Newcastle United striker Callum Wilson has offered his opinion on the controversial penalty decision that went against Wolves last weekend.
Wolves fans are still very unhappy with the decision of Anthony Taylor to give Newcastle a penalty, and the VAR to then uphold it.
Hwang Hee-chan was clearing his lines when Fabian Schar came in to challenge. Initially, it had looked as though Hwang had caught Schar.
But replays showed that the Swiss defender initiated the contact. Hwang stopped his kicking motion just before making contact.
Frustratingly, VAR did not overturn Taylor’s on-field call. Wilson then dispatched the spot-kick, which Jose Sa might have done better with.
And now, Wilson has given his take on the controversial incident…
Newcastle striker Callum Wilson gives his opinion on the penalty decision that went against Wolves
Wilson was speaking about the game on the latest Footballer’s Football podcast.
It was always likely to come up as a topic of conversation. Many have slammed the decision, including Ian Wright and Alan Shearer who were both left stunned on Match of the Day hours after the game.
If Wolves fans are expecting Wilson to be somewhat sheepish about the incident, then they are sadly mistaken.
Stopping short of saying it wasn’t a penalty, he said: “Well, I’m not going to be biased and say ‘oh yes’ and I’m not going to say ‘no’. In real-time, I actually thought ‘penalty’. But then when you watch it down and you slow the replay down and so on and so forth, then it starts to look more like it’s not a penalty.
“Obviously, the referee didn’t have the beauty of that. But VAR is in play for it to help him but then, is it a clear and obvious mistake by the referee’s point of view? There was slight contact made when you slow it down but then even when you slow it down from different angles I was watching after the game and you see the highlights, some angles look like he kicked him and some angles look like he didn’t.
“So you have just got to then back the referee and get the game moving again. Inevitably, yeah, you have just got to stick the ball away.”
Is it so bad to admit your team got fortunate?
Most people probably thought in real time that it was a penalty, which is fair enough. You can understand Taylor giving it, as we have seen instances of players being kicked when stealing the ball away at the last second. It happened very quickly.
But Wilson surely can’t seriously think the referee’s decision had to be backed by VAR in that situation.
It was incredibly surprising that they looked at it for as long as they did. And now Wilson is using this long period taken to suggest it wasn’t a clear and obvious mistake.
Wolves fans, and probably even some Newcastle fans too, would have much more respect for Wilson if he just said Newcastle got a bit lucky in that moment, which they did.