10-man Wolves fought back to earn a replay at the Gtech Community Stadium after a 1-1 draw with Brentford.
Joao Gomes was controversially sent off for the visitors early on before Neal Maupay opened the scoreline just before half-time for the Bees.
However, Gary O’Neil’s men bounced back in style in the second period and netted a deserved equaliser thanks to Tommy Doyle’s stunning effort.
The squad put in a fantastic performance considering the circumstances and deserved to at least take the game to a replay at Molineux.
However, the game was not without its controversy with Wolves on the end of many questionable decisions by the referee in big moments.
Gary O’Neil “staggered” at the lack of Brentford red cards
O’Neil was less than happy that Brentford had not been reduced to at least 10 men during the game.
Wolves did almost everything right during the tie and a level playing field may have helped Wolves decide the game on the night.
Yet, the referee and VAR decided not to show another red card during the game, much to O’Neil’s displeasure.
He told Wolves: “I could see it and I know Joao so it’s difficult for me to disconnect myself from knowing what Joao is and how honest he is and he wouldn’t do anything like that on purpose. But when you look at the incident in slow motion, I understand that it probably doesn’t look great, so I can accept it.
“I find it staggering that they haven’t had one or two sent off. I thought the tackle on Tommy Doyle on the far touchline was straight leg, over the ball, straight down on Tommy’s leg with studs – I thought that was equally as bad as Joaos, and then grabbing Nelson round the throat at the end, my bench were making the normal noises when they saw it.
“I said, ‘It’s alright, VAR will definitely send him off. It’s definitely a sending off.’ But oh no, it’s just a yellow for Lewis-Potter and Nelson can also have a yellow. I was really surprised, but I just deal with my group and what we have.”
It is baffling how Brentford weren’t a man down
Brentford should have definitely been down to nine men by the end of the game.
While Joao Gomes’ red might be seen as controversial, you cannot send the midfielder off and not Mikkel Damsgaard.
The Brentford player pretty much repeated the exact same challenge on Doyle, yet did not receive his marching orders. Many might argue that it was in fact worse than Joao Gomes’ red as he was much further away from winning the ball.
Then, late on, Keane Lewis-Potter grabbed Nelson Semedo’s throat and despite VAR reviewing the incident, they did not deem it worth of a red card.
Both incidents were equally baffling as Wolves were yet again on the back of more poor VAR decisions.
O’Neil must be sick and tired of the refereeing decisions by now with Wolves seemingly never getting the rub of the green.
Hopefully, as the season goes on, the referee will be talked about less and less after Wolves matches.