Sky pundit: West Brom got away with ‘clear foul’ in first half v Middlesbrough
West Brom were very fortunate not to give away a free kick in a dangerous area in the first half against Middlesbrough, according to Andy Hinchcliffe.
The Baggies had to be wary of the exciting young talent Isaiah Jones on the right-hand side but Conor Townsend showed a poor lapse of concentration.
He was caught ball-watching and Jones snuck in behind him but was dragged back cynically by the West Brom left-back.
Sky Sports pundit Hinchcliffe was baffled by the referee’s decision not to blow his whistle for Townsend’s blatant pull.
“He’s been caught underneath the ball Townsend; Jones has got the wrong side of him and he loses the flight of it,” he said on Sky Sports Football on Tuesday night [07:55pm].
“He seems to pull his man back and it looked an obvious one.
“That is a clear foul and that’s why Middlesbrough are absolutely livid.”
Very lucky
It isn’t just the foul not given that West Brom have got away with, Townsend could have easily seen red for the foul had it been given.
He was the deepest of the Baggies defence by some distance and even though he was wide of the goal, Jones would have still likely got a shot on goal, one-on-one.
At the very minimum, it should have been a yellow card but the full-back got incredibly lucky.
He won’t get that fortunate again though and he needs to be sharper to spot the danger of Jones and the Middlesbrough overload in wide areas.
It is always a theme of Chris Wilder teams but Karlan Grant won’t track back all that often to help him out.
It’s tough for Steve Bruce to find a way of coping with Wilder’s unusual system but he has to find a way to stop another defeat from being chalked up.
In other West Brom news, Keith Hackett is worried about the VAR-lite that could be introduced into the Championship next season.