Bristol City manager Nigel Pearson makes suggestion after frustration v West Brom

Bristol City manager Nigel Pearson has called on the FA to improve quality of officials after believing the referee missed a number of key decision in their draw with West Brom.

Pearson believes the FA must take action against the quality of refereeing in the Championship after suggesting his side were denied a penalty and claiming there was offside in the build-up to West Brom’s last-gasp equaliser.

City were close to taking three points from the game but were pegged back by a late Adam Reach equaliser after Andi Weimann volleyed home from a Rob Atkinson knock down in the 83rd minute.

But Steve Bruce’s side rescued a point in the dying embers of the game, an equaliser that left Pearson furious after the officials missed a Jake Livermore offside.

Speaking to the Bristol Post, Pearson said: “Livermore was offside by the way. For the goal, he was offside.

“You can’t expect the officials to get you over the line quite frankly. Sometimes I might expect it the other way round but I don’t expect that.

“Nothing to do with me, I’m not criticising the officials but I’m tired of reading emails from the MOAS team of the FA but I’ll let our darling FA deal with all that because they’re brilliant aren’t they?”

It wasn’t just the equaliser that Pearson took exception to, but also a possible penalty that he feels he side should have had: “At the other end, I thought one of them should have been a penalty.

“The other one I can see why it’s debatable but one is a penalty. If you don’t get them, you don’t get them.”

The Verdict

You can understand the frustrations from Pearson as Livermore was offside after the ball deflected off him into the path Reach who then tucked the ball home.

However, unfortunately, the standard of officiating has