West Brom caretaker Jimmy Shan disappointed with poor performance despite fifth home win in a row

The Baggies needed two quickfire goals from Jay Rodriguez and Rekeem Harper in the 77th and 79th minutes to beat Rotherham 2-1 after falling behind to a Clark Robertson header.

The defeat relegated the Millers, but Albion were lacklustre in the first half, and Shan was disappointed with the display.

"It was a poor performance, I don’t think we got going," admitted Shan. "It was difficult in the conditions and the manner they play, they put the ball in and around your back line as frequently as possible.

"In saying that I thought our back three and five defended that well and the first contacts.

"We just didn’t gain any control or any rhythm with the ball. There were moments where we could have worked harder to gain control.

"Not taking anything away from Rotherham but it was relatively easy to penetrate and get in behind their back line, but we just didn’t get going today.

"At half-time we spoke about making passing lines and having options for the receiver of the ball.

"Too many times we wasted having too many bodies behind the ball. We showed two or three clips at half-time where we in possession and had five behind the ball and they had one centre-forward.

"When you’ve got a nine-man block and only five players ahead of it, it’s very difficult to penetrate.

"There was a big thing about positional play and along with it, technically we were loose at times.

"We had some really good opportunities to hurt them and penetrate, but we played the wrong side of people or under-hit the pass and it gets intercepted.

"It was very easy and simplistic to find the way to get around and beyond their back four and we didn’t find it. That’s by decision making.

"It was a poor day at the office in terms of our performance in possession."

Albion didn't seem to respond until they fell behind five minutes after half-time, and it is the third time in five games the Baggies have come from behind to win at home under Shan.

"It did wake us a up a little bit," admitted the caretaker. "I’ve never questioned their character and resilience because they’ve shown it on many occasions this season.

"I actually thought in the first two or three minutes of the second half the team talk had worked because I thought we gained some control and got people in effective areas.

"Conceding the free-kick rocked us a little bit and after the first five minutes of the second half we still didn’t really gain any great control and that was a disappointment for me."

Dwight Gayle won a penalty in the 77th minute after being upended in the box, and strike partner Jay Rodriguez whipped it into the top corner to make it eight successful spot kicks from nine attempts this season.

"I thought it was a penalty," said Shan. "Dwight has attempted to roll to fashion a chance to spin and hit and he’s come through him.

"I’ve not seen it back on video replay yet but my initial reaction was to wave my hands in the air for a penalty. There was contact and he went down."

Despite being second best for large parts of the game, the Baggies should have scored more with both Matt Phillips and Hal Robson-Kanu missing one-on-ones late on.

"Sometimes you have too much time on your hands and start second guessing and over-thinking things," said Shan. "I think that probably happened with both their finishes.

"There were moments in the first half when we could have created counter attacking opportunities, but the quality of our release pass wasn’t great.

"We knew we’d be able to catch them on the counter-attack, we did it cleanly twice. On another day we score both goals and it’s 4-1.

"In saying that a 4-1 score wouldn't have been a true reflection of the game and would have been a slight injustice on Rotherham."