WELCOME to the long, hard winter.

And so the clocks went back. But not enough for some people’s liking. Albion lost to Liverpool, which wasn’t really a major surprise.

Liverpool cried foul before 10 minutes had elapsed at The Hawthorns on Saturday.

After the game it was Albion asking the questions and pointing fingers towards the officials’ room.

Charlie Adam scored the penalty.

Yet when Kenny Dalglish fields individuals who cost more than the entire Baggies squad then you have to know your place in football’s society.

You can squander the best part of £35million on Andy Carroll. But then you can also pay a little less and acquire yourself a Luis Suarez. The Uruguayan is an enigmatic force.

A dazzling technician, a wonderful manipulator of the ball.

But then there’s the other side of him.

When Jerome Thomas decided to screen the ball away from Suarez he probably wasn’t expecting the Liverpool man to fall so easily.

We can debate the whys and and what fors of penalties all day - it seemed a brave decision for the linesman Gary Beswick to make in real time.

Replays proved that the player fell very easily. Was Suarez imeded? Yes. Did Suarez fall easily? Probably, but if it’s a foul then it’s irrelevant.

The bigger question should be why Albion put themselves in such a position so early in the game. Liverpool took charge of the game from the first whistle and pretty much monopolised the dynamics of the remainder of Saturday’s game.

They were to clinch the victory deep into the first-half. A poor pass from Jonas Olsson was easily collected by Lucas Leiva. Suarez took on the ball, passed to Carroll, who was granted way too much room by an Albion defence who had committed way too far up the field.

Of course we’ll never know whether a 0-0 scoreline would have prompted Gareth McAuley and co to venture so far up the field at such a key point in the game.

But it backfired. Carroll didn’t carry the ball particularly cleanly, but he did enough to beat the advancing Foster.

Albion couldn’t respond to that blow.

It was a thorough and efficient task. One which Liverpool did without any fuss.

In recent games, Wolves and Villa had granted Albion licence to press and create from midfield.