Albion let boss down: Skipper

Greening revealed that a week of work at defending on the Baggies' training ground had counted for nothing.

"We'd been working all week in training," said Greening.

"The main aim was to keep things tight at the back and not do anything stupid but we let the gaffer down in the first minute, but we battled back and he said he was pleased with that.

"We were struggling after conceding the first two goals, especially after letting one in after 30 seconds."

Greening was delighted to rescue a point from a match in which Albion twice trailed by two goals.

And he felt they could have won after a headed 'goal' by Kevin Phillips was ruled out for offside.

"It feels like a win and the goal we scored should have stood as a defender got a touch so it shouldn't have been given offside," said Greening. "We battled back well and we did OK.

"We wanted to put on a performance and we didn't really do that, but we showed our battling side and I think maybe last year our side would have caved in and lost.

"We have some great characters this year who want to do well and it showed, even though we were a little sloppy.

"We had chances to win the game and probably were unlucky not to."

Greening paid tribute to the strike duo of Phillips and Roman Bednar, who look set for an extended run in the team after Ishmael Miller was struck down by a hamstring problem.

And the captain confirmed his previous comments claiming that Phillips had demanded to be known as 'Super Kev' were only meant as a joke.

"It was only supposed to be a joke about Kev – he's one of the best players I've ever worked with, he's a top man his record speaks for itself," said Greening.

"It didn't really fall for Kev this week and he said afterwards he didn't get a chance at goal but he's a great goalscorer.

"Roman is on fire. He's good to have around the place, he's fitted in well and has become one of the jokers in the group.

"But he also works hard, closes down and I'm really pleased for him. He's a great professional."

Greening was unhappy with some of Cardiff's late timewasting tactics, and with his own booking for a late tackle.

"Every time Cardiff got knocks they stayed down for a while, maybe to stop us and maybe that came from the manager to stop us in our tracks," he said.

"I spoke to the referee but he didn't do much about it.

"He did book me when I tried to pull away.

"He wasn't having any of it when I went to speak to him – he just said to go away."