Gary O’Neil fumes as Wolves suffer Var drama again at Fulham
At Craven Cottage, Var once more was king. Three penalties to deliberate interminably over and a headbutt by one of the substitutes: this is what they live for at Stockley Park.
And by the end of this absurdly elongated encounter, Wolves manager Gary O’Neil, who seems to have been on the wrong end of video decision-making all season, looked like a man who had had the air surgically removed from his body.
“The impact you are having on my reputation, and the club and peoples’ lives is massive,” he said. “We should be able to talk about the game and not decisions, but unfortunately we can’t.”
Though for Fulham, Var was benevolent indeed. This victory - propelled by two penalties (one of which O’Neil claimed the referee had told him should never have been awarded) took them to 14th place, level on points with Wolves. More to the point it was by a scoreline which astonished the home fans, used to watching their side labour in front of goal.
That is what they expect at Craven Cottage these days: lots of invention, very few goals. Yet within a few minutes of kick off came a moment the locals had assumed was beyond their goal-shy team. Alex Iwobi – one of four attacking midfielders in Marco Silva’s bold selection – started it, taking control of the ball on the right wing. Drifting inside, he passed to Antonee Robinson. The full-back played a neat one-two with Willian and span in a cross. Charging in, Iwobi wrong-footed Wolves keeper Jose Sa.
Fulham, inspired by the rarity of an actual goal, pressed and foraged. But there was a sense that lurking within their rearguard was a mistake waiting to happen. Fielding just Harrison Reed to defend in the middle left them exposed. No-one was surprised, then, when Nelson Semedo set Jean-Ricner Bellegarde running along the line and he twisted and jinked his way past a visibly hesitant Robinson, and stood up a lovely cross. Matheus Cunha accepted the invitation to head into the corner of the net.
But anyone assuming the second half would quickly conform to the standard Cottage pattern – Fulham dillying, dallying then eventually losing – was quickly disabused. Within moments of resumption something extraordinary happened: Tom Cairney dispossessed the until then imperious Mario Lemina with a withering tackle.
He charged forward into the area, only to be tripped by Semedo. Referee Michael Salisbury pointed immediately to the spot. But inevitably Var stuck its oar in, sucking the excitement out of the moment with its interminable considerations. You could have played Beyonce’s entire back catalogue in the time it took to make a decision. Actually, you could have written Beyonce’s entire back catalogue. Eventually, Willian was given permission to take the spot kick and scored.
The trouble was, any hope in home quarters this might lead to something positive quickly dissipated. This, after all, was Fulham. Wolves immediately poured forward, from a long ball Calvin Bassey misheaded into his own area, Hwang Hee-chan charged forward, and Tim Ream brought him down. Salisbury thought that was a penalty. Var eventually agreed and Hwang equalised with a thumping shot.
Now this was interesting. Silva – who claimed afterwards his side were “the only one trying to win” – replaced Raul Jimenez, ineffective against his old club, and Andreas Pereira with Vinicius and Harry Wilson, in an attempt to conjure a winner. Though Vinicius’s sole contribution was aiming a headbutt at the end of Max Kilman’s nose. O’Neil, standing right beside the incident, was incandescent. No-one in authority saw it, however. If only there were a video system to check on such things.
For Fulham at least, where there is hope there is Var. And after the referee had turned down appeals when Wilson went down under Joao Gomes’s tackle, the video folk intervened. Another endless delay, another Fulham penalty, another Willian goal. Not that that was the end of the drama. Wolves insisted they should have another penalty too for handball in a last-gasp scramble. But this time Var remained silent.
“I have two options,” said O’Neil. “We keep behaving as we should and respect the decisions and tell the players to do the same or we start saying this isn’t working for us and start making some noise.
“I think it is a really complex [issue]. I have always been for Var but I think it is causing problems at the moment. I think Var has cost us there. The fact that one is deemed an obvious error and one is not is [baffling]. Maybe with just a human referee one of the penalties may have gone against us, but the fact that we have conceded two, for me Var is not helping with subjective decisions. Maybe tonight has finally turned me against Var.”
Poor O’Neil. We can safely say he will not be sending any Christmas cards in the direction of those in the video bunker.
