Steve Bruce was adamant West Brom did enough to beat Norwich City but hopes a battling Championship point keeps his critics at bay.

The former Canaries’ defender, and vastly-experienced manager, knows he needs league wins fast with Albion out of the bottom three on goal difference going into the international break.

Bruce was convinced Sam Byram’s equaliser should have been disallowed for handball, and the visitors were denied a first half penalty when John Swift tumbled under Grant Hanley’s challenge.

“Coming here was the ultimate challenge and I thought we were excellent,” he said. “They scored a goal which everybody in the ground understands, I think, hits his hand and goes in. It's one of those.

“There’s eight players around the referee so he must have known something. We should be getting a penalty in the first half too and I don’t think there’s any disputing that either.

“Norwich will say that the ball was going out of play for the penalty I think we should have had, but Swifty has drawn the foul and their guy has barged into him. It’s a stonewall penalty and that’s a frustration for me.

“I never really want to talk about decisions because I know how hard it is, but there’s a couple that we’ve had this year that have gone against us.

“I sound like I’m always moaning and groaning but the way we played, we were terrific. Especially coming to a place like this, we should have won the match.”

Bruce may have found wins hard to come by so far this season. but Albion have only lost two league games, the same as the second-placed Canaries.

“We've played ten and drawn seven. Five or six of them I could've said, including this game, we should've won,” he said. “We slightly changed the way we have been playing, we dropped Swifty into an eight and played on the counter attack.

"Our pace was a worry for them. I'm disappointed for them because we deserved to win it, and I've said that too many times.

"We've got to stick with it, and hopefully it'll turn. There's a long winter ahead. What I've witnessed against the good teams - we know we're as good as anybody else.

"I understand that, we're all judged on results from afar, of course, but those who've seen us play, know that we've played well in a large section of games.

“At the end of the day we haven't had enough wins, they're crucial things. Norwich have gone and won five or six and got to where they want to be, and that's what we've got to do. I'm sure we've got the ingredients to do it.

"Ultimately, if we don't win games, I get my head chopped off. The big key decisions, you need to get right - their goal, and the penalty, have cost us. I'm being genuinely honest.

"I have to deal with that. We haven't had enough wins, there have been too many draws. We'd have been alright if it was still two points for a win, but it's not and we have to accept it.”