West Bromwich Albion boss Slaven Bilic lamented the “horror movie” ending to their clash with Charlton – but stopped short of condemning referee Matthew Donohue.

Mr Donohue courted controversy when he initially sent off Grady Diangana, in a case of mistaken identity, before dismissing Nathan Ferguson for a reckless tackle on Chris Solly.

Then, after substitute Hal Robson-Kanu looked to have scored the winning goal nine minutes from time, he awarded Charlton a controversial penalty when Semi Ajayi was adjudged to have fouled Naby Sarr in the box.

Josh Cullen converted the resulting penalty in injury time to rescue a point for the visitors, but the referee was roundly booed and jeered by the home supporters at full-time.

Bilic said: “The whole story was there for us, it was a game which would have been more than three points, with 10 men and all that. Then someone says 'no, we're going to make a horror movie, not a good one'.

“It's nothing personal, it's hard for them [referees] and I went to speak to him after the game and I needed that.

“The problem is when they tell you you can't talk about the referee but it's a major part of our job.

“I can be permitted to say my opinion but, with the greatest respect to Charlton, it was the decision [the penalty] which took the win away from us."

On Ferguson's red card, Bilic added: “He [Donohue] is human, you don't want to have ‘blah, blah’ from your wife when you get home, not to mention 30,000 people questioning you.

“But give credit to him - he didn't go ‘no, no, no’. He listened.”

Lee Bowyer, who was serving the final match of a three-game suspension, even admitted the penalty was “soft” and called for VAR to be introduced in the Championship.

He said: “It should be because the rewards to get out of this division are massive. With West Brom's second goal, it hits his [Robson-Kanu] arm and if that's on VAR it's no goal.

“I thought the referee did OK, he got the sending off right - which was the most important thing. It's the worst and hardest job in the world.

“The penalty looked soft, but we've had a lot of decisions go against us over the season. Both our goals had a bit of luck to them but maybe that's what we needed.”