Premier League panel ‘BACKS Stuart Attwell’s VAR decisions after Wolves’ controversial defeat at Fulham’… despite admitting that referee Michael Salisbury made two mistakes that went against Gary O’Neil’s side
- The panel that reviews match incidents has backed Stuart Attwell's VAR calls
- They reportedly believe the refereeing errors were not obvious enough to overturn
- We expected perfection from the VAR, but we didn't have it: Listen to It's All Kicking Off
The Premier League's Independent Key Match Incidents Panel has reportedly backed all of Stuart Attwell's VAR calls following Wolves' 3-2 defeat to Fulham on Monday night.
Their report says that although referee Michael Salisbury made two errors to Wolves' detriment, they were not clear and obvious enough for VAR to change them.
That is according to ESPNwho have seen the findings.
After the match, Salisbury told manager Gary O'Neil that the call to award Fulham a penalty after Nelson Semedo's fair challenge on Tom Cairney should have been overturned by VAR.
O'Neill also claimed that PGMOL representatives confirmed that Fulham's Carlos Vinicius and Tim Ream should have been sent off, with the former receiving a headbutt and the latter a foul in the penalty area.
The Premier League's Independent Key Match Incidents Panel has reportedly backed all of Stuart Attwell's VAR calls despite Wolves feeling desperate
Michael Salisbury awarded a penalty for Nelson Semedo's fair challenge on Tom Cairney as Joao Gomes protested
Carlos Vinicius headbutted Max Kilman, but the VAR decided not to give him a red card
The panel backed VAR's calls on key decisions, such as awarding a penalty to Semedo and not sending off Vinicius, as this was not a clear and obvious error.
O'Neil said after the match that Wolves are seven points worse off than they should be after a spate of mistakes committed against them this year.
He claims that instead of being on 15 points, Wolves should be on 22 points – a shift that would see them comfortably in the top half rather than twelfth.
Wolves have already been wrongly on the wrong side of key refereeing and VAR decisions against Man Utd, Newcastle and Sheffield United, according to the Premier League's Independent Key Match Incidents Panel.
O'Neil said: 'Looking at this evening, the referee probably would have done a better job on his own and without VAR intervention. What is the point of VAR if all these incidents are missed? I don't think it helped the game at all.
'The difference between 22 points and 15 points for the thousands of supporters who follow this team across the country is enormous. The difference between 22 and 15 on my reputation when you try to build at a big club is irreparable.
'You can send me flowers. You can call me tomorrow. You can do whatever you want, but we should be at 22 points instead of 15.
We are going to try to behave in the way that I think is right and I will continue to do that, but the players are extremely frustrated.
“The players are saying, 'Yeah, should we make some noise about this? Do we need social media posts?' But my advice so far for tonight is to make sure we were good enough to win the game, no matter what the referees do.”
Gary O'Neil: 'You can send me flowers. You can call me tomorrow. You can do what you want, but we should be at 22 points instead of 15'
The panel backed Stuart Attwell, who was on VAR during the match (pictured in Newcastle vs Arsenal)