Wolves boss hits out at 'absolutely terrible' penalty decision in Luton draw

Wolves boss Gary O’Neil was left mystified at what he felt was an ‘absolutely terrible’ decision to award Luton a penalty in their 1-1 draw at Kenilworth Road yesterday.

With 65 minutes on the clock, Town wingback Issa Kabore made his way into the box and after being found by Jacob Brown, sent in a cross that hit the leg of Joao Gomes and then cannoned up to strike his outstretched hand.

Referee Josh Smith gave the spot-kick and with VAR confirming the call moments later, it gave Carlton Morris a chance to level the contest, which he did with his second of the season.

However, a fuming O’Neil felt Town’s top scorer shouldn’t have been allowed the opportunity to equalise, saying: “It’s never a penalty, an absolutely terrible decision.

"If that is a penalty we’re in a real bad place with where the rules are.

“I’ve got the rules that were sent to us on my phone and mitigating circumstances for handball are if it hits the same player on a different body part and has a significant change of trajectory then it’s not handball, so it’s hit Joao on the leg.

“I forgive the referee and I also understand their reasoning that Joao’s hand is too far from his body, which I get, so if the ball hits him directly on the hand, I fully accept that is a penalty.

"The fact it hits his leg and possibly his chest, and has a massive change of trajectory to his arm, the rules state it's not a penalty.

"We’ve been sent the rules, we've been told how it’s going to work, I just don't understand, but hopefully they can improve the level they are at and we can get our fair share.”

O’Neil had also hoped that with VAR in operation, the system would intervene and reverse the decision.

That wasn’t the case though, as he added: “There's a lot of pressure and a lot at stake.

"I tried to have a calm conversion with the fourth official while the check was going on, and I was like, ‘just so you know mate, we’ve seen that, it’s clearly hit his leg, it's gone in the opposite direction and then its hit his hand, the rules state that can't be a penalty so I trust you are going to come to the right conclusion.’

"You sit down and you trust they are, and then when they don't, I don't know where to go with that.

"It’s a really difficult situation as a manager, as you are asked to be calm, you’re asked to behave in a certain way which I try to do, but then what I’m sent rules-wise, isn’t followed up, so it’s a difficult situation.”