By admin 
Wolves manager Gary O’Neil was perplexed by the ‘absolutely horrible’ decision to give a penalty to Luton Town in yesterday’s 1-1 draw at Kenilworth Road.
With 65 minutes gone, Town wingback Issa Kabore pushed his way into the area and, after being found by Jacob Brown, put in a cross that touched Joao Gomes’ leg before cannoning up to strike his outstretched palm.
Referee Josh Smith awarded the penalty kick, and with VAR confirming the decision moments later, Carlton Morris had a chance to level the game, which he did with his second of the season.
A enraged O’Neil, on the other hand, felt Town’s top scorer should not have been given the chance to equalize, saying: “It’s never a penalty, an absolutely terrible decision.”
“If that is a penalty, we’re in a bad situation because of the rules.”
“I have 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, so it hit Joao on the leg.”
A enraged O’Neil, on the other hand, felt Town’s top scorer should not have been given the chance to equalize, saying: “It’s never a penalty, an absolutely terrible decision.”
“I forgive the referee, and I understand their reasoning that Joao’s hand is too far away from his body, which I understand, so if the ball strikes him directly on the hand, I fully accept that is a penalty.”
“The rules state that it is not a penalty because it hits his leg and possibly his chest, and has a massive change of trajectory to his arm.”
“We’ve been sent the rules, we’ve been told how it’s going to work, and I just don’t understand, but hopefully they can improve the level they’re at and we can get our fair share.”
That wasn’t the case, as he explained: “There’s a lot of pressure and a lot on the line.”
“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 it’s hit his hand, the rules state that can’t be a penalty, so I trust you’ll come to the right conclusion.”
“You sit down and trust they are, and then when they aren’t, I’m not sure what to do.”
“It’s a really difficult situation as a manager because you’re expected to be calm and to behave in a certain way.