Slaven Bilic: Matheus Pereira's West Brom ban is wrong

While the contact was only slight, Pereira seemed to intentionally catch Allen in the face with his arm when the two teams locked horns at The Hawthorns last Monday.

The incident was not seen by referee Tim Robinson despite the official opting to have a lengthy chat with both players at the time.

But the FA decided to take retrospective action for what it deemed to be violent conduct.

Pereira accepted the charge and was issued with a ban, with Albion’s clash at West Ham on Saturday the first of three games he will miss.

The Brazilian, though, is the most fouled player in the Championship and often has to deal with opposition players resorting to rough treatment to try to stop him.

And Bilic believes Pereira is being let down by referees who aren’t giving him enough protection.

“He will learn a little bit,” Bilic said when asked about Pereira’s ban.

“Although for me that decision is wrong and that’s as polite as I can say. It’s wrong.

“Three games for that is too much. He is the player that has been fouled the most in the league.

“And I’m not crying, I didn’t ask for that question, but as you asked and for me that’s not a three-match ban and it’s wrong.

“They are always talking about protecting the good players and I don’t see that he’s protected.”

Meanwhile, full-back Conor Townsend admitted he was delighted to net his first Albion goal in the FA Cup win at West Ham.

“It’s nice to finally get one,” he said. “I don’t hit too many to be fair. I could probably do with shooting more but it opened up and I thought, ‘why not’ and luckily it’s gone in.

“18 months I’ve been here and it’s nice for it to be the winner, but as a team I thought we were brilliant.”