There is still a sense of fury for many Wolves fans about Saturday’s game with West Ham United and the goal Max Kilman had chalked off injury-time.
Wanderers fell to a 2-1 defeat at Molineux, which was a big blow to their hopes of securing European football.
Wolves took the lead in the game through Pablo Sarabia. But a poor second-half performance led to West Ham getting back into it, with Lucas Paqueta scoring from the penalty spot and James Ward-Prowse scoring direct from a corner.
Just a couple of minutes from the end, Max Kilman thought he had scored an equaliser for Wolves.
But the captain’s effort was chalked off by VAR, who deemed the offside Tawanda Chirewa to be interfering with Lukasz Fabianki.
The decision prompted fury at Molineux, and now Matt Doherty has given his take on the situation…
Matt Doherty says he’s never seen a decision like Max Kilman’s goal for Wolves against West Ham being ruled out
The decision to rule out Kilman’s header has been a real talking point.
Many on social media blasted the decision at the time, and pundit Ian Wright was nearly lost for words about it Match of the Day on Saturday night.
Gary O’Neil called it ‘terrible’, and on Sunday morning, even chairman Jeff Shi commented on it.
He released a rare statement, calling out the officiating this season and questioning the use and purpose of VAR, while placing on record his support for O’Neil and the job he is doing.
After the game, Doherty about the game and that controversial decision at the end.
Like everyone else, Doherty was left stunned by the call. Insisting he has actually never seen anything like it before, he said (via Wolves official): “We’re very disappointed with the decision. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a goal get disallowed from a cross and a header straight in like that. I don’t think he’s [Chirewa] interfering with the goalkeeper at all.
“The goalkeeper can clearly see the line of the ball and it’s so far in the corner he doesn’t even bother to dive for it, that’s how far away he is from getting to it. Then when the referee gets sent over you think he’s getting sent over just because the VAR isn’t sure, so they’re sending him over for his own opinion. But his own opinion lacked common sense in the end.”
There were obviously scenes of frustration after the final whistle, and a couple of yellow cards were dished out by referee Tony Harrington. But £50,000-a-week man Doherty has insisted that the Wolves players did not overstep the mark.
“I didn’t see what happened at the end,” he added. “There was obviously a lot of people who had their fair share of words to say to him. Not even saying stuff in an insulting way or a bad way, but just to try and figure out what he saw and what his thinking was.”
Common sense should have prevailed
It is really frustrating that O’Neil and the players can work so hard all week, only for a dodgy decision to end up costing them.
And it has happened several times now this season.
The decision to chalk off Kilman’s goal is a travesty. Fabianski was still free to move and could see over Chirewa, but he didn’t move because he was never, ever getting to the ball.
Common sense had to prevail in that moment. But the second Harrington trotted over to the pitchside monitor, Wolves fans everywhere knew that it would not.