doing that against Leicester, they all worked hard on the south coast – but they made a few errors and were punished.

We just cannot get the chemistry right, for some reason.

The players are good enough for the Premier League but there just has not been that chemistry you need in order to succeed – those partnerships, understanding all over the pitch.

One of the players who is good enough but has not performed as well as he can do for Albion, due to that lack of cohesion, this season is Jake Livermore.

The midfielder has been included in the England squad for the games against the Netherlands tomorrow and Italy on Tuesday.

That’s a great achievement for him, fantastic for him, having already got seven caps to his name.

A lot of Baggies supporters will be questioning Three Lions chief Gareth Southgate’s decision to include him in the squad, but fair play to the lad.

It’s hard when you’re playing in a team low on confidence, at the wrong end of the table.

It would not be surprising to see him perform well if gets on in either game for England.

Either way, being included should do him some good and hopefully he can return to the player we know he can be in these last few games of the season.

Albion’s fate may all but sealed, but Livermore and a lot of the other players still have a point to prove.