West Brom boss delivers verdict on what went wrong in Sunderland defeat and controversial Josh Maja incident

Carlos Corberan believes that Jobe Bellingham's disallowed goal proved to be an important moment in Sunderland's win over West Brom, saying that the mistake which led to it spread too much doubt within his side.

Bellingham charged down Alex Palmer's clearance, with Patrick Roberts latching onto the loose ball and teeing up up Adil Aouchiche for an effort. Bellingham converted the rebound from that strike but, incorrectly, the flag was raised.

Corberan had been happy with how his side had fared up until then but admitted that they had ultimately fallen short both in and out of possession.

"I don't think we defended at the best level that we have done as a team," he said.

"In these games you need to perform very well in attack and defence because I know the quality that Sunderland has. I think that in the first minute we found a way to read their press, but after the mistake when we tried to play out from the back and the goal was disallowed, these mistakes created a lot of doubt in ourselves.

"For me, from this moment Sunderland were attacking more. Our press didn't work and their press created more problems. We created problems for ourselves. Their wingers created more problems to us than ours did to them, and little by little they created the confidence and energy that allowed them to score their first goal, or to create from the foul from which they scored the first goal.

"We tried but unfortunately we suffered the accident where Conor falls over for the second goal."

Corberan refused to be drawn on whether Dan Ballard should have seen red for his tackle on Josh Maja in the first half, which saw the striker forced off on what was his first start for the club. Ballard would later go on to open the scoring with his header from Alex Pritchard's free kick in the second half.

"I think that this conclusion needs to be done by everyone watching the images of the TV," Corberan said.

"I haven't done it yet, and I don't even want to look because with the Maja situation, it's something unfair for him. We signed him without a pre-season, he was little by little getting into the team. Against Bristol he received a massive foul in the box, and the referee decided against giving a penalty.

"With this foul he was eight weeks out of the team. In the last three weeks, we recover him to be ready with the team and the first time he's been put in the first XI - because [Brandon Thomas] Asante couldn't play more than 30 minutes under medical advice - he had another injury, in the same ankle, with a foul. The evaluation of the foul is something that depends on the referee and not me."

West Brom are back in action on Tuesday night when they travel to face Rotherham. They sit fifth in the Championship table, now just two points clear of Sunderland after Saturday's game.