Hodgson slams penalty decision

Roy Hodgson questioned the decision to award an early penalty against his West Brom team as they went down 2-0 to Liverpool on Saturday.

Uruguay international Luis Suarez, outstanding throughout for the visitors at The Hawthorns, was the man to earn the penalty, when he was deemed to have been pushed by West Brom’s Jerome Thomas in the ninth minute.

Charlie Adam converted from the spot and Liverpool never looked back, with Andy Carroll’s 45th-minute strike wrapping up the win.

West Brom manager Hodgson felt the decision to penalise Thomas was debatable and ultimately cost his team dearly.

“It (the penalty) didn’t help,” Hodgson said.

“I think the ref, like the rest of us, didn’t see anything – but the linesman did and the ref decided to take the linesman’s advice.”

“It was a situation where our defender is entitled to screen the ball to clear it and should be allowed to do so but apparently it was awarded.”

“It meant a difficult task became that much more difficult.”

“I don’t think we played as well as we have been doing but it would have been nice to have a chance to play at 0-0 for longer.”

“You can do without having to play with that handicap.”

Liverpool boss Dalglish offered yet more praise for Suarez, who continues to earn weekly superlatives for his influential efforts.

“Luis is a fantastic footballer,” Dalglish said.

“For us, there were a lot of excellent performances out there.”

“There was not one player that could be disappointed with their performance.”

“But within the group, there will be people who excel a little bit more than others.”

“For us, it seems to be Luis quite often. He and Andy (Carroll) haven’t played together that often.”

“I thought today they played really well together. I’m sure everyone in our squad is appreciative of what Luis does but I’m sure he is delighted with them as well.”