TONY PULIS ARGUED that James McClean and Salomon Rondon might not have been sent off had referee Mike Dean not made key mistakes in West Brom’s 2-1 defeat against Bournemouth.
Charlie Daniels scored a penalty with three minutes to go to settle the contest after Darren Fletcher had fouled Dan Gosling, but Pulis felt the contact was outside the area.
The Baggies boss believes Rondon was “distraught” with that decision when he headbutted Gosling and also thought McClean was reacting to a poor challenge by Adam Smith that had gone unpunished.
On the penalty call, Pulis said: ”I think everybody can see that it’s outside the box.
“The real disappointing thing with that is you can’t be giving big decisions like that unless you’re 100 per cent sure. He’s an experienced referee and it’s very disappointing.”
He added: “Obviously it’s a reckless challenge from McClean.
The disappointing thing for me is that 30 seconds before that, Smith actually goes over the top of the ball and catches McClean on his ankle and McClean has not let that go, he’s gone after him with the next challenge unfortunately and you can’t condone that.
“If Mike Dean gives a free-kick then that doesn’t happen and it just seemed to be one of those afternoons where things like that happened.”
[Rondon's headbutt] is crazy, absolutely stupid,” Pulis continued. ”But again, the reaction of the players when Mike gives the penalty, they were absolutely distraught. It’s not a penalty.
“He can’t do things like that. We’ve never had any inkling that he’s got anything like that in him since he’s joined us. That’s the first time we’ve seen him react like that.
“I think people get carried away with decisions at times and our lads were a little bit frustrated with some of the decisions.”
