WEST Brom midfielder Chris Brunt took some comfort from a rare clean sheet as the Baggies shared a frustrating goalless draw with West Ham.

Steve Clarke’s men earned a first point in four attempts, and a first clean sheet in seven outings, but they could not break down a stubborn Hammers defence.

Brunt said: ‘‘I think we were a bit sloppy in the first half. In the second half we put them under a lot of pressure but couldn’t break through.

‘‘To be fair they defended pretty well and at certain points we did come close to getting a result. A point takes us off that losing streak we were on.

‘‘A clean sheet is very welcome.

We haven’t had too many recently so credit to the back four and Boaz Myhill as well. He’s come in and done very well, having been on the wrong side of a few bad results.”

A run of three defeats saw West Brom slip out of the top four following a surprise start to the season, but they have a healthy tally of 27 points from 17 games.

‘‘At the start of the season we would have snapped somebody’s hand off for it but I think we should be kicking on,’’ Brunt added.

‘‘But it was important to get something today and hopefully that can help us going into the Christmas period.’’ More worrying for the Baggies is a stretch of four games without scoring but James Morrison went close on several occasions.

The Scotland midfielder said: ‘‘We created a lot of halfchances but it didn’t fall for us. It’s a positive result, though, and the lads ground it out.

‘‘They frustrated us with their gameplan. They played off the front and defended very well so we struggled to break them down.’’ West Ham manager Sam Allardyce was equally pleased to oversee a rare shut-out, the Londoners’ first since a 1-0 victory at Newcastle five weeks ago.

He said: ‘‘We’ve had a habit of conceding the first goal in the first half.

‘‘But we’ve cut that out today and tried to win it when we could, but it’s a difficult place to come.

‘‘West Brom are doing very well here this season so we’re well satisfied. It was a real, good, solid, honest performance from the players today.’’