HANDBAWL DECISION
Brunt happy for another dodgy goal to beat Villa
WEST BROM captain Chris Brunt has told Aston Villa another ‘Hand of Rod’ goal to end their Premier League dream would be tough luck.
The Baggies skipper (above) says his side would gladly take another dubious goal if it took them to a Wembley play-off final – even if it leaves their local rivals spewing.
Villa were furious when Baggies striker Jay Rodriguez handled the ball into the net in stoppage time to rescue a 2-2 draw for his side at The Hawthorns in December.
Now the fierce West Midlands rivals will meet over two legs for a place in a £160million Wembley shoot-out against Derby or Leeds.
“If it was the other way around we would have been fuming,” said Brunt. “But that’s life. Some you get, some you don’t. They got hard done by that night. I didn’t see it at the time but I’m not going to say he didn’t handball it because it obviously hit his hand.
“People come off the pitch complaining about a refereeing decision regardless of whether they’ve won, lost or drawn.
“It’s a horrible, tough job isn’t it? We got away with one that night, of course we did, and if we get away with another one on Saturday or Tuesday I won’t be complaining.
“It’s fine margins and you’re only a matter of something like that knocking you out or putting you through.”
Brunt suffered his own play-off heartbreak with Northern Ireland when they were denied a place at the 2018 World Cup in controversial fashion by Switzerland.
They progressed to the finals in Russia with a 1-0 aggregate win courtesy of a shocking penalty decision in the first leg in Belfast. And Brunt says that experience taught him that sulking over refereeing mistakes is pointless.
“At the time you’re raging, but it’s only the first leg so you’ve got the opportunity to put it right in the second,” he said.
“That’s what made it worse, because we came so close to actually putting it right in the second leg.
“We had chances to go through, albeit they had chances to beat us away from home.
“But to put in a performance like that away from home and miss out, ultimately on a terrible refereeing decision, it hurts.
“Once it’s done, there’s not an awful lot you can do about it. They are never going to just take us back in the World Cup because the referee made a bad decision.
“You’ve to do everything in your power to try and win and hope everything else falls into place.”