Despite everything not being rosy off the pitch for Tony Pulis at the moment - a tribunal has found he owes Crystal Palace £3.77 million - things are going swimmingly for him on the pitch. West Brom are up to sixth in the Premier League following a 3-1 win at home to Watford. The Hornets ended the game with ten men, as Roberto Peryera was accused of kicking out at James McClean.
The Irishman started the game on the bench, but was brought on in the second half. Watford had pulled a goal back to leave the game as a contest at 2-1 when referee Graham Scott accused Peryera of kicking out at McClean, having apparently been provoked by a hefty challenge by the Irishman.
Having been bundled over, Peryera kicked out at McClean.
McClean then appeared to thrust his boot towards the Peryera while he was lying on the ground. The Irishman was booked, while Pereyra was sent off.
Watford's Troy Deeney was critical of James McClean afterward, saying that referees had made McClean's aggression "acceptable".
I didn't see the initial incident so I just went in as captain. Obviously McClean, I spoke to him afterwards, he's got that style of tackling which got him in trouble last year.
A few seconds before he did the same on me, but obviously no big deal made out of it, but then he does it again.
So that was just my interpretation of it. If you are going to do that, last year he got sent off a few times, this year it's been made to be acceptable.
I don't think, on the tackle on myself, he went in to hurt me, that's just his style of tackling. But it's just twice in two minutes is a bit interesting from our part.
Tony Pulis, meanwhile, had this to say:
The lad has kicked out, how much he's caught James I don't know, but it's then what James gets up to. It's just trying to keep him away from anything the can bring controversy towards him.
When asked if McClean requires an extra bit of management:
Yeah. As I've said before he's a fantastic lad and he's very well liked in the dressing room by everybody. His attitude is fabulous.
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