BAGGIES MARCH ON BUT SLAVEN FUMES AT RED
SLAVEN Bilic knew who to blame for the sending off of Romain Sawyers, citing City head coach Lee Johnson and his staff’s reactions.
But the Albion boss played down any bad feeling at the final whistle, saying: “There was no problem and I shook hands with Lee.
“If you ask me if I liked his reaction to the incident involving Romain, I would say no, but maybe in his position I would have done the same.”
In the 75th minute Sawyers reacted angrily to being fouled by Jamie Paterson and appeared to grab the City substitute by the throat.
After consulting an assistant, referee Darren England issued a straight red card.
Bilic added: “I’m told [Sawyers] and Paterson have known each other for years. When he grabbed him it was just to say ‘what are you doing?’ because he had been fouled several times from behind.
“Sometimes referees need to look at the whole package when dealing with an incident.
“If that was a red card, we are going to have so many. It was the reaction of their bench that brought about the sending-off, but we are not Dalai Lamas in football so I understand it.”
Bilic’s league leaders took a 32nd-minute lead when Callum Robinson broke unmarked into City’s box and, although the advancing Dan Bentley saved his first shot, the ball rebounded into his face to beat the unlucky goalkeeper.
Four minutes later Bentley was at fault, spilling a shot from Jake Livermore that he should have held, and Hal Robson-Kanu was on hand to prod home from close range.
Just seconds after Sawyers’ red card a weak header from Ashley Williams towards Bentley was pounced upon by Robson-Kanu, who volleyed his second to spark wild celebrations in the Albion dug-out.
The visitors were well worth their interval lead, but City were left to rue costly errors for both goals.
The visitors looked by far the more dangerous team in a sharp first-half display. Matheus Pereira saw a sweetly-struck volley blocked by Jack Hunt, while Williams halted a dangerous Robson-Kanu raid with a superbly timed tackle. Livermore found plenty of space to fire at goal, sending a low shot just wide from 25 yards after 34 minutes and having another effort beaten away by Bentley moments later.
City barely threatened until the 44th minute when a Nahki Wells cross eluded Callum O’Dowda as it flashed across goal.
The second half began with Albion again in the ascendancy, Robson-Kanu volleying narrowly wide from 20 yards. He should have made it 3-0 after 62 minutes, only to shoot wide.
When City did open Albion up after 73 minutes, Weimann volleyed over from a Jay Dasilva cross. Wells forced a late save from Sam Johnstone, but it was far too little too late.
Johnson did not attend his press conference until an hourand-a-half after the game had finished.
Then he said: “Slaven is wrong if he attributes the sending-off to our reaction. If someone put his hands around one of my player’s throats of course I am going to be angry.”