Fulham 3-2 Wolverhampton Wanderers
The Whites had not won in the Premier League since early October. The only home match so far in November (Manchester United) had been mediocre and frustrating.
This made supporters desperate for a turnaround – but no one could have anticipated the bizarre happenings on Monday evening when Wolverhampton Wanderers visited the Cottage.
For once, Fulham looked positive from the start and took the lead in the seventh minute. Alex Iwobi switched the play to the left and took advantage of an exchange of passes between Willian and Antonee Robinson to open the scoring, putting the ball through Jose Sa’s legs.
Robinson and Iwobi continued to threaten, but Wolves were just as positive, exploiting the gaps in Fulham’s defence. After Harrison Reed was dispossessed by Mario Lemina, Hee-Chan Hwang outpaced Calvin Bassey and hit the bar.
Then Tim Ream grabbed Hwang at the expense of a yellow card. The pressure finally paid off when Jean-Ricner Bellegarde easily rounded Robinson and Matheus Cunha headed his looping centre past Bernd Leno.
Despite some sloppy defensive work (Bernd is not the wizard of dribble) there was no further scoring before the interval. The game seemed to be drifting towards a draw. I wonder how many viewers decided to switch off.
Apart from Ream’s caution, the referee Michael Salisbury had shown his usual indulgence. In the Luton match earlier this season Fulham fans serenaded him with ‘Can we have you every week?’ and on Monday night the referee certainly did little to change their opinion. He gained few admirers among the Midlanders, especially in the second half.
Tom Cairney, thoroughly justifying his place in the starting eleven, timed a tackle on Lemina with precision and ran unto the area to receive a pass from Andreas Pereira.
A falling Nelson Semedo caught Cairney’s leg and Mr Salisbury awarded a penalty. Though the contact looked slight it scarcely needed the long VAR consideration by Stuart Attwell and his assistants. Sa had no answer to Willian’s stop-start technique.
Alex Iwobi also broke through, but the keeper frustrated him this time. Fulham missed other chances before a loose header from Calvin Bassey made an opening for Hwang. Tim Ream sent him flying and once again the penalty was awarded without hesitation, but required a lengthy VAR debate before being confirmed.
Wolves head coach Gary O’Neil must have been relieved when Hwang scored from the spot, but he wondered why Ream had not received a second yellow. which would have given the visitors an advantage with 14 minutes of normal time remaining.
VAR woes
Marco Silva took off ineffectual Raul Jimenez and Andreas Pereira and sent on Harry Wilson and Carlos Vinicius, both of whom were to increase Gary O’Neil’s distrust of officialdom.
Vinicius almost inevitably lost his rag and thrust his head against Max Kilman’s face. Kilman did not feign injury and the Brazilian escaped with a yellow card (VAR again backing the referee).
In added time, Robinson fed the ball into the area and Harry Wilson, rushing to meet it, made contact with Joao Gomes and hit the turf. Mr Salisbury ignored the incident and a passage of play ensued before he consulted VAR. His colleagues did not hurry but eventually sent him to the TV screen after which he changed his decision. Willian secured Fulham’s victory.
Gary O’Neil described his subsequent conversation with Michael Salisbury: “Nelson plays the ball and doesn’t touch Cairney. I’ve watched it back with the referee and to be fair he says he thinks they got it wrong and he should have been sent to the monitor. The one on Wilson we disagree on a little bit. He thinks there’s enough contact to give a penalty. I think it’s really soft.”
Thereby hangs a major problem with VAR. Its constant use interrupted the flow of an exciting second half yet served only to confirm all but one of Salisbury’s initial decisions.
The exception, Fulham’s second penalty, remains, as O’Neil acknowledges, a matter of opinion. Unfortunately for him it gave two extra points to Fulham.
We are stuck with VAR. It may even be extended to freekicks, corners and (yes) second yellow cards but surely a time limit could be imposed on a system supposedly meant to detect glaring errors.
Strong foundation
Away from controversy, it was good to be handed at the match the annual review of the Fulham FC Foundation, providing opportunities for the under-represented and improving in practical ways the lives of people across the community.
More than 10,000 individuals drew benefit from the Foundation in 2022-23.
A future item in the review caught my eye: the Cottage Sleep Out next March (‘Sleep under the stars of our historic stadium’).
I cannot visualise myself participating but if VAR is extended, the club may have to issue sleeping bags to spectators wishing to stay to the end of evening matches.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of Hammersmith & Fulham Council.
