West Brom ‘enraged’ as ‘fabulous’ Mikey Johnston wows Sky Sports pundit
West Brom ‘enraged’ vs Southampton as ‘fabulous’ Mikey Johnston stuns Sky Sports pundit live
Mikey Johnston’s cross that led to the incident which saw West Brom denied a penalty was “fabulous”, according to Andy Hinchcliffe.
The Sky Sports pundit reacted live on the match commentary on 16 February as the on-loan Celtic winger picked out Darnall Furlong in the Southampton box, only for his volley to be blocked by the hand of Jack Stephens.
Hinchcliffe was delighted by the ball in and admitted the Baggies were justified to be “enraged” at the lack of a penalty-award by the unsighted Sam Allison, with the Saints defender adding insult to injury as he then cleared an Okay Yokuslu header off the line moments later.
Hinchcliffe said (8.49pm): “It’s a fabulous cross from Mikey Johnston, potentially picking out Darnell Furlong. It’s that left arm isn’t it of Jack Stephens, does it come up?
“Does it make clear contact with his hand, with his arm? Can the referee even see it? That arm does seem to come up. It moves towards the path of the ball. I can see why Furlong and West Brom are enraged here.
“But very difficult is it for Sam Allison to see that because it’s actually screened by Jack Stephens’ body…
Then as Stephens cleared off the line the pundit added: “He’s not on the post, he’s actually stepping back onto the post, that is an incredible clearance.
“He got lucky with the handball shout but he’s done really well not to turn that into his own goal.”
Celtic loanee stuns for West Brom in controversial incident vs Southampton
The incident in first-half stoppage time was a sliding doors sequence as a goal, either from the spot or the head of Yokuslu, would have sent the Albion in at the break level and reignited the home crowd.
West Brom fans, buoyant at the Shilen Patel takeover news, had been silenced by an early Ryan Fraser goal and a bizarre Carlos Corberan red card for kicking a ball that was still in play.
As it was the home side were unable to get back into it in the second half and lost 2-0 on a night where little went right on the pitch.
Few fans celebrate VAR when it is in place but this was the sort of event which it was brought in for, and the lack of a decision arguably turned the game against the Albion vs the, admittedly accomplished, visitors.
Johnston scored his first West Brom goal in just his third appearance as he opened the scoring inside a minute against Cardiff City, and his delivery again impressed here.
Furlong was convinced he had won West Brom a penalty.
So it was all the more surprising that he was taken off along with Jed Wallace and John Swift on 65 minutes with the home side chasing the game, especially as Andi Weimann was not one of those who came on.
It was ultimately an odd occasion which fell very flat during the 90 minutes.
