Newcastle United striker Callum Wilson has given his verdict on the incident involving Nick Pope and Raul Jimenez on last weekend’s clash with Wolves.
Wanderers lost 2-1 at St. James’ Park.
A late goal from Miguel Almiron proved to be the winner for Newcastle.
Julen Lopetegui’s decision to switch to a big back three and wing-backs was exploited by the home side.
The game could have panned out very differently though.
In the first-half, Pope took down Jimenez in the box after a heavy touch.
Referee Andy Madley waved it away though, and VAR somehow did not instruct him to take a second look.
Madley was very far away from incident and cannot have had a good view.
Many people have slammed the decision, with Jamie Carragher and Jamie Redknapp both stunned a penalty wasn’t given for Wolves.
Alan Shearer also admitted Newcastle got away with one.
And now, Wilson – who came on as a substitute in the second-half for Newcastle – has given his view.
Speaking on the Footballers Football podcast, he said: “My opinion is that the referee didn’t give anything. The VAR didn’t even ask him to have a look at anything. So why are we even discussing the situation?
“It should have been a red card! Nah. I’m joking. It’s one of them where it’s 50/50. Sometimes you get them, sometimes you don’t. I feel the player dived into Popey a little bit more than what Popey did. It was a heavy touch and he’s just run after it, and the striker is there.
“If that was me and I was the striker and getting taken out, I am going mental. It’s one of those things when you see it against you, you are like ‘get up there’s nothing wrong with you, book him for diving’ but if it’s your team you are going crazy.
“We needed things to start going our way to be honest. We have had a few tricky and tough decisions which haven’t gone for us and even the higher power tried to take the win away from us, Tripps slips which 9 and a half times out of 10 he clears that ball and the one time he slips he was punished for it.”
Callum Wilson knows Wolves should have had a penalty against Newcastle
Wilson has been a little more honest than his teammate Kieran Trippier, saying he would have been screaming for it if it was him going down.
But it’s still disappointing that there is no proper admission that the decision was wrong.
It was a stonewall penalty. Pope took Jimenez down in what was a goalscoring opportunity.
Hopefully, Wolves’ luck with refereeing decisions will turn soon. The Pope incident is at least the fourth big call to have gone against them since Lopetegui came in.