Tony Pulis upset over penalty decisions as West Brom beaten by Swansea

26 December 2015 21:23

West Brom manager Tony Pulis hit out at referee Roger East for denying Albion two penalties in their 1-0 defeat at Swansea.

Pulis felt Wiltshire official East should have pointed to the spot for Angel Rangel's first-half challenge on Chris Brunt and then again when substitute Callum McManaman tumbled in the closing stages.

"The big disappointment is I've just watched the video there and it's two penalties," Pulis protested after the game.

"The first foul on Chris Brunt is a stonewall banker penalty. Their lad goes for the ball but Chris just touches it away and catches him.

"He (East) is five yards away from it, but there we are.

"We have to get on with it, you can't get in your mind that these decisions are going against you."

Albion have now gone five games without a win, their worst run since Pulis was appointed manager almost a year ago, and are now only three points above the Barclays Premier League relegation zone.

They dominated for long periods at the Liberty Stadium but struggled to create clear-cut chances, with Rickie Lambert sending their best opportunity straight at Lukasz Fabianski in the Swansea goal.

"The lads were fantastic, they worked really hard in the second half and upped it," Pulis said.

"There's no way we should be losing that game. There is no justice coming away from this game without any points.

"We watched the West Ham game here last week and they had 75 per cent possession, but we did not want that to happen and I thought we gave it a really good go."

Swansea's victory was their first under caretaker manager Alan Curtis and took them out of the bottom three.

Ki Sung-yueng's bundled ninth-minute winner came from a free-flowing attack, but Swansea were pushed back and had to scrap for their first home win since beating Manchester United at the end of August.

"We can play better and we have played better in the last couple of games," Curtis said after Swansea's first win in eight.

"But we showed a different side to our game, the boys blocked crosses, blocked shots and worked unbelievably hard.

"I said before the game that as much as we want to maintain our style, we have to find a way to win as well.

"We were under the cosh and it wasn't pretty, it was a bit un-Swansea-like but we showed enough to get over the line."

The final whistle was greeted with an outpouring of relief from home supporters and Curtis later singled out midfield veteran Leon Britton for praise.

Britton did not feature this season until the closing weeks of Garry Monk's reign but has proved a stabilising influence in Curtis' three games in charge, which have yielded four points.

"Leon was outstanding and he's been so fundamental to this team for the last 10 or 11 years," Curtis said.

"I think he's coming up two games short of 500 and he's been a fantastic player for the club.

"We've seen those performances year-in and year-out and part of the reason I took him off near the end was for the crowd to show appreciation and give us another lift again."

Source: PA