Wolves booked their place in the fifth round of the FA Cup on Sunday but the match could have gone in a completely different direction if one decision was altered.
Wolves clinched a 2-0 victory over Blackburn Rovers thanks to goals from Joao Gomes and Matheus Cunha, seeing them into the hat for the fifth round.
Vitor Pereira’s men produced a quality and professional performance at Ewood Park, with several players stealing the headlines.
Andy Thompson praised the ‘relentless’ Rodrigo Gomes and the fans were also impressed with Marshall Munetsi on debut, who came off the bench in the second half.
A win, a clean sheet and watching Munetsi take to the field was the perfect trio however, one decision going in Wolves’ favour sent them on their way.
John Eustace fumes over Dominic Hyam’s disallowed goal vs Wolves
Blackburn dominated the opening stages of this FA Cup tie. John Eustace’s men played on the front foot, with winger Augustus Kargbo causing problems with his pace and power down the left.
A strong start to the game saw Rovers put the ball in the back of the net through Dominic Hyam inside 20 minutes. The towering centre-back stole in at the back post to nod home a wonderful whipped free-kick delivery from Josh Buckley.
Celebrations by Blackburn players and fans alike were quickly halted when the linesman was spotted raising his flag and ruled the goal out for offside.
Replays showed that Hyam’s goal was wrongly adjudged to have been scored from an offside position, though, with Chris Sutton claiming Blackburn were ‘hard done by’, as did the manager Eustace.
“It’s definitely onside, we have seen it back,” Eustace said. ‘I felt we had a couple of decisions, could’ve had a penalty, which didn’t go our way. We do a bit hard done by for that first half an hour. It’s the nature of football, you don’t always get decisions.
“I thought we were excellent for that first half an hour. We’re disappointed in the manner we conceded that first goal, we lost it in midfield and Balazs is disappointed that he didn’t save it.”
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Wolves lucky VAR wasn’t there to intervene
Since Blackburn are a Championship side, they didn’t have the benefit of VAR to rule out the goal. But in any case, the technology isn’t introduced till the fifth round of the competition.
Wolves travel to Bournemouth in the next round of the FA Cup and as the game is being played at a Premier League stadium, VAR will be in place to avoid any refereeing errors.
Pereira’s men were fortunate that Hyam’s goal was disallowed, especially during a period of the game when the hosts were on top and looked the most likely to score.