Wolves boss Gary O’Neil has called his side’s disallowed equaliser against West Ham yesterday ‘possibly the worst decision I’ve ever seen’ as his side lost 3-2 at the Molineux.
O’Neil’s men went ahead in the 33rd minute of the match, courtesy of a Pablo Sarabia penalty, and looked to hold out that lead for a good chunk of the game against 7th place West Ham.
The Hammers brought the fight to the Molineux, however, and equalised in the 73rd minute via their own penalty, finished by Lucas Paquetà.
David Moyes’ men then took charge of the game when James Ward-Prowse put the ahead just 11 minutes later, leaving Wolves scrambling to try and find a home point from the fixture.
Captain, Maximilian Kilman thought that he had found that vital point for his side in the 9th minute of stoppage time, after nodding the ball past West Ham’s Fabianski and into the far corner of the net.
Sadly for the home side, assistant referee Tim Robinson spotted substitute Tawanda Chirewa in an offside placement, ahead of Fabianski when the goal was scored.
This lead to the all too familiar pitch side monitor check, which eventually saw the goal overturned due to Chirewa being deemed to be in Fabianski’s line of site as the ball was nodded in.
The decision left Gary O’Neil, who has been on the end of several questionable VAR decisions this season, furious, and he approached referee Tony Harrington after the final whistle.
The referee, however, would not discuss the decision with O’Neil, who was deemed to be in too aggressive a mood to be spoken with.
“I wasn’t able to control my emotion well enough to get an explanation,” said O’Neil of this interaction. “The referee said he would rather not discuss it given how I was acting.” he added.
Gary O’Neil said of the disallowed goal decision:
“It was a terrible decision,” O’Neil said. “It is possibly the worst decision I have ever seen.”
“If your knowledge and understanding of the game is really poor, you could reach the conclusion that is offside.”
“If you are a Premier League official working at the highest level, I would be really disappointed if you thought that was offside. The only way that can be offside is if he stops Fabianski’s ability to move or impedes his vision. Only the referee and VAR think that could possibly be offside.”
West Ham’s goalkeeper, Fabianski, and manager, David Moyes, were each reported to have said that they felt that the goal should have stood, despite not making such comments to the media after the match.
Moyes said that he “felt for Gary” in his post match interview.
When asked if he expected any repercussion for his actions after the whistle, O’Neil said:
“Possibly. I don’t know,”
“If he reports it and I get told off, so be it. I have been told off many times before.”
“I will apologise if I have stepped over the line, but I can only react on how I feel in the moment and I was in a fairly bad mood at the final whistle.”
