Carlos Corberan offers West Brom penalty verdict after late appeals vs Bristol City
Carlos Corberan believes that West Brom “deserved” to be awarded a penalty in their 0-0 draw with Bristol City after Josh Maja’s strike was blocked by Zak Vyner’s arm.
The Baggies took a while to adapt at Ashton Gate but put in a much improved second-half performance that could have seen them rewarded with two penalties, as Maja was the victim of a heavy challenge from Kal Naismith in the final minutes.
While Corberan was understanding of the difficult task the officials had when trying to adjudge whether or not the Albion forward had reached the ball first, he felt his side should have already been awarded one penalty minutes earlier in the contest.
Speaking following the game, as quoted by Birmingham Live (16 September), he said: “The only way that the defender (Vyner) managed the defend was with the hands, without intention but with the hands. That one was a more clear penalty than the other.
“But in football when you don’t have the VAR, I only can understand that these things are going to happen in football. Sometimes you suffer the consequences, sometimes it goes the other way. I want the fair things. If I want a penalty, I want the referee to give the penalty because it is.
“If we create a penalty then I’d like the referee to give the penalty that we deserve.”
Suffer
Corberan will feel as though West Brom had done enough to win a penalty and the incident involving Maja and Vyner did seemingly show the defender blocking the Baggies forward’s short with a trailing arm as he slid out to close down the striker.
In the Premier League with VAR and plenty of replays, that sort of decision will always be given as the arm is in an unnatural position, despite Vyner seemingly not having any intention of blocking the effort with his hand.
It will feel to the fans and Corberan that they’ve been cheated out of a potential three points because of the decision-making of the officials, but those are the sort of decisions that tend to even themselves out throughout a season.
The performance at Ashton Gate on Saturday had plenty of signs of improvement against a fairly attacking Bristol City side and although there were plenty of warning shots in the first half, Albion managed to take back some control in the second.
Hopefully, their luck will change and they’ll finally be on the right end of a few of those more controversial decisions.
In other West Brom news, Taylor Gardner-Hickman may have played his last game for West Brom