Tony Mowbray thought Wayne Hennessey denied West Brom a deserved win over Wolves but Mick McCarthy felt his side were worthy of their point.Hennessey dived low to his right in the 84th minute to deny Zoltan Gera from the spot and cap an impressive display in Sunday's 0-0 draw at The Hawthorns after Neill Collins was adjudged to have fouled Baggies substitute Craig Beattie inside the area.

The Wales international had earlier pulled off another fine save to push Filipe Teixeira's curling shot onto the post as McCarthy's side stubbornly held on for a point against their fellow Championship promotion contenders.

"I'm pleased in two ways," said McCarthy. "Pleased that we have got a point from it, I'm more pleased at the way we played. It was a real solid, mature performance.

"It's a difficult place to play, they have a good home record and they are a very good side.

"Tony (Mowbray), to his credit, got them playing some great stuff but I think we matched them. They had a great spell in the first half but I thought we had by far and away the better of it in the second half."

The visitors may have enjoyed more of the possession in the second period having been on the back foot for much of the first but they still had Hennessey, who has proven to be more a more than able deputy for Matt Murray, to thank come the final whistle.

"Arguably the best save was from Teixeira, with the penalty he has guessed right and saved it, but the other one was a better save, it was fantastic," said McCarthy, whose side climbed up to fifth as a result. "I think his back four deserve a pat on the back as well because other than that I don't think he has made that many saves but he made two vital ones."

Albion boss Mowbray refused to blame Gera for squandering a golden chance from the spot.

"I don't criticise them (the players) for missing penalties. The keeper has made a decent save. That's football," he said.

"It would be nice if he had stuck it in the bottom corner and the keeper had gone the wrong way but it didn't happen."

The Baggies boss disagreed with McCarthy's assessment as they failed to take full advantage of leaders Watford's slip-up on Saturday.

He said: "I thought we did enough to win it but that's football. I think it was a good game. The first half was particularly fluent, it was very much two styles of play really.

"A team probing and trying to create openings against a team that was counter-attacking and getting men behind the ball and breaking very well

"If you're a football purist it was a very entertaining game to watch."

The result means Albion climb back into second spot five points behind Adrian Boothroyd's side but boasting the best goal difference in the division - thanks largely to prolific strike duo Kevin Phillips and Ishmael Miller.

A knee injury has kept the former Sunderland striker on the sidelines for the last two games and the curse struck again when Miller, the on-loan Manchester City forward, was forced off with what the club fear to be lateral knee ligament damage.

"We have to get on with what we have got. It's no good sitting here moaning. We have two very tough games coming up on the road this week," Mowbray said.

"Goals haven't been a problem to us, we have still scored the most goals in the league. "Let's see how we do without the boys who have been scoring the goals."

McCarthy has concerns of his own after Michael Kightly limped off with a twisted ankle problem but the extent of the damage is yet to be established.

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