Penalty snub angers Di Matteo

Di Matteo: Feels wronged

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Roberto Di Matteo felt West Brom were denied a clear-cut penalty during their goalless draw with Coventry.

The uninspiring stalemate at the Ricoh Arena sees the Baggies slip from the summit in the Championship.

However, it could have been very different had referee Keith Stroud pointed to the spot when Jerome Thomas tumbled under a challenge from Martin Cranie.

Instead, the match official opted to caution the Baggies winger, infuriating a perplexed Di Matteo.

"It was a clear penalty," said the Italian.

"I've seen a replay and he touched Thomas, he just went down a bit late as he tried to stay on his feet. But there was a touch."

While bemoaning his side's luck on Saturday, Di Matteo was forced to admit that they created little during a lacklustre Midlands derby.

"We just missed that cutting edge in front of goal today, with a bit of luck sometimes you get a deflection or something going for you," he added.

Tough league

"We're struggling a little bit to score goals and you need to score goals to win games so we'll have to address that.

"Obviously we want to win games and at the moment we're not winning as many games as we'd like.

"It's a tough league and, as you can see, every game is hard and we're missing a few important players."

Coventry were also missing key members of their first-team squad at the weekend and Chris Coleman felt his depleted side fared admirably against the high-flying Baggies.

He said: "We were without Keiren (Westwood), Aron Gunnarsson, Sammy Clingan, Leon Best - the spine of our team.

"So we had to play a certain type of game if we were going to get anything.

"Which is what we did and I have to give full credit to the players. Their attitude, appetite, hunger for it - I thought they were brilliant.

"Although it wasn't pretty, that is a positive point for us."