TONY Pulis refused to defend James McClean and Salomon Rondon after the West Brom duo had been dismissed in the 2-1 defeat to Cherries.

McClean was red-carded by referee Mike Dean in the first half for an ill-advised lunge on Adam Smith while Rondon was dismissed late on following an altercation with Dan Gosling.

Albion boss Pulis said: “It was a reckless challenge from McClean. The disappointing thing for me was that 30 seconds before that, Smith went over the top of the ball and caught McClean on the ankle.

“McClean has not let that go and has gone after him with the next challenge, unfortunately, and you can’t condone that.

“If Mike Dean had given a free-kick for the first challenge then the sending-off would not have happened.”

Pulis, who felt Cherries’ late penalty should have been awarded as a free-kick, also criticised Rondon for the incident that had led to his dismissal.

He added: “It was crazy, absolutely stupid. Rondon can’t do things like that. We’ve never had any inkling that he’s had anything like that in him since he has joined us.

“That’s the first time we’ve seen him react like that.”