[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Titanic effort from the team tonight; absolutely ran themselves into the ground, then clung on for the last twenty when they were wading through treacle. That is a genuine all-time classic Albion cup tie, right up there with Chelsea '69, Forest '78, etc.

Sadly, VAR shows the shape of things to come, and it's not pretty. In future, teams like Albion will get every set-piece goal forensically analyzed for five minutes before it's allowed to stand, and it'll be ruled out for the slightest reason. When you're playing a megabucks team who can score at will from open play, that doesn't make the game fairer, it makes the playing field all the more uneven. 99 times out of 100, Dawson's header would have stood tonight because Barry's half-lunge at the ball had no serious effect on play in real time. Us minnows are going to get shafted by this tech on a regular basis, and we'll have the joy of hearing media arseholes tell us "but they made the *right* decision!" every step of the way.

Then you've got the emotional aspect. Could barely even celebrate our (actual) third goal when it went in, because I knew they were going to put us through the VAR wringer again. By the time they gave it, the moment had long gone. I honestly don't see how this will make for a better or fairer game.

But hey ho, we had a happy ending, and I'm all for celebrating tonight. May need a VAR in the morning to work out what actually happened after the sixth pint