James Shan challenges West Brom U23s to improve

Albion's under-23s got back to winning ways in Premier League 2 thanks to 17-year-old Tyler Roberts converting a third-minute penalty on his brief return from Oxford United, where he's on loan until January.

Victory at Aggborough leaves the Baggies third in Division Two, but Shan was not overly impressed by his side's use of the ball.

"If you're looking at just results and getting momentum back into the team and competing for the league then it's obviously a fantastic result in terms of three points and a clean sheet," he said.

"But looking at it from a developmental point of view, and looking at the performance, I'm bitterly disappointed.

"I thought we started very well in the opening 10 minutes. If we had continued to play that way I'd have been the happiest man in the stadium, but it wasn't the case.

"That frustrated me because not an awful lot changed. Their back four went a bit higher, there was more space to exploit behind and we just missed those opportunities.

"I was disappointed with our spacial awareness. In possession our quality and decision making could have been better at times.

"Defensively, the power of zero is there for everyone to see. It's a clean sheet.

"I'm uncertain how many times (goalkeeper) Jack (Rose) was asked to make a save. They had a lot of set plays and bombarded him in the box, and obviously we've not conceded so we've defended that well. The lads will get a plus in the that box.

"But I'm a perfectionist, I want to defend well and I want to play well. For me, it's about having the ball and dominating, using your possession. I just felt we lacked that at times."

Albion handed a trial to 22-year-old striker Ferdinand Takyi, who started up front alongside goalscorer Roberts, and slipped in his strike partner for the penalty.

Born in Ghana, Takyi spent his youth career with a second-division Bundesliga team in Germany and has also played in Latvia.

"He came up a week ago and spent four days with us, along with another lad who came in via the recruitment department," revealed Shan.

"He did well, obviously when a trialist does well in training it's important that we expose them to a game. That's what we've done.

"What we'll do is sit down with the first team staff and assess him. We've got the game on a video, and like any trialist that we have, we'll assess his performance and make a decision.

"We've got a game in the Birmingham Senior Cup against Sutton (on Tuesday) so it will be the back end of the week when we speak to the player and the agent about our decision.

"He's a really good kid, he had exposure to Europa League qualifiers in Latvia before going back to Germany with a non-league club. He's currently looking to get a club in this country, hence why he's here."

Albion are taking a young side made up mainly of under-18 players to Sutton Coldfield tonight for the first round of the Birmingham Senior Cup.