Rotherham United's Sam Clucas reveals what the referee said after the West Bromwich Albion penalty fiasco

The relegated club were playing at West Bromwich Albion in the Championship last night when man in the middle Geoff Eltringham whipped up fury in the Millers camp by wrongly awarding a spot-kick just before the break.

Describing the ref's decision as “an absolute shambles”, midfielder Sam Clucas said the official had admitted the error of his ways, after being shown footage of the incident during the interval, as the Rotherham players emerged for the restart.

Eltringham, from County Durham, pointed to the spot for handball, even though supposed culprit Lee Peltier had been standing well outside the penalty area and the ball hit the defender on the head.

“I genuinely couldn't believe it, it was baffling,” Clucas said. “His words were: ‘It was miles inside the box.’ What do you do in that situation?

“It's an absolute shambles and shouldn't happen at this level, especially when you've got a referee, two linesmen and a fourth official all looking at it.

“When we were walking out for the second half the referee was apologising to us.”

West Brom were already leading 1-0 and were just as astonished as the Millers at Eltringham's gaffe. John Swift took advantage of the ref's helping hand and converted from 12 yards to seal a 2-0 victory.

"Even their players couldn't believe it," Clucas said. “I spoke to a couple of them straight after and they were just laughing and going: ‘What has he seen there?’

“He'll get judged on that and I'm guessing he might not referee at this level at the weekend. It's cost us. We put in a spirited performance.

“There had already a bad decision before that on me when I slide-tackled a lad, he landed on me and the ref gave a foul against me somehow.”

Head coach Leam Richardson worked hard at half-time to stop Rotherham tempers flaring too much and his men went on to play well in a goalless second period against opposition who are set to finish in the play-off places.

“The gaffer did really well," Clucas said. “The emotions were high. There was a lot of shouting and frustration in the changing room but he came in and calmed us all down and said leave it to him to talk to the fourth official and referee.

“He told us we had to stick together, to keep 11 men on the pitch and keep fighting for each other.”

Eltringham's apology is not the first Rotherham have received for a refereeing injustice this season.

A delegation from refs group PGMOL visited the club's training ground in August to officially say sorry after Millers players Cafu and Fred Onyedinma had been wrongly sent off at Stoke City and at home to Blackburn Rovers respectively.