Austria trip provides Albion with plenty of positives

It's the final full day in Burgenland for Albion's players and staff and they've rounded off a productive pre-season training camp with a 1-1 draw against Ukrainian champions Dynamo Kyiv.

The game was played at the home of SC Bad Tatzmannsdorf, who play in the fourth tier of Austrian football. You can't call it a stadium as there was perhaps only around 100 seats, with everyone else crammed under the clubhouse roof when the rain came down in the second half.

The pitch lies at the bottom of the slope from the Baggies' base next to a walking track and while this match wasn't quite played at walking pace, unlike a Mozart masterpiece, it also wasn't a classic.

Pre-season encounters never are to be fair but there were plenty of positives. Mikey Johnston, who just days ago was close to moving to Brazil, came on at half-time for Tom Fellows and crossed the ball in from the right for summer signing Nat Phillips to head home the Baggies goal from close range.

Albion played in a 4-4-1-1 formation and looked comfortable in possession. It was interesting to see some of the patterns of play we witnessed on the training field earlier this week being played out in the game and head coach Ryan Mason told me afterwards he was pleased with that.

The week will also have been about team bonding, particularly for new team-mates and it would have given Mason the chance to get to know his players better.

We witnessed the camaraderie as members of the team gathered to play cards in the hotel foyer during a break from training earlier in the week, while new striker Aune Heggebo, who wasn't involved in the friendly, was filmed by the club playing table tennis with Fellows.

The squad will now head from Burgenland back to the Black Country and then onto their next warm-up match against ex-Baggies boss Steve Bruce's Blackpool a week on Saturday.

You can catch all of Steve Hermon's chats with the West Brom players in Austria on BBC Sounds.