Ryan Mason admits his frustration as West Brom are pegged back by Birmingham

West Brom head coach Ryan Mason admitted he is “frustrated” at his team being unable to finish teams off after his side were punished by Birmingham’s late equaliser in a 1-1 draw in the Sky Bet Championship on Wednesday.

Alex Mowatt’s 50th career goal gave Albion a deserved 12th-minute lead but they failed to take their chances at The Hawthorns and were pegged back by Marvin Ducksch’s 78th-minute header.

Mason explained: “We were 1-0 up and created opportunities to make it 2-0 and couldn’t make it count – that’s why I was frustrated.

“The players are putting in so much effort and quality at times as well but we’re not doing enough to get over the line.

“It’s something we need to try to improve and help the players as much as possible because it’s close and we have been there in so many games this season.

“We’re coming out on the wrong end of results where we feel like we’ve had situations to create some distance between us and the opposition, then we’ve been punished for it.”

Albion fans shouted for a penalty when Aune Heggebo went down under challenge from Patrick Roberts.

Mason added: “My feeling live was it was a penalty because our striker was going through on goal and the defender went to ground. The ref said the defender didn’t touch the ball.”

Isaac Price and Callum Styles went close for Albion before Mowatt struck.

The captain for the night lashed a low drive in off Phil Neumann from 20 yards after Birmingham failed to clear George Campbell’s long throw-in.

Dangerman Mikey Johnston twice threatened for Albion before the break.

After the restart, Albion continued to dominate. Aune Heggebo’s header was held by James Beadle, before Karlan Grant’s shot was deflected wide.

Twice Price produced a poor final ball when well positioned, before Birmingham’s Christoph Klarer almost headed into his own net.

Blues equalised against the run of play when Ducksch glanced in Tommy Doyle’s free-kick from 12 yards for the German’s third goal in two games.

Albion goalkeeper Josh Griffiths produced a double save to deny shots from Roberts and Tomoki Iwata before Mowatt’s volley flew wide.

Birmingham City manager Chris Davies admitted Ducksch’s header was crucial for his side.

“At the end of the season we will look back at that and say it was a very important goal,” said Davies.

“We’ve brought these attacking players in to have these big moments.

“Marvin has shown his quality in other games, his link-up play and intelligence and his goal contributions – not just scoring but the way he links with others. That’s been very strong.

“Being a goal down in a local derby when we weren’t at our best, to come away with a point is a good point.”

Not surprisingly, Davies disagreed with his former fellow Tottenham coach Mason on the penalty incident.

He added: “I didn’t see it and I can’t even remember it, which tells you how much I thought it was a penalty.”