Sam Allardyce believes his West Brom players would have been 'an awful lot fitter' against Newcastle United if the Baggies did not have to play two games in four days.
Although Newcastle's preparations for Sunday's goalless draw were far from ideal - Allan Saint-Maximin and Miguel Almiron were ruled out through injury, Matt Ritchie had a bust-up with Steve Bruce and the Magpies' head coach accused a dressing room mole of committing 'treason' - the visitors at least had a clear week in the run up to the game.
West Brom, in contrast, played Everton on Thursday evening but left-back Conor Townsend was right when he said the 'brighter' Baggies 'looked the fitter team' three days later.
West Brom may now be eight points from safety with just 10 games to go, but Allardyce certainly could not fault his side's efforts.
"If you look at what the lads put in here on Thursday night...Newcastle didn't have a game at all," Allardyce told Amazon Prime Video Sport after the 0-0 draw.
"I don't think we got fairly treated by the Premier League, throwing this game in and us having to play at 12 o'clock. We need fresh legs.
"Even though the lads gave a brilliant performance, in terms of how they showed their fitness, they would have been an awful lot fitter than they were had they not played on Thursday.
"If we could have had this fixture on Monday or even if we had this fixture at 8 o'clock tonight [Sunday], we would be that bit fresher.
"Maybe that might have been the difference between us scoring and not scoring but, obviously, we can't change that.
"All I can say about my team is I couldn't ask for more. The only thing I really needed was someone to put their mark on the quality of their finishing, whether it be a header or a shot.
"We had plenty of opportunities, plenty of chances in the final third, but, unfortunately, no conversion."
