Gary O’Neil was left disappointed by three vital moments which went against his side in their defeat to West Ham United at Molineux, including a VAR decision which he described as ‘horrendous’.
Having seen his side dominate the first half, O’Neil admits his team provided their own downfall with sloppy play which led to the Hammers equalising from the penalty spot, before the visitors netted directly from a corner. But the head coach was left frustrated with another officiating decision which went against Wolves when Tawanda Chirewa was judged to be interfering with the goalkeeper after Maximilian Kilman headed in from a corner.
On the VAR decision
“My view, David Moyes’ view, Fabianski’s view is that it was a scandalous decision. Terrible. Horrendous. I don’t understand it. I can’t think of an explanation, it was one of the worst decisions I’ve ever witnessed. I wasn’t calm enough to receive [an explanation], but he hasn’t really got one.
“I don’t know where they are with it and any explanation doesn’t help us. It was a terrible decision and I’ll tell you why it’s a terrible decision because they only way he can impact the keeper is if he’s impacting how he can move, which he isn’t, and if he impacts his vision, which he isn’t.
“If you look at the side view, Fabianski can clearly see the ball over Tawanda’s head. It’s a terrible decision. He’s a fully qualified professional referee stood in front of a screen and he should be able to make his own decision. The whole world thinks it’s a terrible decision, yet a highly qualified referee is stood in front of a screen, with slow-motion replays, and manages to get it wrong.”
On a dominant first half performance
“It was a fantastic first-half, and it was fantastic for the boys to produce that performance with what we have available versus what West Ham have available. It took a top performance to be that dominant. It was exceptional.
“The second half, they went more man for man and we struggled with being able to get out and a lack of threat in behind, and then two crazy goals to concede.
“The penalty that we gave away from passing it to each other is on us, and then the ball goes in direct from a corner. How we’ve lost that football match today is unbelievable, so I’m really disappointed.”
On decisive moments after the break
“There are some bits of it that we will be disappointed with as a team, but understanding where we are at the moment is really important. West Ham are at full strength pretty much and we’re down, having played no striker, and completely dominated the first half.
“The football was fantastic, although we didn’t have as much as a goal threat that we’d have liked, but I’m sure everyone understands why and then in the second half, West Ham had a go and we didn’t have anything.
“But they didn’t create anything really. We gave them a crazy penalty and then the corner curls into the far post – I’ve not seen a goal like it since I was in kids’ football. So it was three crazy events, firstly from us to let them back into the game, secondly the second goal which we could do better with, and then the VAR decision at the end. Three crazy incidents which have handed West Ham the three points that they didn’t deserve.”
On another decision going against his side
“When we’re as short as we are and we’re having to fight and dig as much as we are, to suffer that decision at that stage of the game was tough for the players to take. They’re unbelievably frustrated with the officiating.
“We had discussions earlier in the season about them wanting to show that they don’t feel like they’re respected by the officials and that has resurfaced today. It’s hard for me to convince them otherwise when you look at the decisions which have gone against us.
“But what we’ve got to do now is refocus, we’ll go again at Nottingham Forest, and it’s a big blow for us to catch the teams above us, but the team are giving everything and that’s where we are at the moment. We did all we could today and because of three crazy incidents it wasn’t enough.”
On taking Ait-Nouri off
“He's got a sore calf. He’s got some pain in his calf and it was a big bow. But we wanted to take him off before it got any worse and hopefully he’ll be ok for next week.”
