Graham Alexander feels a number of refereeing decisions went against Preston in the draw with West Brom.

Graham Alexander bemoaned officials for not seeing ‘what’s right in front of them’ and getting involved ‘when they don’t need to’ after a series of decisions went against Preston North End in Saturday’s draw with West Brom.

Preston finally have a point to their name under Alexander after a hard-earned 1-1 stalemate with West Brom, but the manager feels his players ‘deserved’ a victory and were let down by ‘poor’ decisions.

North End were flabbergasted that they weren’t rewarded two penalties but an even more costly mistake came when a throw-in was awarded to the home side but fourth official Dean Whitestone gave it to West Brom, who then went and scored from the resulting move.

Alexander was delighted with his team’s spirit but less happy with the fourth official interjecting himself into the decision-making process.

“Once we went 1-0 up I didn't think we were in that much danger but things went against us today,” the manager told BBC Radio Lancashire.

“There was a poor decision, people think it's okay because it's in the mid-third, it's a throw-in but it definitely came off their player.

“The fourth official makes the decision 10 yards away from the pitch and they score from that.

“The fourth told me that he made the decision but I seen where he was stood, he was stood by the benches 10 yards away from the touchline. There's no way he could have seen the touch.

“The linesman can because he's right down the line on the pitch and can see the touch that goes off, and he just got involved because maybe he was a little bit bored.”

Andrew Hughes on throw-in decision

The Preston players on the pitch, who had set up for their own throw-in, were left confused by the decision as well, as goal-scorer Andre Hughes shared.

“I think, arguably, we should have won the game today,” the centre-back told the club.

“I think the linesman gave our throw-in and for whatever reason the ref overturned it which was part of the play that got the goal.

“Look, we had plenty of chances after that to stop that, but I want to end on a positive here today because it was a great performance from the lads, fought for everything. I just want to thank everyone for coming down, it was a good day.”

When asked if he saw the final touch before the ball went out of play, Hughes added: “I didn't really. To be fair, I'll always try and claim our throw anyway but as soon as the lino... I don't know.

“I don't know what the rule is there, I guess it's the ref's final say, I suppose. It is what it is.”

Preston should have been awarded two penalties

The throw-in decision was bad enough, but the fact Hughes wasn’t awarded a penalty when he was full-on kicked Nigel de Jong-style square in the chest by Ousmane Diakite has left every Preston fan absolutely baffled. Especially as the West Brom midfielder handballed it in the process as well.

In the closing stages of the game, Jusef Erabi was tripped in the box by Brayann Pereira but, again, referee Elliot Bell was unmoved by Preston appeals.

Understandably, Alexander was furious with those decisions as well.

“There was two instances where we could have had three penalties, if that makes sense,” he said.

“The challenge on Andy Hughes in the box, it's almost like a kung-fu kick and he's handballed it. So you can take any of those to give a penalty and then it's a foul on Jusef Erabi at the end of the game in the box as well.

“We have to take that on the chin.”

He continued: “Decisions gone against us, whether top, middle or bottom [in the table], that's not our fault if people can't see what's right in front of them or decide to jump in and get involved when they don't need to.

“That's beyond our control. All we can do is deal with what we can control and I thought we did that exceptionally well today.

“Listen, they're a really good team and they make it expansive but the courage and bravery of our players today, to really go close and connect to their teammates and press anything that West Brom were trying to do, our players deserved more than that today.

“If West Brom had have scored through their quality, which listen the goal was, and they come back, I'd give credit because they're a good team. But there's moments in that game that 100 per cent should have gone our way.

“Listen, I don't want to go overboard on it now because I thought Deepdale was a brilliant venue today.”