Irvine bemoans Chelsea opener
ALAN Irvine felt Chelsea's opener was 'offside' but had no complaints with Lee Mason's decision to dismiss Claudio Yacob.
Chelsea opened the lead through Diego Costa, but replays showed there was more than a hint of offside.
The Baggies then found themselves down to 10 men when Yacob was dismissed for a two-footed challenge on Costa.
Irvine said afterwards: “It was understandable that Lee Mason sent Claudio off.
“The rules state that if you leave the ground it can be interpreted that you are not in control of your body and are endangering an opponent.
“I couldn’t see what happened at the time but I have watched it back and I now understand the decision."
The Albion head coach continued: “I thought the first goal was offside. Our defenders did what they were supposed to do.
“As it got shifted back onto the right foot of the crosser, they stepped up and when they did that he was offside.
“It was a great chest and finish but I’m not going to blame our players for something that was an incorrect decision."
Speaking generally, Irvine felt his side showed a great deal of character.
He added: “Jose said immediately after the game that it was a magnificent performance with 10 players and I have to agree with him on the defensive side.
“From an attacking point of view we would have wanted an awful lot more but it was a tough task already that was made an awful lot tougher.
“What I spoke to the players about at half-time was making sure we were together as a team throughout, regardless of what happened.
“They felt aggrieved at half-time but a couple of things and it was important to get them focused and make sure we didn’t end up on the wrong end of a high score, so they deserved credit as Jose said.
“We only had 11 minutes to assess our performance with 11 men and then we went a goal down, which made our life difficult.”