Fulham boss fumes at ref decision

Fulham boss Marco Silva insists that referee Chris Kavanagh was “embarrassed” to award Gianluca Scamacca’s goal in Sunday’s London derby.

The Hammers came from behind to win 3-1 at the London Stadium; Jarrod Bowen equalised after Andreas Pereira opened the scoring, and Scamacca and Mikey Antonio then added a second and third.

The Italy international was again sent through on goal by Lucas Paqueta, and he controlled the ball before lobbing Bernd Leno.

There was a lengthy VAR check to see if he was offside, and he was ruled to be on, while one replay angle appeared to show that the ball may have hit his hand. Scamacca did not celebrate the goal initially, raising some eyebrows.

It did nothing to alter the flight of the ball, however, and the goal was given, much to Silva’s chagrin.

He was booked by Kavanagh for his protests but he claimed afterwards the referee knew he was making the wrong decision.

He said, as per KUMB: “It’s tough for the referee. He was so embarrassed, like myself, when he saw [the replay] on the screen.

“It’s difficult for him to say something more. The decision came from VAR and he has to respect that decision. But I saw on his face when I spoke to him after the match, he was embarrassed because he saw on the screen what I and everyone saw.”