'Got away with one' - former Liverpool midfielder slams West Brom striker for 'awful elbow' before late equaliser against Chesterfield

Former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy said Brandon Thomas-Asante ‘got away’ with an ‘awful elbow’ on Jeff King just before West Brom’s late leveller in Saturday’s entertaining 3-3 draw.
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With Chesterfield leading 3-2 in injury-time and with the Baggies on the attack, Thomas-Asante appeared to swing an elbow in King’s direction, knocking the full-back to the floor, but the incident was missed by referee Rebecca Welch and her assistants.

With King having to go off the field to receive treatment, Thomas-Asante headed in to make it 3-3 while the Spireites were down to 10-men.

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Match of the Day pundit Murphy said that Thomas-Asante, who also scored West Brom’s opener, can probably expect to receive retrospective action in the coming days.

Brandon Thomas-Asante celebrates after scoring West Brom's late equaliser.Brandon Thomas-Asante celebrates after scoring West Brom's late equaliser.
Brandon Thomas-Asante celebrates after scoring West Brom's late equaliser.

When asked by presenter Mark Chapman if it may have been different had VAR been in place, Murphy said: "It would have been, 100 per cent. It is an awful elbow. He (Thomas-Asante) gets away with one. Well, he probably won’t get away with it when they have a look at it.”

As a replay of the incident was shown again, Murphy said: "Bang. He gets away with it. And of course what happens, we have seen it many times before down the years, a couple of minutes later he gets the equaliser and deprives Chesterfield of a place in the next round.

"Brandon Thomas-Asante was actually one of their best players, he played really well, and he has let himself down with that but he is probably going to face a ban.”

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Away from the controversial incident, fellow pundit Stephen Warnock praised the way Chesterfield approached the game.

“Paul Cook sent his team out on the front-foot to go after this game and the way they did it was numbers in the box,” he said.

Analysing Town’s goals, he added: "(Liam) Mandeville was at the heart of everything good that happened for Chesterfield.

"What a day he (Armando Dobra) has had and what an FA Cup run he is having single handedly on his own.”