Fabian Hurzeler was delighted to see Pascal Struijk cleared (Image: Newsquest)
Fabian Hurzeler was delighted to see Pascal Struijk cleared (Image: Newsquest)
Fabian Hurzeler said Albion’s belief paid off as they cleared Pascal Struijk of a one-game ban.
The defender will be available to face Crystal Palace on Sunday, if he gets over a minor issue which keeps him out of the home game with Kauno Zalgiris.
Struijk was shown a straight red card in the win at Sunderland after referee Tom Bramall was advised to check an incident on his monitor.
Bramall had waved away Sunderland appeals after Wilson Isidor appeared to be fouled.
On review, he decided Struijk had denied his opponent a clear goalscoring opportunity and showed red.
Albion were unhappy with the decision and pundits such as Alan Shear and Sanny Murphy, as well as former referees Darren Cann and Mike Dean, agreed with them.
Albion boss Hurzeler said: “I heard we only had a 1% chance normally in these kinds of cases but we were 100% convinced that it's not a red card.
“Therefore we tried our luck and we were quite happy that the red card was doesn't count anymore.
“We have been more luckier thing or it should be better if during the game.
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“It solved like this that we don't have to send the man off, but yeah, overall, it's now a positive decision and we can keep moving forward.”
Michael Svoboda, Lewis Dunk and Luka Vuksocis all trained on Wednesday, as did Olivier Boscagli.
While Boscagli has generally been used at left-back of late, his preferred role is left centre-back and Hurzeler could use him there against the Lithuanian league leaders.