Bristol City fan Matt Wihters: What a miserable Saturday afternoon. It was a case of déja vu, with West Brom earning a convincing 4-1 victory, as they did the last time the two sides met at The Hawthorns.

Once again, it was West Brom's class and slickness which was the difference and showed that City still have some way to go to challenge at the top of the Championship.

I have been trying to come up with ways to gloss over the four West Brom goals and just write about Paul Hartley's wonder strike. I thought about using an extra large font or describing the goal in as many words as possible, but neither would be enough to fill the column.

It has to be said that the weather conditions like most up and down the country were truly atrocious, but it was the same for both sides and West Brom adapted to them the better. The Baggies were the better side throughout and showed a clinical side to their game, which was lacking for City.

City started brightly and could have taken the lead, only for the chance to go begging and for West Brom to race up the other end and take the lead. From that point on it was a case of individual mistakes costing us dear. The defence in particular had a fairly torrid time. Gary opted to recall Jamie McCombe and play a 3-5-2 formation but at 2-0 down and with Jamie McAllister having to leave the field injured, this changed to 4-4-2.

Only one or two City players came out with any real credit from the game. Dean Gerken actually played well and kept the deficit down to just four. Hartley prodded and prompted throughout and his 83rd-minute goal was as good a free-kick as you will see this season. Hartley has to be first choice on the team sheet and has to take responsibility for City's dead ball free kicks and corners.

A big difference between the two sides was the wide players. Evander Sno, as I have said before, is just not suited to playing wide left, and, while Gavin Williams is a tidy footballer, his best position, like Sno's, is in the middle of the park.

City have not replaced Michael McIndoe and Ivan Sproule has not delivered on a consistent basis. I honestly feel that to mount a promotion challenge, we need to sign two wide players.

Perhaps the biggest positive from the game was the magnificent away support. The Bristol City faithful were Premiership class and sang their hearts out from start to finish.

Hartley's free-kick was just reward for such a tremendous following. The same noise and atmosphere will be needed at the Gate when we take on Sheffield United and Ipswich Town in our next two fixtures. Both clubs are struggling and City needs to be looking at a maximum haul of six points.

There has been a lot of talk this week about the Thierry Henry handball against the Republic of Ireland, which saw the Irish miss out on a place in next summer's World Cup finals in South Africa. There is no doubt that Henry handled the ball but talk of a replay is futile. Part of what makes football what it is, is the human element. Players cheat and referees make mistakes.

As much as I would have loved to see Henry hold his hand up (sorry for the pun) and tell the ref not to award the goal and award a free-kick, it rarely happens in football. Can the Irish players honestly say that had the boot been on the other foot, that they would not have done the same thing?

The goal has brought up the old debate around technology, but how far do you take that? Would we have to examine every goal in a game to ensure that there had not been any infringement in the lead up or scoring of it? You can't just pick and chose when a video replay is used.

I was gutted for the Irish, but that is football.