West Brom boss Steve Bruce felt two key decisions cost his side a crucial victory as he was left deflated with a 1-1 draw at high-flying Norwich.
The Baggies remain towards the foot of the Sky Bet Championship with just one win from their opening 10 games after Sam Byram’s first Norwich goal earned the hosts a point at Carrow Road.
Dara O’Shea’s header had put West Brom ahead in the first half as the away side’s performance went against their league position.
But Bruce was left fuming after John Swift saw a penalty claim turned down and was also unhappy Byram’s goal stood amid claims of handball against the defender.
He said: “We should have won. We have had big decisions go against us.
“It is handball, their goal. Absolute stonewall penalty, it doesn’t matter if the ball is going out of play, Swifty has got a touch and the boy (Grant) Hanley has barged into him. It is a penalty.
“I’m not going to criticise them because I know how hard the job is but we have been harshly done by…I can’t see anything more stonewall than that one.”
Pushed on the Byram goal, Bruce insisted it would have been overturned had VAR been in operation, adding: “It was bloody handball. It wasn’t controversial.
“He was standing in the middle of the goal and hits him on the hand and goes in the net, if there was VAR it would be absolutely blatant.
“The referee again, he has to get that right, he is only 20 yards away from it. Look, I know it is a hard job but that and the penalty have cost us.
“Ultimately if I don’t win games I get my head chopped off, it is the big decisions you want them to get right and we had two against us that in my opinion have cost us and that is being honest.”
Norwich had won six league games in a row ahead of welcoming West Brom to Norfolk but they were below-par for much of the contest.
Head coach Dean Smith, however, was at odds with Bruce’s take on the pivotal decisions from the match.
He said: “What do I think about both? It is not a penalty, if it is a penalty then it should have been a free-kick in the lead up to it.
“You have got to have consistency and you want consistency from referees.
“I’m led to believe it is about a t-shirt line and if it hits the top half (of his arm) he is okay. Then it looks like it is a good goal because it looks like it has hit him above the t-shirt line.”
