Mario Lemina and and Matheus Cunha posted despairing responses to Wolves’ latest misfortunes with refereeing errors after their 3-2 defeat at Fulham.
Multiple major decisions went against Wolves and three have since been revealed to be wrong.
Referee Michael Salisbury told manager Gary O’Neil that the call to award Fulham a penalty after Nelson Semedo’s fair challenge on Tom Cairney should have been overturned by VAR.
O’Neil fumed after the game that Wolves are seven points worse off than they should be after a spate of errors concerning them this year, and it appears his players are fed up.
Mario Lemina and Matheus Cunha were devastated at the refereeing and VAR injustistices that went against them at Craven Cottage
‘Now I give up. Enough is enough. Some strong decisions need to be taken. These things are ruining football,’ Lemina wrote on Instagram
‘We are tired of hearing excuses the next day. You harm the work of several families,’ wrote goalscorer Cunha on Instagram
Lemina and Cunha both started at Craven Cottage, with the latter scoring an early equaliser to make it 1-1 before the game took its course.
Taking to Instagram, Lemina posted on his story: ‘I’ve always tried to understand that to referee, it’s not easy at all, I’ve always tried to say to the players that we could do better during the game to win it.
‘But now I give up. Enough is enough. Some strong decisions need to be taken. These things are ruining football.’
Cunha posted: ‘Tough result but we continue together. We will never look for excuses outside, but some decisions against us have to bear greater responsibility.
‘We are tired of hearing excuses the next day. We will never look for excuses outside, but some decisions against us have to bear greater responsibility. We are tired of hearing excuses the next day. You harm the work of several families.’
O’Neil complained in the wake of the defeat that ‘livelihoods’ and ‘reputations’ are being affected by the mistakes – after all, there are huge financial differences between finishing in each Premier League place.
He contends that instead of being on 15 points, Wolves should be on 22 points – a shift which would see them comfortably in the top half rather than 12th.
According to the Premier League’s Independent Key Match Incidents Panel, Wolves have already been incorrectly on the wrong end of key refereeing and VAR decisions against Man Utd, Newcastle, Luton and Sheffield United.
Michael Salisbury gave a penalty for Nelson Semedo’s fair challenge on Tom Cairney while Joao Gomes protests
Carlos Vinicius headbutted Max Kilman but VARdecided not to give him a red card for it
Tim Ream was not dismissed despite bringing down Hwang Hee-chan in the box while on a yellow card
Gary O’Neil: ‘You can send me flowers. You can ring me tomorrow. You can do what you want but we should be on 22 points instead of 15’
At Old Trafford, officials failed to award Wolves a stoppage-time penalty when Andre Onana clattered into Sasa Kalajdzic, denying the visitors a chance to equalise.
Against Newcastle, the referee gave a spot-kick for an apparent Hwang Hee-chan foul on Fabian Schar, but the Magpies defender actually appeared to kick the turf and was going down before contact was made.
That left Wolves 2-1 down and having to chase down the equaliser, which they got in the second half.
Luton were given an incorrect penalty when the ball bounced off Joao Gomes’ knee and onto his hand, allowing Carlton Morris to score and deny Wolves a 1-0 win.
And when playing Sheffield United, Fabio Silva was adjudged to have fouled Sheffield United’s George Baldock, with Oliver Norwood converting the 100th-minute penalty to give the blades a 2-1 win.
The mistakes leave Wolves, who have been impressively led by O’Neil, significantly worse off than they should be.
O’Neil said: ‘When I look at this evening, the referee would have probably done a better job on his alone and without VAR’s interference. What’s the point of VAR if all these incidents are missed. I don’t think it’s helped the game at all.
Wolves were incensed after Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana was not penalised for clattering into Sasa Kalajdzic
Newcastle should not have had a penalty for Hwang Hee-chan’s challenge on Fabian Schar
A penalty was given to Luton after the ball bounced off Joao Gomes’ knee onto his hand
Oliver Norwood converted a 100th-minute penalty that was harshly given against Wolves
‘The difference between 22 points and 15 points for the thousands of supporters who follow this team around the country is huge. The difference between 22 and 15 on my reputation when you’re trying to build at a big club is irreparable.
‘You can send me flowers. You can ring me tomorrow. You can do what you want but we should be on 22 points instead of 15.
We’re going to try and conduct myself in the way that I think is right and I will co’ntinue to but the players are extremely frustrated.
‘The players are like yeah, should we make some noise about this? Do we need social media posts? But my advice so far before this evening is to make sure we were good enough to win the game regardless of what the officials do.
