Brian, who signed just prior to training on Friday on a free transfer from Leicester, and has already said here that he feels he has at least one more good season in him after this one, says:
"It was a frustrating day; we scored the goal early and it was a shame we couldn't capitalise on it.
"We put them under a bit of pressure, had a few chances and it didn't come, then they broke away and scored.
"To be fair, after that, they played quite well, hustled us and made it hard to get out of the half."
Brian now has a full week to work on the training ground with Jermain Defoe, and he adds:
"At times on Saturday we worked quite well together but it is early days.
"It was good and refreshing; he is a lively little player with a lot of talent.
"We have got a lot of work to do as a squad so in the soming weeks that is what we will be concentrating on. days."
Brian knows he won't necessarily be playing every week, but, with David Connolly very doubtful for Saturday, there is every chance he could sart against West Brom.
"It is a squad thing and we all want the same thing - to get promoted, so we will all be working together to see what we can come up with," he adds.
And, looking at the wider picture, he concludes:
"It is not an easy league; I was in here last year with Leicester and sometimes you have just got to grind results out.
"It is like that, and a lot of the teams are very similar so you have to approach every game with a bit of a siege mentality."
Alan Pardew was happy with Brian's performance and adds:
"Deano gives us a bit of power up front and we will need him in some games; to be honest, if we hadn't had him at Coventry we might not have got a point."