West Bromwich Albion boss James Morrison summed up the defining moment of the 2026 Black Country derby by admitting: "You can't gift goals like that."

But he then threw a protective arm round the shoulder of the culprit, defender Nat Phillips, whose poor backpass let in Wolves frontman Fer Lopez for the game's only goal..

"He owned up to his mistake," said Morrison. "But Nat's been immense over the last couple of weeks.

"We had loads of time. There was a gap to play the ball forwards and we turned it down. That's what I'm disappointed in.

"In games like this, you have to be able to deal with the pressure. We just didn't have that belief. We went backwards and we did that too many times.

"We caused our own anxiety and that gave them a lift. They had the belief they could come after us and get success from it.

"I was delighted to get to half-time at 0-0. Max O'Leary made some fantastic saves and I thought we can have a reset. But we went backwards. Maybe it was just a bit of being safe rather than getting forwards and imposing ourselves.

"We made too many mistakes and you can't do that in a game like this.