Albion winger Jerome Thomas today hit back over his bookings for diving this season and insisted he is not a cheat.

The Baggies wideman has twice been yellow-carded for alleged simulation since moving to The Hawthorns, despite appearing to be fouled on both occasions.

But the former Arsenal youngster refused to blame referees and said the cautions were ‘part of the game’.

Thomas, who was denied a penalty and booked at Coventry after falling under friend Martin Cranie’s challenge, said he has no hard feelings towards officials.

“It comes with the territory,” said Thomas. “It was a penalty and Martin even said to me after the game that he thought it was.

“But it happens. Because I went down a bit later than the ref thought I should have, he might have thought it was actually a dive.

“But when he made contact I tried to stay on my feet and couldn’t.

“We saw an example of that with Kevin Doyle from Wolves last weekend.

Mistake

“He could have gone down but he stayed up and it’s a Catch 22 situation, but it happened.

“It’s all part and parcel of the game. The referees can’t see everything and I don’t think it’s anything personal.

“If he had thought it was a penalty he would have given it but he didn’t. He made a mistake and that’s it.”

Thomas was also denied a penalty in the home defeat to Swansea when he was blocked off in the area by Swans defender Alan Tate.

And Thomas says that was the most upsetting of the decisions to go against him.

He said: “We had a penalty turned down against Swansea. I wasn’t booked but it was a penalty that we didn’t get. I was body-checked in the box and I asked the ref how it could not be a penalty.”

Reports linking Albion with Sunderland striker David Healy are wide of the mark. Head coach Roberto Di Matteo has considered possible loan targets in case his current forwards fail to find form but Sunderland’s Northern Ireland international is not among them.