Journalist Lewis Cox has given his assessment of the foul by West Bromwich Albion defender Erik Pieters which led to a last-minute penalty.
Pieters brought down Coventry City striker Viktor Gyokeres in the final minutes of the game and the Swede converted from the penalty spot to hand the Sky Blues a late win, making it a night to forget for West Brom.
The Baggies had won their last five league matches and they would’ve shot up to eighth in the Championship with a win.
Speaking on the Express & Star YouTube channel, Cox labelled the attempted challenge on Gyokeres as ‘needless’.
Cox stated: “It looked soft to me live, it was quite near us, actually. But I did see contact, I did think he clipped him, and I do think it was needless. He didn’t seem to be going anywhere quickly, there were Albion bodies around. I thought Pieters had a good game again at centre-half, to be honest, until that moment.”
TIF Thoughts on Cox’s comments…
We believe that it was understandable why Pieters went in for the challenge, as he must’ve thought that Gyokeres was going to attempt a shot at goal.
From looking at the footage (1:42), it appears as if the Coventry forward is actually moving the ball toward the left side of the six-yard box which could’ve made it a tight angle to shoot from. It’s one of those ones where you’re damned if you allow the player to get past you and damned if you don’t, leading to him being brought down in the penalty area.
The game seemed fairly evenly balanced, but the Sky Blues did probably just edge it considering they had two clear-cut chances in comparison to the Baggies’ zero (as per Sky Sports).
A defeat is always tough to take, but West Brom have made massive strides in their past few matches with their previous winning run.