Speaking exclusively to This Is Futbol, former Premier League referee Mark Halsey has been discussing West Bromwich Albion’s 5-0 loss to Manchester City this past week, and in particular, City’s second goal – which is said to have left West Brom fuming.
The incident in question saw experienced Premier League assistant referee Sian Massey-Ellis prematurely raise her flag during the build-up to Joao Cancelo’s goal.
As explained by Manchester Evening News, some of West Brom’s defenders – including the one positioned closest to Bernardo Silva, the player in possession of the ball when the flag was raised – stopped upon seeing that the offside flag had been raised. This proved to be a harmful error, as referee Chris Kavanagh allowed play to continue, with Joao Cancelo scoring and VAR ruling that the goal should stand. The English top flight has since admitted that the flag shouldn’t have been raised during the build-up to this goal.
After declaring that Massey-Ellis is one of the best in the Premier League at her job, Halsey acknowledged that her uncharacteristic error cost West Brom on this occasion before he went on to praise referee Kavanagh for not blowing the whistle and share that he has sympathy for the Albion players who stopped on seeing the flag raised.
He said: “Sian Massey-Ellis is one of our top assistants. It’s very, very rare that you see Sian make an error, because straight after that, she was back fully focused and she’s put her flag up for an offside, which was correct, so I think she just had that moment’s lapse. We know the protocol in that situation is to keep the flag down because the attacking phase of play hadn’t stopped, it hadn’t finished. I think she just slipped up thinking it had, but it hadn’t.
“I think Sian would be disappointed with herself in that situation, and fair play to Chris Kavanagh for holding the whistle and letting play continue. I think, in that situation, in and around the box, that’s what we want. We want to see goals – if it’s very tight, keep your flag down.
“We would lie if we said we wouldn’t stop, because we all would. We would all [say], ‘Oh, it’s offside, no problem’ – you sort of take your foot off the gas. Now, with that incident, I think players will need to have a different mindset in those situations. They carry on playing until the whistle [is blown]. I know it’ll be difficult, but now they’ve got to do that.”
Did this cost West Brom the game versus Man City?
NO, THEY WOULD'VE LOST ANYWAY
YES, THIS COST THEM THE GAME
It’s unfortunate for Sam Allardyce’s side that they have been dealt a blow by a “rare” error from Massey-Ellis, who is clearly well-respected.
It’s difficult to blame the Baggies players for this incident, given that, as Halsey explained, it’s understandable why they stopped playing and blame has to be placed on the official for raising the flag here.
With West Brom currently sitting seven points from safety, it may be fair to say that every point certainly matters for them, and you could argue that this second goal did make life more difficult for them against Man City.
What’s done is done now, however, and hopefully, for the West Midlands club, they can put this incident behind them by earning what would arguably be an important three points versus relegation-battling rivals Fulham on Saturday.