Wolves manager criticizes ‘absolutely horrible’ penalty call in draw with Luton
O’Neil is shocked that the VAR did not overturn the initial judgment.
Gary O’Neil, the manager of Wolves, was perplexed by what he considered to be a “absolutely terrible” decision to award Luton a penalty during yesterday’s 1-1 draw at Kenilworth Road.
Issa Kabore, a Town wingback, entered the box with 65 minutes remaining and, after being picked out by Jacob Brown, fired in a cross that struck Joao Gomes’ leg before cannoning up to strike his outstretched palm.
Carlton Morris had an opportunity to tie the game with his second of the season when referee Josh Smith awarded the spot-kick and VAR quickly confirmed the call.
The Town’s leading scorer shouldn’t have been given the chance to equalize, according to a furious O’Neil, who declared: “It’s never a penalty, an absolutely terrible decision.”
“If that is a punishment, the current state of the regulations puts us in a really difficult position.
“I have the rules that were sent to us on my phone, and mitigating conditions for handball state that if it strikes the same person on a different area of their body and has a considerable change in trajectory, then it is not handball, thus it struck Joao on the leg.
“I pardon the referee and also comprehend their justification that Joao’s hand is too far from his body, which I get, so if the ball hits him directly on the hand, I fully accept that is a penalty,” the player said.
The regulations specify that it is not a penalty despite the fact that it strikes his knee and maybe his chest before dramatically changing course to strike his arm.
“I just don’t understand,” said the participant, “but hopefully they can improve the level they are at and we can get our fair share.” “We’ve been sent the rules, we’ve been told how it’s going to work.”
O’Neil also believed that with VAR active, the system would step in and overturn the judgment.
However, he continued: “There’s a lot of pressure and a lot on the line.
While the check was in progress, I made an attempt to have a calm conversation with the fourth official. I said, “Just so you know mate, we’ve seen that, it’s clearly hit his leg, it’s gone in the opposite direction and then its hit his hand, the rules state that can’t be a penalty so I trust you are going to come to the right conclusion.
I’m not sure where to go with it when you sit down and assume someone is there.
It’s a really difficult situation as a manager, as you are asked to be calm, you’re asked to behave in a certain way which I try to do, but then what I’m sent rules-wise, isn’t followed up, so it’s a difficult situation.”
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