West Brom Fans Forum: We were robbed!

Right now and under normal circumstances, everyone connected with West Bromwich Albion should have been feeling pretty satisfied that we were the club to put an end to Chelsea's 100 per cent start to their home campaign, writes Neil Whitehouse.

moreWe should be feeling really proud of the gutsy performance that maintains our impressive record away from home. We should be congratulating Shane Long on scoring his first goal of the season and for the way that he gave two past and present England central defenders a difficult afternoon. We should be praising Jonas Olsson and Gareth McAuley for their disciplined rearguard display particularly in the latter stages of the game when Chelsea threw the kitchen sink at us.

We should be proud that Steve Clarke has developed a philosophy and instilled a belief in his players that has seen us come away from Goodison Park, Old Trafford and now Stamford Bridge with some excellent results. But instead, there can be no doubt that everyone connected with Albion will be still have feelings of anger, frustration and injustice that we were denied another famous victory by the award of a dubious and some might say scandalous penalty deep into added time.

The reaction of our players to the decision said all that needed to be said and they showed incredible restraint in the circumstances. Ramires must have been taking lessons at the Ashley Young School For Falling Over in the penalty area as he looked as determined to go to ground. The reaction from pundits and neutral observers also provides confirmation that Mr Marriner was in a minority of two (just him and the Arrogant One) in terms of thinking it was a penalty.

What would have been interesting is if Stephane Sessegnon had gone down under a strong challenge from John Terry in the same circumstances at the other end. Would the decision have gone in our favour? I think we all know the answer to that one, don't we? Robbed!