West Brom: Sky Sports pundits shocked as ‘clear as day’ penalty denied in defeat by Southampton
Jack Stephens’ handball for Southampton was “clear as day” and West Brom were denied a penalty in their defeat at The Hawthorns, according to Jobi McAnuff.
The Sky Sports pundit reacted at half-time on the match coverage after a Darnell Furlong attempt in first-half stoppage time was blocked by the visiting defender’s arm, with Rob Earnshaw also clear that it was a penalty.
Mikey Johnston swung over a cross from the left flank and the Baggies full-back caught it on the volley but neither the referee or the assistant saw it, and with no VAR in effect the score remained 1-0 going in at the break as West Brom were unable to recover in front of the watching Shilen Patel.
McAnuff said: “It’s a penalty, there’s no two ways about it. You can see Furlong’s reaction to it. Jack Stephens just comes across there, you can see it pop up off the arm, and for me that is a big, big decision that’s gone against West Brom.
“It’s a really good move to get into this situation. You could maybe look at the ref’s position from behind, doesn’t possibly see where it actually strikes Jack Stephens, but clear as day that should have been a penalty.”
“He’s got to have help,” added Earnshaw. “If the referee’s slightly out of position, also the linesmen have got to help him because they’ve got to be able to see it. I mean we saw it, we’re here, we’re 40 yards away and we saw it.
“His arm moves a little bit. And it’s also centre of the box. It’s a handball.”
Stephens unpunished as West Brom denied penalty vs Southampton
Very little went right in the Albion’s first game since the hugely-uplifting takeover news, and the American in the stands will hope for much-improved fortunes going forward.
Fans arrived in a party mood but saw the players caught cold by an early Ryan Fraser goal to silence the crowd, while Carlos Corberan was sent off for a lapse in concentration that saw him interfere with the ball while it was still in play.
At the same time the home side recovered and were in the ascendency as the first half drew to a close, so a penalty at that time would have changed the game.
It didn’t happen and David Brooks doubled the lead in the second half, while Okay Yokuslu’s header which was so close to dragging West Brom back into it was instead clawed away by Gavin Bazunu.
Andy Hinchcliffe admitted after the lead was doubled that the missed penalty decision earlier had been “game-changing” live on the Sky Sports commentary (9.41pm).
Ultimately it was a rare occasion in recent Baggies history where events off the pitch were infinitely more positive than those on it.
And after a great win last time out vs Cardiff City now Corberan will need to engineer a way for them to bounce back while almost certainly negotiating a ban.
In other West Brom news, two sets of new contract talks are now in progress it has been confirmed.
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