Red card controversy stokes strife between Pulis and Hughes
THE briefest of handshakes, minimal eye contact, and the accusation that West Brom midfielder Claudio Yacob conspired to have Geoff Cameron sent off. A typical Tony Pulis reunion with Stoke, then.
There is no love lost between West Brom head coach Pulis and Mark Hughes, the man who now manages at the Britannia and the relationship will surely take another turn for the worse after this fiery altercation.
Hughes, never one to hold back, accused Yacob of over-reacting to a push/slap from Cameron, thus persuading referee Lee Mason to brandish a red card.
The sending off, seven minutes from time, came with the match at 1-1 and heading for a draw after substitutes Joselu and Jon Walters combined to cancel out Stephane Sessegnon’s opener.
By the time the final whistle blew, West Brom were back in the lead thanks to an injury-time goal from Jonny Evans. Yacob was no longer on the pitch, brought off within a minute of the sending-off and perhaps significantly, although Pulis was playing the ‘I haven’t seen it’ card.
Hughes, confessing to only one replay, was in no doubt, however.
‘I thought it was an unfortunate sending off,’ he said. ‘We are not too happy with the reaction of the lad, to be honest. He’s gone down with the intention of getting Geoff sent off.
‘We will look at it and make a decision about whether to appeal. I’ve only seen it once but my feeling is we will appeal it.’
Pulis countered: ‘The sending off affected the game. I haven’t seen it yet but I’ve been told he has slapped him round the back of the head.’
When these teams met at the Britannia in August, Stoke had two players dismissed so it is becoming a bit of a habit.
For an hour yesterday it would have been hard to imagine the exciting finale, which began when Sessegnon scored his first goal since October 2014, getting on to the end of a threaded through ball from James Morrison.
Pulis has apparently spoken to the winger about his lack of finishing product, a recurring theme. No West Brom player has scored more than three Premier League goals this season and the lack of a cutting edge has been proving costly.
It must be doubly frustrating for fans to see moody Saido Berahino confined to a bit part and testing Pulis’s patience with his behaviour.
Whether the opening of the transfer window does anything for the concentration levels of Berahino remains to be seen but there is an urgent requirement for someone, anyone, to start putting the ball into the net on a far more regular basis.
Pulis’s hand was forced against Stoke with Victor Anichebe out with a hamstring strain and Salomon Rondon suspended yet there was still no place in the starting line-up for Berahino. Instead Rickie Lambert was given his fifth start and the job of adding to his one goal.
And joining Berahino on the bench was 16-year-old striker Tyler Roberts, who must have made Berahino feel positively ancient at 22.
Sessegnon, meanwhile, was destined to see his opener cancelled out. Hughes had replaced the anonymous Bojan and midfielder Glenn Whelan with Joselu and Walters and to marvellous effect.
Joselu, out on the left, crossed with the outside of his boot and Walters did the rest. Then came the bust-up between Cameron and Yacob and suddenly there was new urgency in the home side.
Evans was the player to get on the end of a ball which bounced around the area and was duly praised by Pulis, who insisted that the celebrations were not enhanced by the fact it was his fourth straight win over his old Stoke side.
‘It’s not about the fact it’s Stoke,’ said Pulis. ‘The most important thing is it’s three points and back-to-back victories and we are pleased.
‘And for the ball to drop like that to Jonny, the coolest player on the pitch. He has been a great signing, he just oozes class.’
Stoke have a Capital One Cup semi-final to look forward to on Tuesday and Hughes will expect far more against Liverpool.
He said: ‘We didn’t play anything like we are capable of. We needed to be better, to show our personality on the ball.’