Steve Bruce slams officiating in West Brom's defeat at Nottingham Forest as 'ridiculous'
An angry Steve Bruce described the officiating during Albion’s loss at Nottingham Forest as ‘ridiculous’ after a series of controversial decisions went against his side.
The Baggies were beaten 4-0 at the City Ground with Brennan Johnson, Ryan Yates, Jack Colback and Sam Surridge all on target for the hosts.
But it was the performance of referee David Webb that enraged Bruce with the official making controversial calls in the build-up to Forest’s first and second goal.
Steve Cooper's side took the lead in the 19th minute when Johnson converted a penalty after Darnell Furlong inadvertently blocked a Yates strike with his hand.
The wing-back picked up a debatable second yellow for the block - which meant the Baggies had to play the remaining 70 minutes with 10 men.
And while content to see the hosts get a penalty, Bruce was adamant Furlong shouldn't have been sent off the block.
Things then got even worse for Albion when they were correctly awarded a throw-in by the linesman which Webb overruled after speaking to the fourth official.
From that throw, Forest went on to win a corner from which Yates powered in a header
“I have seen the penalty incident, Darnell is on the ground and his head is looking at the goal,” Bruce said.
“It hits his arm. Okay, you give a penalty but do you have to give a yellow card and a sending off?
“And all of a sudden the game has evaporated.
“I thought we had a good start. And then we have the debacle over the throw-in, it really is ridiculous. The linesman has flagged it’s our throw.
“But the referee has overruled him because he’s got something in his ear from the fourth official – why he gets involved is beyond me when he doesn’t get involved in anything else.
“However, we still should have defended the corner better.
“But it’s been an awful couple of decisions and before you know it we are 2-0 down against 10 men and two big decisions have gone against us.”
Asked what he said to the officials during the game, Bruce said: “I said to the fourth official on a big night for both teams they need to do their jobs. And if you are going to overturn things you have to be 100 per cent right.
“When the linesman is 10 yards away why don’t you go with the linesman?
“And the bad thing for us is the linesman stuck his flag up and we have all stopped. It's given them the corner from which they have scored from.”
