Mark Hughes was talking about Xherdan Shaqiri and Stoke City’s attacking football while gazing out of the window in the press conference room afterwards when he was distracted by a line of lawnmowers going up and down the playing surface. “It’s difficult just to get that little spark at the top end of the pitch... I see they’re cutting the grass now,” the Stoke City manager said, smiling. “They should have done it before the game, but there you go.”

It was a little dig that is in keeping with the sort of needle that surrounds this fixture, in particular the relationship between the two managers, who have little time for one another. Asked whether keeping the grass long had been designed to counteract Stoke’s passing game, Hughes replied: “Quite possibly. I don’t know. You’ll have to ask the people involved.”

The expression on Tony Pulis’s face said it all when that comment was put to him moments later. Albion’s head coach yawned, made the point that the grass was the same length against Bournemouth in their opening home game, and then got in a jab of his own. “We’re still unbeaten against them,” Pulis said, referring to the fact that he has yet to taste defeat in seven Premier League matches as a manager against Stoke City since he left the club in 2013.

Five of those games have ended in victory and it would have been six but for Peter Crouch’s late header cancelling out Jay Rodriguez’s first Premier League goal for Albion since his £12m summer transfer from Southampton. Pulis signed Crouch for Stoke in 2011 – the same year that the club reached the FA Cup final – yet the chants that emanated from the travelling supporters suggested they have little time for the Welshman and his achievements across his seven years in charge. “Tony Pulis, your football is shit,” rang out on several occasions.

Pulis chose his words carefully in response. “I think that’s the way the world is. I don’t think that matters at all,” he said. “There’s a person in the stand called Peter Coates [the Stoke chairman] and his family, who respect what I did there more than anybody else. And they are the people I respect more than anybody else.”

On the pitch things were nothing like as entertaining. The game was desperately dull – a point that Hughes was quick to make. “I have to say I didn’t particularly enjoy it as a spectacle, or even being involved at management level,” said the Stoke manager, who is set to complete the signing of Kevin Wimmer from Tottenham Hotspur for £15m.

“It was frustrating to say the least. But maybe we shouldn’t have expected anything different; it’s always difficult when you come here. Those are the type of games that you have to face more often than not.”

In the end a draw felt like a fair result, yet Albion’s disappointment at the final whistle was understandable given the poor goal they conceded to allow Stoke back into the game. Ahmed Hegazi, who had scored on his debut in the previous home match, got in a terrible tangle trying to clear a cross from Ramadan Sobhi, the central defender slashing wildly at a ball that Ben Foster, Albion’s keeper, had come off his line to gather. Crouch, loitering at the far post, accepted the gift, nodding home his 104th Premier League goal and his 51st with his head. “Probably the easiest headed goal that Crouchy has ever scored,” Hughes said.

Although Hughes took satisfaction from the fact that two of his substitutes combined to haul Stoke level, there was a glaring lack of conviction about Stoke’s offensive play before their introduction. Kurt Zouma’s 20-yard deflected shot, which was expertly tipped over the bar by Foster, was the sum total of their attacking threat prior to Crouch’s header. Everything looked a little disjointed with Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting leading the line and Jesé Rodríguez drifting out onto the left.

Albion, in fairness, were no better going forward, and it was a goal totally out of the blue that gave them the lead on 61 minutes. Allan Nyom broke on the right side of the pitch and delivered a fine cross that ran through to the far post, where Rodriguez reacted much quicker than Zouma and Geoff Cameron, who were both caught on their heels. Stooping to meet the ball with a diving header from about six yards, Rodriguez beat the goalkeeper Jack Butland. “Jay adds another goalscorer to this team but we need more,” Pulis admitted as the lawnmowers ploughed on in the background.