As with any "sudden death" contest, there will be conflicting opinions as to whether or not we should have made certain of a Fourth Round place by winning at The Hawthorns.
Albion literally snatched the hopes of a replay from the jaws of death by equalising during "injury time"; indeed, the referee allowed only 26 seconds of play after the re-start, with the score at 1-1.
In the circumstances such as those any team could well make the claim that they were "robbed" of victory. Furthermore, a considerable number of fans (and more than a few players and officials) had doubts as to whether or not the ball was fairly played before Cyrille Regis slotted in that equaliser.
At the time, general opinion seemed to be on the side of our XI who made vehement protests; it was subsequently advised that a video-tape of the incident upheld the referee's verdict to allow the goal to stand. "The camera cannot lie" is a standard axiom, but it would appear that the decision was literally in the hair-line category.

Stuart Pearson got in early to convert Brooking's pass for our goal.

From Albion's veiwpoint they must obviously have considered that fate eventually came down on their side. The Midlanders had thrown a lot of shots in the direction of our goal, but time and time again were foiled by Phil Parkes. The scribes had no option but to give our goalkeeper the "man-of-the-match" award, and this was underlined by the ten-out-of-ten marking in the appropriate reports. Indeed, W.B.A. manager Ron Atkinson considered it was worth twelve-out-of-ten!

"Man of the Match" Phil Parkes produced this goal stopping save, among many others.

Those were the pros-and-cons of a game that could justify the description of first-rate entertainment. Possibly a draw was the fairest overall result, but there must be some on both sides of the contestants who thought otherwise.
In the end it still came down to one salient fact - a replay!