Referee Michael Oliver was right to disallow Sofiane Feghouli’s first half goal says Tony Pulis.
Feghouli scored but the linesman’s flag was immediately raised for what appeared to be an offside call on Michail Antonio – deemed to be interfering with play. However, Craig Dawson appeared to be playing the West Ham players onside as he lay on the ground following a clash inside the box with his own keeper.
“I don’t think it was a goal,” Pulis said. “The lad’s come from an offside position.
“What everybody’s missed is that he actually pushes Ben. When they slow it down, hopefully you’ll watch MOTD tonight or whatever you watch, he pushes Ben as the shot’s being taken. He runs past Ben and actually pushes him so I don’t think it’s a goal.
“And it wasn’t a goal.”
The Baggies boss also thought Oliver was correct in waving away several penalty appeals from the home side.
The strongest claim came from a clumsy Jake Livermore challenge on Robert Snodgrass in the first half.
“I think the ref got most of those decisions right,” he said. “The one I was disappointed with that he gave was Noble’s one.
“I think everyone can see that.”
“That was one Mike got wrong.”
No surprise from Pulis but motd of the day showed Antonio did make contact with the keeper which meant he interfered with play and therefore offside.
However, Fergouli was fouled for their first and Ian Wright was wrong about the throw in being given correctly which led to the WBA equaliser.
I also think the first Brom goal should not have been granted because of the foul on Fegh. If you look at the replay you can even see the Brom player raising his hand in sort of apology to the ref.
As to the disallowed goal for Fegh, I have to disagree because even if Antonio touches Foster, there is no way the keeper gets to the ball before or after Fegh touches it. Therefore Antonio doesn’t influence or interfere in the action. Another story would be told if you consider Antonio commits a foul on the keeper (and on top of that, is it Antonio pushing Foster, or Foster blocking Antonio ?). BUT, the referees said the goal was disallowed for offside. To me that is a wrong decision.
Pulls is the most negative and anti football manager in this division. And you will have a hard time finding an equivalent in other leagues even in Italy or Greece. Just look at the Chadli substitution, taking off the player who could have hurt us the most just to try and bottleneck the pitch. Sad.
That said, Oliver was completely out of his depth. Not only did he have no idea of what he was doing and how he had to handle the goal/no goal situation (good proof of it is it took him a couple of minutes to come up with a decision, plus all the explanations given to players, a ref who is clear minded doesn’t have to justify himself that way), but he got it wrong on three occasions in the Brom box. First for a holding of Livermore on Snod. To me, penalty, but if it isn’t one, it is simulation by Snod, therefore yellow. If it isn’t one, it’s the other. For Oliver, it was none. Second, could on Caller. Same comment as above. Third, and nobody mentions it for some reason, Foster commits a blatant penalty on Antonio by strapping him in the floor and not letting him push the ball in goal. That was penalty and red. Nothing signaled…
Then Pedro gets a yellow for a benign foul, yet more aggressive actions by Brom players went without card.
And of course, the final stretch with the throw in wrongly awarded, and the final goal with lots of pushing and forcing position (several players pushed from behind ending on the floor).
It was bad refereeing, and Pulis should really keep a low profile, because they got an unexpected reward for their shameful anti football philosophy.
I think there is one more negative manager than Pullis, he did a decent job of stabilising our club and giving us the platform we are now on 😉 he might not be in the division next season though. Yeah I saw the holding back of Antonio on the replays Dunlop it was blatant I am not sure why Antonio didn’t make more of it tbh, for me both were penalties and Antonio, the only favour he did all game was not sending Obiang off who should have gone. Overall a very poor performance, they didn’t give the foul on Foster so it should have been given but hey ho it was still a great performance we should look at trying to close the gap on them, I would be very surprised having not won yesterday if 7th was makeable and it is quite possible Southampton could win the cup which I think would complicate European qualification anyway.