Wolves boss Gary O’Neil says bad refereeing impacting ‘livelihoods & reputations’ after Fulham defeat

Referee Michael Salisbury overturned his late penalty call after the VAR advised him to look at the pitchside monitor

Wolves manager Gary O’Neil has said bad refereeing decisions are affecting “reputations” and “livelihoods” after his team were on the wrong side of video assistant referee calls in Monday’s 3-2 loss at Fulham.

O’Neil said referee Michael Salisbury admitted the decision to award the first of two penalties against his side was an error, and believes four big decisions went against Wolves.

“Maybe tonight has finally turned me against VAR,” O’Neil told Sky Sports.

“The impact that you are having on my reputation, and the club and people’s livelihoods is massive. We should be able to talk about the game and not decisions, but unfortunately we can’t.

“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.”

Three penalties were awarded on Monday night. The first helped Fulham take a 2-1 lead after Nelson Semedo caught Tom Cairney in the area.

A lengthy VAR check upheld Salisbury’s decision to award a spot-kick, even if Semedo did touch the ball as he made contact with Cairney.

The second came 15 minutes later as Tim Ream caught Wolves’ Hwang Hee-chan who scored to make it 2-2.

Fulham then took all three points in stoppage time through Willian’s second penalty – the third of the match.

Salisbury had initially waved play on when Harry Wilson and Joao Gomes came together in the box, but overturned his call and awarded a penalty after the VAR advised him to look at the pitchside monitor.

Elsewhere, Fulham’s Carlos Vinicius was fortunate to be shown only a yellow card after he squared up to Max Kilman and caught the centre-back’s nose with his forehead.

“We have discussed a lot of decisions. Vinicius should have been off for headbutting Max [Kilman],” added O’Neil. “Ream should have been sent off for a second bookable offence on the penalty. They are my opinions.

“Nelson [Semedo] plays the ball and doesn’t touch Cairney. The referee says he felt that was wrong and he should have been sent to the monitor. That doesn’t help me.

“So that one has been pretty much admitted that it was a mistake. The Wilson one we disagree. I feel it was soft. For all four decisions to go against us is tough to take and we didn’t deserve that.”

More to follow.