27 Nov 202322.18 GMTJacob Steinberg’s report is in, which means we’re done here. Thanks all for your company and comments, sorry I couldn’t get to them all; peace out.
Oh, and he also says he felt the touch and he was going fast so it took him down. Jamie Carragher, though, reckons it’s harsh because the touch was slight; I’m in disagreement. Cairney gets the ball, Semedo gets a touch, Cairney takes it away from him, and then comes the foul.
27 Nov 202322.15 GMTTom Cairney is very happy. Before the game, he told his teammates they needed a performance more than a win because if you play well, results come. It was important, he says, to play well at 0-0 because recently they’ve done well when behind but you can’t give yourself too much to do “in this league:”. Wolves are a good team, he says, but they weren’t leaving tonight without the points, and he’s given the player of the match award; one he well earned.
27 Nov 202322.12 GMTThe thing was that you saw none of that in him. In the dressing room that night, the father figure just came out again, because that was how he was and how he treated people. Even in the hardest moments, he still always found the right thing to say. Like I said, yes, he was a great coach. But my word, was he a great man.”
27 Nov 202322.10 GMTThis is great. Imagine having people say this about you.
“I think this has been discussed here before,” says Samuel Campbell, “but the whole idea of what constitutes a penalty needs looked at. Wilson is running away from goal and does not have the ball under control. Yes it’s a foul but that should not be rewarded with a free shot at goal.”
Yup, I’ve been banging on about this for years. I’m certain my solution of giving a pen for any infringement, anywhere on the pitch, that denies a goalscoring opportunity, makes sense; I’m less convinced that a bunch of direct free-kicks for box-infringements that don’t is the best alternative.
Talking of Wolves, they’re 12th, above Fulham and Palace on goal difference, and will play worse than tonight and win. But rash challenges in the box – and a bit of attacking class – cost them.
FULL TIME: Fulham 3-2 Wolves
A colossal win for Fulham, who move up just one place, above Forest and into 14th, but it’s a result that really cements their status before an away trip to Liverpool at the weekend. Wolves will feel very poorly.
27 Nov 202322.02 GMT90+11 min Fulham make first contact but don’t get the ball away; it breaks left, Wilson slides into a square-pass, and it bobbles up on to Reed’s hand, then Leno clears. VAR takes a look, but the ball clearly played the man, who was looking the other way.
90+10 min Gomes is caught by Lukic and Sa comes forward for the free-kick, to be pumped into the box…
27 Nov 202321.59 GMT90+9 min They do eventually get it into Doyle who, 25 yards out, decides the best thing to do is take a shot, which dribbles through to Leno.
27 Nov 202321.58 GMT90+9 min Wolves just can’t get hold of the ball.
27 Nov 202321.58 GMT90+8 min “One part of the VAR debate that gets overlooked,” says Justion Madson. “The fun of watching players who are clearly guilty of fouls remonstrate as if they were a child being unfairly denied a cookie from the cookie jar.”
Also, the fun of watching players who have clearly been fouled being unfairly denied the penalty they’ve earned. Glorious.
27 Nov 202321.57 GMT90+7 min A win here takes Fulham on to 15 points – same as Wolves. They badly need these points to get their season going, but also, it’d take a remarkable effort for them to be drawn into a relegation scrap from here given third-bottom Sheffield United have only five.
27 Nov 202321.56 GMT90+6 min The review took a fair while, so I’d expect at least nine additional minutes.
27 Nov 202321.55 GMT90+5 min Fulham send on Lukic for Cairney.
27 Nov 202321.55 GMTGOAL! Fulham 3-2 Wolves (Willian pen 90+4)
Again, Wilian dallies, for much longer this time, but this time the keeper doesn’t go! No matter: Willian’s strike is true, so though the keeper guesses right, going left, the ball is past him and above him; what a crucial win this would be for Fulham!
PENALTY TO FULHAM!
Gomes was unlucky because he had no idea Wilson was there and Wilson knew that, playing him, but it’s a foul, in the box, so it’s a penalty. Again: the issue is that the punishment it too severe, not with refs, VAR or the players.
VAR WANTS A LOOK!
It’s taking it’s time and the more they look at the purported offence, the more you know what they’re goiong to do, and shonuff the ref is called to the monitor…
90 min Now then! Gomes tarries in the box, wilson dashes across on his blind side, nicks the ball away, and the defender, already committed to the challenge, lunges because he was lunging. He gets a piece of Wilson, I’d say, who, though he’s running away from goal doing nothing and though he knows the challenge is coming and plays for it, as far as I grasp the laws, that’s a third penalty! But the ref says no…
Updated at 22.20 GMT27 Nov 202321.49 GMT88 min “I get what Simon Williams is saying,” writes Matt Dony, “but if a player slides in to a tackle in the centre circle, gets a slight touch on the ball, but takes out the opponent, then it would generally be given as a foul. But too often in the penalty box, any touch on the ball is used as justification for a heavy challenge. It’s not consistent across the pitch.”
I agree, and refer you to my previous penalty comment.
Updated at 21.50 GMT27 Nov 202321.49 GMT87 min Wilson fouls Vinicius who leaps up and, thinking it’s Kilman puts brow to brow; he’s booked.
27 Nov 202321.46 GMT85 min Cairney megs Lemina who, committed to the challenge, can’t help but foul him. The resultant booking, though, is harsh, and he too will miss the weekend trip to Arsenal.
27 Nov 202321.45 GMT84 min Your super, soaraway Guardian is able to exclusively reveal what the note said:
83 min Change for Wolves, Doyle on for Cunha; he passes Kilman a note.
27 Nov 202321.42 GMT82 min “Would it be unkind to say that Ream is having a nightmare?” wonders Peter Oh,
No, but on the plus side, things can only get better.
81 min “You’re not likely to find a better example of Commentator’s Curse as your example at 70 minutes,” notes David Mooney.
Please don’t tell Richard Hirst.
27 Nov 202321.40 GMT79 min Wolves are coming now, Doherty bundling through a pair of weak challenges and skewing a square pass that’s intercepted by Ream who extends a go go Gadget leg to make a really important intervention.
27 Nov 202321.39 GMT78 min “Semedo can absolutely feel hard done by,” reckons Simon Williams. “Completely get why the ref gave it full speed but the replay shows he got the ball first. Are we saying now that players shouldn’t make a tackle if they think that after playing the ball they might clip the player? Because if so we’ve jumped the shark (again). VAR seems extremely disinclined to overrule the referee.”
I’d like VAR to be disinclined to overrule the ref, but I’m not sure that’s so. Also, getting the ball doesn’t mean it’s not a foul – if the touch isn’t significant and the attacker is still in possession, as happened in our situation, it’s a foul I think. The real issue, though, is that a penalty is far too severe a punishment for most offences that result in one; we’ve seen two of those tonight.
27 Nov 202321.37 GMT76 min Double change for Fulham: Pereira and Jimenez go off, Wilson and Vinicius come on.
27 Nov 202321.35 GMTGOAL! Fulham 2-2 Wolves (Hwang pen 75)
Leno dives right and Hwang applies laces to leather, smashing high down the middle!
VAR WANTS A LOOK
74 min The check is for offside, there isn’t one, and Hwang will look to level things…
27 Nov 202321.34 GMTPENALTY TO WOLVES!
73 min A long punt forward, Bassey does brilliantly to hurl himself into a flick-on ahead of Kilman – nobody does it better, etc – and Hwang seizes on to the loose ball, nodding down to himself. So Ream barges him over right on the edge and when he didn’t need to, forcing the ref to point to the spot!
70 min For the first time tonight, pretty much, Fulham look likelier to score, more threatening on the counter than Wolves in general play.
27 Nov 202321.29 GMT68 min Jimenez has woken up! Castagne clips long into Jimenez, who touches off first time and Iwobi bursts on to the ball … with a man over inside him! Can they finish this?! They cannot! Rather than square, Iwobi goes himself, curling an outswinger from the edge that’s far too close to Sa, who tips away easily enough.
27 Nov 202321.27 GMT67 min I’m a little surprised O’Neil has moved Cunha out of the middle. I wonder if he might do better in behind Kalajdzic, perhaps at the apex of a diamond.
27 Nov 202321.25 GMT65 min Cairney, who/s had a good game tonight, plays into Jimenez and he lays off for Pereira. Though the attack then breaks down, that’s exactly the kind of thing Fulham need from their centre-forward – along with some goals.
27 Nov 202321.24 GMT64 min Wolves have changed from 3-5-2 to 4-3-3, Hwang right, Cunha left and Kalajdzic middle. What they also need, I think, is midfielders crashing the box.
27 Nov 202321.22 GMT62 min Change for Wolves, Kalajdzic replacing Bellegarde.
27 Nov 202321.22 GMT60 min Also, during the wait as VAR checked things out, the crowd sung “Fuck V-A-R”. It may have been Fulham fans hoping their penalty would remain so, but I don’t know anyone who thinks what we have is better than what we had.
27 Nov 202321.20 GMT59 min Looking again at the penalty, I think this is an important call, because Semedo did get a bit of the ball, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a foul. He didn’t take it away from Cairney, so when he tripped him thereafter, he couldn’t really complain.
27 Nov 202321.19 GMTGOAL! Fulham 2-1 Wolves (Willian pen 59)
Willian ambles up to the ball, pauses, and when Sa goes left, he rolls right.
VAR WANTS A LOOK!
They look at Cairney’s tackle; was it fair? Yes is the verdict, then they wonder if Semedo got the ball; no is the verdict. It remains a penalty, and rightly so; Willian will take…
27 Nov 202321.17 GMTPENALTY TO WOLVES!
54 min Cairney wins a gigantic tackle on Lemina and Pereira picks up possession, driving into the box. He’s blocked off by Semedo, but the ball breaks to Cairney again and a fine first touch, moving ball from foot to foot like Iniesta, takes him inside Semedo who, already committed to the tackle, slides in takes the man.
53 min Hwang wins a challenge out wide on halfway and finds Cunha, infield, who slides back to the flank, and when Hwang crosses low and hard, Castagne does brilliantly to slide in before Doherty can finish.
27 Nov 202321.13 GMT53 min Fulham have got to find a way of servicing Jimenez who, I’m afraid, looks way off it. There’s no reason, though, that he can’t become a poacher – but he’ll need more help than he’s getting.
27 Nov 202321.12 GMT51 min Robinson’s made a good start to the half and he wins another corner – and we see another planned move. This time, the ball goes short to Pereira, who can’t find a telling cross, but I think the move is a good one: it’s fairly rare we see a corner followed by a scoring header, so working out ways of making space and surprising opponents is one way of making the advantage tell. I’m surprised we don’t see that kind of thing more often.
27 Nov 202321.10 GMT50 min Ream has the ball on halfway and stands there, because no one’s offering for him. That, I’m afraid, is Fulham at the moment; Wolves have swapped their wing-backs, so Doherty is right and Semedo left. That makes good sense to me, as i think the latter is better on the wrong side.
27 Nov 202321.08 GMT48 min It’s been bothering me, but I think I now know of whom Antonee Robinson reminds me.
47 min Cairney down the line to Robinson, who lumps a cross behind the back post and behind; he won’t mind seeing the flag go up.
27 Nov 202321.06 GMT46 min Wolves are straight back into stride, Lemina finding Doherty whose cross is a goodun … but Cunha, a fair way out, can’t time his connection.
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