Given the nature of the scores on the opening weekend of the ‘most competitive league in the world’, you’d be forgiven for heading into tonight’s game with low expectations.
Villa’s shellacking at Newcastle aside, there were few surprises to be found within the first round of fixtures of the 23/24 Premier League season.
And yet, were we not so profligate in front of goal, it could have been oh so different.
Despite enduring a glib pre-season, Wolves produced a display against one of the division’s most expensively assembled teams that suggested there’s more cause for optimism than many of the forecasts would have you believe.
Gary O’Neil certainly showed his tactical acumen, despite only having a matter of days to prepare his new charges. This was a disciplined but, above all else, ambitious performance, as evidenced by our 23 shots on goal.
Of course, therein lies the problem. For all of our attacking verve, our long-standing Achilles’ heel remains. We just can’t score goals.
It’s a shame that Matheus Cunha was the biggest culprit on that front, as this was arguably his best performance to date in old gold. I’d be keen to see him play off either Kalajdzic or Silva in the coming weeks.
Gomes and Lemina were also impressive in the middle of the park, with Neto also offering a performance of real promise.
Ultimately, we were undone by a moment of quality that any top side can muster, with Ten Hag’s substitutions lifting an otherwise underwhelming performance from the home side.
O’Neil was aggrieved by the penalty that never was, but I still think it’s a really difficult one to call. On one hand, Onana has taken out two of our players but, on the other, if you’re awarding that, there’s going to be a lot of spot kicks given this season.
Either way, our fate was in our own hands and we’re going to need to be more clinical if we’re going to steer clear of a dogfight this season.
Alas, fine margins shouldn’t dampen what was a surprisingly encouraging performance. I think if we play like that more often than not we’ll be just fine.
Gutted, we are not going down, wolves aie we.
I’m sorry Ben, but are we really ready to accept this kind of treatment from Stockley Park? Have we become so resigned to be being shafted every week that we no longer even question it? Every single commentator I have come across agrees it was a stonewall pen and are astonished that it wasn’t given. One of the commentators on Radio 5 live at the time called it ‘assault’. Another joked that Goal keepers were now allowed to indulge in fights outside night clubs with impunity. These aren’t Wolves fans I am talking about, but impartial (in theory) pundits who most often seem to unconsciously favour the bigger clubs.
I can’t understand why we aren’t all more angry about this.
Ben’s point is that there would be a lot of spot kicks given every week if we awarded a pen to the one last night. Well, if goal keepers miss the ball by that much and take out two opposing players all the time then there should be a lot of spot kicks. Perhaps they do it because they get away with it, but I don’t think we see this as often as Ben suggests.
But this incident in isolation isn’t what concerns me most. What concerns me is that this is one in a long line of baffling incidents involving our club, as well as others, where Stockley Park have made decisions that just can’t seem to be explained by anything other than bias or something more sinister.
And I don’t think that this is an issue with VAR. We don’t seem to these controversial issues cropping up on anywhere as near as regular a basis in other competitions. The issue seems to be specifically with Stockley Park.
I think, it is high time football fans of PL c.lubs were making a some noise about this. Season after season we experience these massive injusticies, hoping that next season they will get it right. It’s been too long.
I am sure others will already know but who is Stockley Park answerable to? What is their relationship with the PL? Who gets sacked if they don’t perform as they are clearly not. Something is broken. We need to make the PL aware that we are no longer willing to accept it.
We must not be resigned to this any more.
I looked at the starting line up and the bench. There is enough quality there. Having calmed down and looked at he penalty again I can see it probably wasn’t so clear cut. But if it was the other end in front of the Stretford end it would have been different!. Encouraging performance and well done GON in difficult circumstsnces.. He hasn’t been here a week. A manager giving off positive vibes unlike the previous encumbent. Good riddance. THE PROBLEM – PUTTING THE BLOODY BALL IN THE NET. We had enough chances.
Welcome to Wolves GON – don’t expect anything for a legit penalty shout from VAR except for the obvious rejection… and a yellow card to us!
And as for Dermott Gallagher – he drives me nuts!
“Yes, clearly it was a penalty, but VAR has done the right thing here because it wasn’t a howler” (apparently wrong isn’t enough. it has to be very wrong).
This was a performance of huge promise, which completely belied pre match concerns.
The undeniable fact is that we outplayed Manchester United throughout this game and had we won by three clear goals they could not have had any complaint. Some of our football was sublime, of a quality that we haven`t seen since Nuno departed.
To a man Wolves were superb. Defensively strong, dominant and hugely constructive in midfield and always threatening up front.
Cunha today showed us tonight just what a great footballer he is. His running at the Manchester defense was superb causing them all sorts of problems But he`s not a natural goal scorer, and surely O`Neil will now understand that if Cunha`s played with a strike partner, our dearth of goals will become a thing of the past.
Many of us doubted the wisdom of appointing Gary O`Neil but tonight he had the team well organized both defensively and going forward, will all team members really stoked up and committed. Early days, but maybe this appointment is just what we needed.
I for one will sleep easily tonight very confident that the doomsters will be proven wrong and that we could be in for a very productive season.
Another apology, legitimate corruption. Salisbury again!
Great performance though, we won’t go far wrong if we keep playing like that.
It’s just fucking rigged!
I do share your pain my southern-based friend, coz it does feel that way when the feeling is still raw, as it is now.
But Ben does make a valid point about how many pens would have to be granted in a season if we’d been given that one..
Yet another PGMOL apology though so I feel much better now (sigh…).
Hopefully, with my more rational hat on later, I shall moderate my belief that whilst we may not go down, we aren’t gonna be allowed to win anything either, that’s for sure.
It just feels that ever since Leicester City slipped thru the net and won the Prem, more and more features have been introduced to prevent that ever happening again.
VAR and extended injury time are surely there to benefit the “better” teams who will surely have more attempts on goal in a match and would not have to resort to anything remotely like time wasting on a scale to which a “lesser” team may feel the need.
Not that I condone time wasting, of course but it does happen and it is often one of the few tools that less privileged teams have in their box.
Replying to my own comment (sorry…) but I wouldn’t feel quite so aggrieved if those previous apologies had been for incidents involving lesser teams and not Liverpool, NUFC and now Man U.
Don’t agree at all. How many times a season do you see a goalkeeper clear out a couple attackers with the ball nowhere near? Hardly any . Penalty all day long .
Agree.
Anywhere else on the pitch it would have been a free kick, at least a booking and possibly a sending off. Goalkeepers aren’t exempt from the rules.
A lot of really positive elements in the performance. The defence was solid and well organised. I have frequently criticised the amount of money invested in Semedo but he was excellent last night. Gomes and Lemina both played really well. Cunha was a class above anyone else on the pitch but frustratingly will never justify the price tag unless he gets a proper striker playing alongside him as for all his efforts 2 goals in c.20 appearances is not enough. Surely Silva has to start instead of Sarabia against Brighton? Neto also showed a promising return to form. So, well done so far to GON…..if you can somehow solve our striking problem with the players you have, a decent season could lie ahead. Unfortunately, the flip side is also true and if we carry on not scoring, we won’t win many games and therefore despite the impressive performance last night, we will be in a relegation battle.
Sutton. my only disagreement with your analysis is your suggestion that Sivan starts up front with Cunha. I am still far from convinced with Silva. He has no scoring pedigree in a top league, and in my humble opinion is still very average,
I think that Sasa is a far better option. He is beginning to regain real fitness and is a proven goal scorer in Germany – a very high standard. Also he holds up the ball really well, and brings others into play. I think that he could well form an awesome partnership with Cunha.
That said, either Silva or Sasa must be a big improvement on Serabia. Surely one of them must be selected against Brighton
I’m not sure who downvoted you Mike so I’ve upvoted as your point was entirely reasonable. Sorry I’ve only just seen the reply. I think silva is probably the best finisher in the club but that’s hardly saying anything with our forwards and he is fit and raring to go whilst kaladjzic is still probably a few games away from being able to play a full90 at full tilt.
Lots of positives to take out of the performance, so happy with that. Had to watch it in a pub in London, so surrounded by plastic Mancs, many felt they were lucky. Lots to build on, home performances like that with quality finishing, we might be in for a a better season than the pundits would like the world to believe.
KTF.
I expected a gubbing and wow was I wrong …we were the better team!
I won 5 pounds from my oldest mate after texting him in Cornwall before kickoff and getting 3 + goal defeat as the decider
That’s one of the best wolves team performances I can remember
That should be a huge confidence booster to the pack and credit to GON for an attacking lineup and tactics throughout
Just a little deja vu here tho
2 seasons ago we outplayed Leicester MNure and Spuds ( dear Nuno in charge)and lost all the games 1-0 at start of season
Please dog not again
OODCL
Weren’t they Bruno’s first three games, Marin?
I had the same conversation last night with my fellow Wolves supporting pals re Lage’s first 3 games last season … I trust Gazza hasn’t found his play book behind a radiator in the managers office (tongue in cheek)…. we were good in spells last night and the obvious inability to score with a plethora of corrupt officials at the helm meant we were not destined to get anything deserved ..but life’s rewards are like that quite often ?
Oh yes, you could be right.
it’s a stone wall penalty, wtf are you talking about….
If a player takes someone out, its a foul… you are crazy
They did what Lopetegui wasn’t prepared to. Fight.
It was a pleasant surprise to see such a committed and largely confident performance at one of the toughest places to go to. We were full of real quality. Cunha was superb, Lemina, Gomes and Semdo really good too.
Oh but just the goals. We’ve been saying it for years now but you have to think – the old cliche – if we keep playing like this we’ll be ok. That’s the challenge now, to recreate this against the sides in the bottom half of the table.
It was a brave performance from Gary’s boys and we were the better side for much of the game. Another hard luck story. I was expecting a comfortable United victory, yet it hurts more coming so close and knowing we deserved a result. The hope that kills you, I guess.
It’s definitely a penalty for me. The keeper cleans out our player and gets nowhere near the ball. It’s reckless and a clear foul.
Still, plenty to be encouraged about. Let’s see if we can play on the front foot at home against a quality Brighton side, who will be coming here aiming to do what we did last night.
Final word for Lopetegui. He looks like a coward for walking away from this team. He wasn’t prepared to believe in them, but we certainly can.
A proper performance, if a poor result.
It’s already feels like Gary is one of us. (I’m going to call him Gary because he feels like he’s our mate.)
I don’t know how much of the performance was he his and how much was J.Lo’s but I absolutely loved his interview where you could see he was bursting to say what he thought but knew the wise move was to not get himself in any more hot water.
It started to show what all the fuss was about over the players bought in the January window. Nunes Cunha and Ballon Dawson were all immense but there again, so were most of the others.
As for the big elephant in the room, the non-penalty. Come on guys, if that had taken place in another part of the pitch, especially in the other goal area that was nailed on penalty and probably a red card. And yes if it had been given, it’s possible, for a while anyway, until goalkeepers stop that sort of challenge there would be more penalties, but so what?
All in all a good watch, giving us lots of optimism for the rest of the season.
I’m a lot happier now than I was at 7:45 last night.
The team was brilliant. If the the Goal Goddess had removed that constant curse she has on our team, we would have won that 4-1, never mind my optimistic 2-1 prediction.
There is a lot to be encouraging about our current squad and we certainly do not look like relegation contenders.
COYW
For the most part, a brilliant performance which, towards the end, became almost comical watching Wolves finding different ways not to score from some superb approach play.
What wasn’t at all comical (but in no way surprising) was the non awarding of a penalty in the dying minutes of added time to a team – not recognised as a big six club – playing away at a packed Old Trafford.
Earlier Lemina, who, along with Cunha and the rest was superb all night, was yellow carded, quite correctly, for a foul that was premeditated to stop an opponent get away with a ball that Lemina had no chance of getting to.
Onana did virtually same thing but with much greater intent and force. The difference being that one of our players could well have ended up with a Raul like injury as a result.
What do we get? A booking for O’Neil and another apology from Keith Hackett.
How many is that now?
I’m thinking of having them framed and hung in DOOGooder Towers.
But I might have to reopen The West Wing to house them all.
When I wrote Keith Hackett, I of course meant Howard Webb.
I don’t know, all referees look alike to me.
That’s what you get when you don’t pay your VAR bill, won’t be the worst decision we’re going to encounter this year
Guaranteed United would have got that penalty.
In interviews after the match both the utd player and manager were surprised to be asked about wolves performance and gave them no credit at all.
If utd qualify for Europe by 2 points this is where VAR dun-it for them.
Whose that guy who denies everything and says the opposite is true? Putin? Trump?
I’m not bitter. At least we were the better team.
It’s pointless my commenting on whether it should have been a penalty as the answer is all too obvious. As is the reason it wasn’t given.
We played some scintillating football, as we had against Rennes, and can only hope that the coming weeks will see us turn our undoubted quality into numbers on the scoreboard.
It’s difficult to pick out star performers as the team as a whole played as one. We were superior all over the pitch and my pleasure at the performance is only slightly diminished by the shadowy figures in the VAR room.
The team deserve full on ‘Cauldron Molineux’ when they return home next week. I’m sure they’ll get it.
Well, it might seem a strange thing to say after a loss, but last night should settle some nerves! It might also cause the doomsters to whistle a different tune. I forecast a 1-1 draw but we could so easily have won 3-1 last night.
At different times in the past some of us have called for an up and coming young English manager in the mould of Eddie Howe. Well, we’ve got one now, by a rather convoluted route. And we’re keeping him. He signed a three-year contract.
Immense credit to O’Neil for having the courage to pick up what many considered to be a poisoned chalice. Many a coach wouldn’t risk their reputation to take a job four days before the start of the season. Credit also has to go to Lopetegui for a very decent preseason. He left the squad in a good place. The evidence from the Stade Rennais and Man U matches demonstrates an attacking fluency reminiscent of Nuno at his best. It’s tempting to say that all we need is a striker, but Fabio Silva has looked the part so far, he just needs to start a match…
Good point.
When I noticed that Rennes had won 5-1 at the weekend, I did start to wonder but never foresaw a performance like last night’s.
“O’Neil was aggrieved by the penalty that never was, but I still think it’s a really difficult one to call. On one hand, Onana has taken out two of our players but, on the other, if you’re awarding that, there’s going to be a lot of spot kicks given this season.”
Have to respectfully disagree with this take Ben. You recognise it’s a clear foul warranting a penalty but suggest that because there might be lots of fouls like this warranting clear penalties we should ignore them. I don’t see a lot of sense there.
Hi Stephen, that’s a fair comment – in fairness, I wrote this report as soon as I got home last night so hadn’t had much time to properly re-evaluate the event. On reflection, it ought to have been a penalty and we can rightly feel hard done by that we didn’t get it.
Thanks Ben .
The new Man U goalie has a reputation for being thuggishly dominant in the box. It was a blind assault last night on two Wolves players. They were taken out. He wasn’t going for the ball. Surely dangerous, as Dawson could have been concussed. Correct decision would have been a penalty and yellow card. I remember Jimenez being sent off for a clash out of the box with the Arsenal goalie in similar circumstances. Onana will have to clean up his act otherwise a red card is inevitable sooner or later.
I’m looking forward to the rematch at Molineux. They owe us.
Onana is going to get sent off …
Are Utd selling him already ?
It’s a real man who can admit he’s wrong Ben.
Pity the effing ref was such a miserable excuse for a man.
I think Gary thinks it’s all about him.
He marvels at how well we did, considering he’s only been at the club for 4 days.
Didn’t they have a preseason before that?
I’ve seen his comments praising the players efforts given the recent disruption but none where he marvels at or congratulated himself. Please share a link /quote?
Absolute nonsense this, watch the interviews again in full.
Absolute bollocks
Just calming down after last night and the latest assault on a wolves striker with no repercussions. If you can get away with that, why not just forego the ball and let them all just kick sh…ugar out of each other!
Pleasing performance, with lots to build on after an interrupted preseason. Hopefully we can keep the squad together, and maybe bring in one or two more (come on Jeff, give him a chance!)
On that note, just seen that Liverpool want to chuck a cheeky bid in for Nunes after last night. Off that performance, I would definitely be telling them the price starts at 100mil. If they’ve got it to spend on Caicedo, Nunes last night was no worse than anything he did all year last season.
Nunes? Of the outfield players perhaps only Sarabia had a less effective game. Good, in parts, in the second half but still turned blindly into opponents and was sloppy with his passing in the first half particularly.
Thought Cunha, finishing apart, was brilliant.
We don’t won’t to be selling players to Liverpool, they haven’t finished paying for Jota yet, scalleywags.
“Three Premier League officials at the centre of a decision not to award a penalty to Wolves at Manchester United have been overlooked for this weekend’s matches.”
A very very brave effort indeed which absolutely confounded my worst fears of a hammering. Lots of positives to take from the game not least that this season may not to be the disaster that I feared. The performance indicated that the players have bought in to the O’Neil regime.
The but, and it’s a very big but, is the continued profligacy in front of goal, We could and indeed should have scored at least 2 or 3. Cunha was brilliant but isn’t going to score heavily, so it’s a bit of a mystery that neither Fabio nor Sasa started up front. This problem has been with us since Jota left and the Jiminez incident. It’s a problem that has to be solved and soon.
As for the penalty claim , it’s becoming increasingly clear that the integrity of The Premier League needs to be formally investigated. Time and again all bar the favoured ones (we all know I mean) are regularly playing against at least 13 men. It’s been the case for years but has now become shamelessly blatant and what a grand job Howard Webb isn’t doing. Throw in the loaded dice ironically called The Financiall Fair (missing prefix Un) Play regulations and we are facing a competition which is effectively rigged from the get go. So basically 13/14 teams START the season with avoiding relegation as their main and probably sole objective. Possibly rebrand it as The Premier Football Handicap.
I think it about betting syndicates and you are right , it needs investigating.
Well they’ll be foreign ones then London because bookies here restrict you if you want a meaningful bet!
Of course… far Eastern/ Asian absolutely millions invoved, if not billions … in 2022 the Athletic stated that some 900 games had been under investigation… even back in the late 90s they were involved in floodlights going out during games etc . It will all come out in the end
That decision last night was nothing short of bizarre.
What about that time we were at Annfield and the badly placed ref signals to the linesman to flag for offside and then the Var CAMERA suddenly wasn’t working so the linesman decision stood . The linesman who was level with play never flagged . He was told to . W T F ?. There’s been so many others .it’s got to be crooked .
Unusually I find myself disagreeing with Ben, specifically about
“On one hand, Onana has taken out two of our players but, on the other, if you’re awarding that, there’s going to be a lot of spot kicks given this season.”
Sorry Ben, that just doesn’t hold water, you can’t excuse one wrongdoer because punishing him might lead to a lot more wrongdoers being punished, Go down that route and you end up with nothing being punished.
To think of a fanciful example – imagine the PFA getting it’s members to start deliberately tripping opponents in the penalty area – on the grounds that, although they’ll give away a lot of penalties initially, there’ll come a point where, following a deliberate trip, people are going to say “If we give penalties for that, we’ll end up with a huge number”. What Onana did was dangerous, if it goes unpunished it will be copied by others and soccer will very quickly becomes almost indistinguishable from all-in cage fighting or bare-knuckle boxing.
Hi pal – I’ve just responded to a comment from Stephen above. On reflection, it is a penalty and ought to have been given.
Thanks Ben, you’ve restored my faith in human nature. 🙂
Encouraging result. Cuhna and Fabio together at the top please.
I think with VAR there should be something similar to cricket. Each team captain could have one appeal. So in the case of a glaring error a captain can instigate an appeal to force the incident is looked at again and this could be if VAR take no action/ or rule incorrectly. What is galling is when an incident as soft as the Spurs challenge at Brentford gets the ref to look again and award a penalty. In fact Brentford do tend to get quite a few ‘soft’ penalties where as we all know we don’t get proper ones.
You’re right COD a lot could be learned from both cricket, also rugby union. The cynic/ realist in me though says he cloudy world of Stockley Park, Howard Webb and their fellow travellers are more than happy with VAR as we know it. And I don’t notice many dissenting noises coming out of the likes of LiVARpool or VARchester Unuted either,
If it looks like a fix, smells like a fix then it;s probably rotten to the core like FFP.
Super League being evolved by alternative strategies.
Quite a good article about VAR and it’s problems. It includes a a comment on RAN’s booking for timewasting “in the 35th minute of a game Wolves were trying to win” because the possible recipients of his throw were all being marked and an error on his part could have led very quickly to conceding a goal. I hadn’t realised that the same thing had happened to Trent Alexander Arnold in his match.
The article suggests that changes over the summer designed to protect refs from abuse and to reduce time-wasting have resulted in over-empowered refs joyfully wielding their new power while missing the bleeding obvious. The law of unintended consequences again. Don’t any of these decision makers ever think things through?
Sorry, I should have ‘thought it through’ myself – this is the link
https://www.sportsmole.co.uk/football/man-utd/feature/why-wolves-non-penalty-decision-opened-the-can-of-worms-that-the-premier-league-needed_521177.html?newsnow
Good article Jazz, but I can’t see past the fact that it’s always against us and never against them. That’s not just a perception ’cause I’m looking through gold tinted specs.
I agree with LWL above.
It’s blatantly,obviously and shamelessly rigged.
Thanks for posting that link Jazzy. Very interesting article. But you link above didn’t work for me, I had to go and search elsewhere for it. Anyone having similar problems might try this one instead.
https://amp.sportsmole.co.uk/football/man-utd/feature/why-wolves-non-penalty-decision-opened-the-can-of-worms-that-the-premier-league-needed_521177.html
A magnificent performance last night ruined .. yet again against a ‘top 6 club’ …
We deserved à draw at least and sometimes I think the officials should be cognisant of the balance of the game .. a penalty would have bought balance to what had gone before .. BUT NO ..
And what do we get , apart from the huge injustice… buggar all barring an apology…
Well shove your apologies Mr Webb … it’s just not acceptable any more …
Has Michael Salisbury opened the brown envelope yet ..?
Yet another apology for us as a referee gets it entirely wrong. The apology was for getting the decision blatantly wrong. There is no argument and to see football fans naysaying the vast majority leaves me flabbergasted. There is no argument from the refs, it was out and out a penalty.
I am fuming. Commentary and pictures at the time left the broadcasters in a state of amazement at the decision and the lack of requirement for the ref to check on the screen.
Then we get apologists leaning towards “I can see why…”.
No wonder the refs can’t interpret the rules; plenty of ordinary folks have problems with the most straight forward of decisions.
Rant over, but anger still fuming away…
its hypothetical I know…..but who is our designated penalty taker?
I hope to see him soon
Don’t hold your breath mate!
Cunha took the penalty versus Celtic
Got to get a penalty first
Haven’t you heard Marin Wolf?
Our designated penalty taker’s position is currently unfilled. That position was made redundant a few seasons ago through lack of demand.
In the unlikely event of us ever being awarded a penalty, Howard Webb is our designated emergency penalty-taker. And he will apologise in advance when he doesn’t score.
Brilliant Dances.
THE HOWARD WEBB APOLOGY LEAGUE TABLE 2023
1. WOLVES 5
2. EVERTON 1
Every other premier league team 0.
And i’ve just seen that penalty incident again on BBC Midlands Today and from a camera angle behind the goal it is clearly clearly a penalty. You can see the goalie deliberately wipes Sasa out.
The stats show us as the lowest scoring team in the PL last year ..
Add the apologies on (as goals) and we’d be up there with Man City ..
And what are we to make of Onana’s Post-match comment that ‘it was a coming together of two big men and he was confident a penalty would not be forthcoming’.
Had he been assured before the game that he could get away with blatant fouls and not be penalised?
It stinks and Man Utd should also be ashamed of the growing assumption within the game that they could be complicit with the officials’ incompetence.‘
Would like to thank Howard Webb for his meaningless apology. It really means nothing Howard, and it was only one point. BUT a point that come next May could mean a huge difference to the future of WWFC. No matter though 3 points for your team. Oh sorry you’re neutral along with PGMOL and all the other entities ensuring that “The Premier League” is played out “on a level playing field”. Yourself, Mike Dean and all at Stockley Park have displayed your neutrality on a weekly basis for some time. Doing a great job for all members of the PL, but to quote George Orwell there seems to be a strong suspicion that “some are more equal than others”.
Yes and i’ve seen some pictures emerging of Jon Moss and Howard Webb enjoying Man Utd hospitality in a suite at the game last night. Surely to God in the name of impartiality you shouldn’t have senior officials connected to the refereeing structure being entertained by a club involved in a game against a premier league opponent. Thanks for the apology Howard. I bet he has a recorded message on his phone ” Good morning Wolves. Howard here. Just want to apologise for last night/yesterday afternoon/yesterday evening” delete as appropriate.
That eating in the the hospitality section is supposedly normal.
Question is – should it be?
Snouts in troughs, know what I mean. I can guarantee that five Howard Webb apologies to Manure might stop that gravy train. The Yanks call it grifting.
Greetings Feather Spitters,
So what are we to make of the FA ‘resting’ the ref team following the latest criminal episode? Everybody seems to be accepting a mistake has been made. But not just by one official, by the whole lot. Was it corrupt? Something’s badly wrong if they can’t even review the decision. Theatre of Dreams? Soddin’ toilet block of deception.
No matter Howard Webb getting out the ‘Sorry WWFC’ template on his secretary’s laptop.
We want Compensation Biscuits. Reparations. Points.
What if Banana had snapped Sasa’s neck off? Just a coming together, like Jimi? What reckless bollocks is this? You can’t sanction GBH on the field like this.
No team wants to go into the box thinking I’m getting the flying fist here, doesn’t
matter where the ball is.
We Owned the Midges grass, humbled the demons in their squalid back yard. A display worthy of 4 points. 1 for the penalty opportunity denied, 3 for the commotion the refereeing team have caused by failing to do their job, and the FA for the incompetence of senior management in appointing said clowns. Criminal Negligence, Safety at Work and other such liability issues.
Guaranteed Mr Noodle will want to sell Cunha for £100mil. No way are we going to be able to keep him in Old Gold. If he survives the inevitable foul marathon coming his way.
4 points means we are Top of the Table. What a start for Gary, wear that yellow card with pride.
1 lv & COYW
Bit racist.
Which bit?
36 hours after the win that wasn’t, and having had some time to reflect, I feel more optimistic for our season now than I did last week.
My takeaways from our visit to Old Trafford.
We have real quality in our squad. Stand out performances across the pitch, but in particular, Lemina, Cunha and Semedo.
Rather than focusing on our not scoring, I prefer to acknowledge the number of chances that we created through progressive and incisive play. That was seriously lacking last season. And the season before.
Our coach is not out of his depth. He will be just fine. Honest, realistic and no doubt ambitious.
Finally, whilst Howard Webb’s approach is far more open and transparent regarding referee performances, and I’d rather have an apology than silence, it’s about time that the “bottled it” decisions at critical moments in games is banished.
There’s no doubt in my mind that in a reverse fixture, that penalty that never was would have been awarded to Man Utd. But referees are unconsciously biased, absolutely without question, when it comes to making big decisions against big clubs at home in particular.
So let’s introduce a Video system to remove that bias. Oh, hang on. We already have. How on earth both the on field ref and the VAR assistant failed us is beyond me. Apology or not, that cost us a point. The other 2 points were as a result of our misfortune/profligacy in front of goal.
I’ve no doubt we will fix the latter, the former, well that’s not up to us.
But we will be fine this season. I didn’t think we’d be fighting relegation before. I know we won’t be now.
UTW
Can anyone believe Mike Dean spouting out about bad refereeing decisions and to add insult to injury he’s going to be paid money for doing it and the first spouting out of his mouth concerns WWFC a club he found making horrendous decisions at the NORM
Well done to the lads who played Monday night to pull together like they did after the coach jumping ship like he did I think we do have a team to be proud of
Well done also to Garry for grabbing the poisoned chalice and strangling it at birth keep up the good work mate we are all behind you Wolvesayewe
Side note
Oh what a joy to see the English Rosie’s put one over the aussies,even in nz the rhetoric was totally aussie bias
Come on girls one last effort
Whinging Aussies were even complaining that England were too rough.
By the lord Harry that’s the pot calling the kettle black after what they dished out to the French
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