West Bromwich Albion 1 Brighton & Hove Albion 0
Brighton lost an astonishing game at the Hawthorns, missing TWO penalties and an open goal and faltering deep into relegation uncertainty.
You literally couldn’t make this up – the Albion again had a majority of the play and masses of shirts in the opposition area but they appear simply terrified in front of goal.
Kyle Bartley put the home side in front on 11 minutes as he headed in a corner that the Seagulls, despite all their big men, just could not defend.
After this, Albion as usual controlled possession and as usual worked their way to the opposition penalty area. Sadly, as usual, the front players wasted the chance or simply didn’t make an effort on goal.
Albion’s first lifeline came after 19 minutes. West Brom defender Okay Yokuslu handled in the area as he challenged Dan Burn.
Astonishingly, play continued for almost two and a half minutes before referee Lee Mason stopped proceedings to check the VAR monitor. He awarded a penalty.
Pascal Gross stepped up as the £20 million striker Neal Maupay had missed a fair few spot kicks he had taken previously.
Gross’s penalty rattled the bar and rebounded into play.
Ten minutes later followed one of the most farcical moments ever witnessed in a Premier League pitch.
Mason awarded the Seagulls a free kick 20 yards out. As the players debated who would take it, the referee blew his whistle.
In a similar fashion to the Liverpool game last season, Lewis Dunk took a quick one and scored. However, just as Dunk struck the ball Mason blew his whistle again. The referee then disallowed the goal.
After much discussion, he was told by Dunk that he had heard his first whistle, and Mason appeared to give the goal. The referee looking bemused and frankly out of his depth.
Just as the restart was about to commence Mason communicated with the VAR officials again – and again disallowed the goal on the basis that the ball hadn’t crossed the line when Mason blew a second time.
To be clear … so far, only the people who know who shot JFK – and Lee Mason himself – know why he blew a second time.
Just how the officials can deem a ball moving at around 300 metres a second hadn’t crossed the line when the second whistle sounded is bizarre. Perhaps NASA are assisting Stockly Park!
