West Brom 1-0 Brighton: 'Embarrassing' Lee Mason makes awful gaffe & Seagulls miss two penalties

Just when you thought this Premier League season couldn't be any weirder/crazier/utterly bizarre than it already is, Brighton's visit to lowly West Brom escalated the madness to new levels on Saturday.

The Seagulls, well known now for their ability to stroke the ball around beautifully without scoring many goals, missed a glut of chances, two penalties and had a Lewis Dunk free-kick controversially chalked off by referee Lee Mason as they slipped to a 1-0 defeat at The Hawthorns.

The defeat deepens Graham Potter's relegation woes, and is one that was inflicted by Kyle Bartley's smart header from a Conor Gallagher corner and 80+ minutes of sitting back from Sam Allardyce and his boys.

There will be plenty of talk about referee Mason's performance, particulary on social media, but before there were any disallowed free-kick shenanigans to complain about, Brighton had to first look at themselves.

Awarded the chance to equalise on 19 minutes, when Okay Yokuslu handled the ball inside the area, Pascal Groß stepped up to take Brighton's penalty. After a brief stutter in his run, the German smashed his effort off Sam Johnstone's crossbar - rebounding out of the penalty area and away from danger. Neal Maupay, eat your heart out.

10 minutes later, Albion did have the ball in the net, but this is where things got a little bit messy. Dunk stood over the ball around 20 yards out, and quickly curled the ball into the corner as West Brom and Johnstone looked to reset and organise their wall.

Initially, Mason disallowed the goal - even though Dunk said after the game that he'd been given permission to take it - by ruling that the set piece had been taken too quickly. He then changed his mind, after 45 seconds of apparent thinking, and awarded Brighton their equaliser.

But the drama didn't stop there, as West Brom's continued protests led to further intervention from VAR. After a typically healthy delay, Simon Hooper advised Mason to reverse his decision - as, inexplicably, he'd blown his whistle twice - once before Dunk struck the ball and again before the ball had gone into the net.

That rendered the goal null and void, and forced the Seagulls to retake the free-kick.

They didn't enjoy such success the second time round.

Potter's men weren't ready to throw in the towel just yet, however. Aaron Connolly forced Johnstone into a smart save, as did Maupay, before referee Mason intervened again on 75 minutes to hand Brighton another bite of the cherry from the penalty spot.

Danny Welbeck was this time handed the responsibility of drawing Brighton level, but his spot-kick also missed the target and rattled the post - bouncing back to the striker, who then conceded a free-kick for touching the ball twice from the penalty. Blimey.

For all of Brighton's now comical endeavours, West Brom somehow held on; victory bringing them within eight points of safety, dragging Seagulls deeper into the relegation battle in the process.

After the match, a disgruntled Dunk called the decision to disallow his free-kick 'embarrassing', and challenged the referee to step up and explain his call on television.

"It's embarrassing, a horrendous decision," Dunk told BBC's Match of the Day. "I said to the referee, 'Can I take it?', he blew his whistle and I took it. Just because he's under pressure from the bench and the players he disallows the goal. VAR doesn't know what he's said.

"It's a horrendous decision. Why doesn't he come and speak to the press like me? Why doesn't he come and say his point? Never. they hide behind their bubble."

Throw your XG out of the window when Brighton take to the field, they play by their own rules.