Albion's playing assistant Mauricio Taricco has passed his first big challenge of pre-season.

Gus Poyet tested his No. 2 in Wednesday night’s spicey 1-0 defeat against Paris Saint-Germain in Portugal.

Taricco, 37, came through with flying colours at left-back to consolidate the role earmarked for him by Poyet as cover and competition for Marcos Painter and Inigo Calderon.

Poyet said: “We wanted to try Tano to see if there is the possibility he will become available to put pressure on every single full-back and he had no problems at all.

“He was Tano, very good on he ball, knows the position, challenges when he needs to challenge.”

Taricco had to be substituted in the closing stages with a shin injury sustained in a nasty tackle by PSG’s Turkish substitute striker Mevlut Erding.

Poyet, sent off by the Portuguese referee after protesting in Spanish about a first-half booking for Alan Navarro, said: “The tackle on Tano was a leg-breaking tackle and he nearly didn’t give the foul.

“I am pleased nobody lost their head and did something silly. For a while Tano was not even feeling his leg.”

Poyet also has the versatile Romain Vincelot fighting for a defensive slot with Calderon and Painter following his £100,000 move from Dagenham and Redbridge.

Vincelot made an eventful first start against his fellow Frenchmen on Wednesday.

“I feel sorry for Romain,” said Poyet. “I played him right-back, right midfield and then left-back. It was a full debut in different positions but that is the player he is. He can cope with any situation.”

Albion ran PSG close after a rare mistake by keeper Casper Ankergren gifted the French giants their first-half winner.

“It’s difficult to explain to people that didn’t watch it but we were in the game, the equal of them,” Poyet said. “I am not saying we were better but there were no opportunities for either side and then we made a mistake.

“When you play against a top team they don’t give you an opportunity to get away with it. After they scored it was more difficult. We had to change a few players but I liked our desire to get back into the game.

“They were strong and really big and powerful, so it was a great test for us. We won’t have a better one in pre-season, apart from maybe Tottenham.”