Wolves anger VAR after James Ward-Prowse corner seals West Ham victory | first division

A chorus of anti-VAR chants echoed around Molineux, replacing the delirium that erupted after Max Kilman headed home what he thought was the equalizer in the 99th minute. But he and Wolves would be robbed of giving victory to the West Ham. Tony Harrington ran to the monitor to check whether Tawanda Chirewa, in an offside position, had impeded Lukasz Fabianski's view. The referee decided that the goal should not stand and was abused for the remaining seconds, showing the yellow card to everyone.

Chirewa could have blocked the goalkeeper's line of sight, but Fabianski would have had no chance despite stopping the ball. Harrington, however, was convinced by the evidence and nullified the original goal. Wolves have never got on well with VAR. They staged a protest at their match against Nottingham Forest in December when they paraded banners into the stands to show their views on technology.

“I think it's possibly the worst decision I've ever seen in my life,” Wolves coach Gary O'Neil said. “If your knowledge and understanding of the game is really poor, then you might conclude that you are offside. if you are a first division An official working at the highest level, I would be very disappointed if he felt he was offside. If it is correct according to the letter of the law, then the letter of the law needs to be changed. It does not affect the goalkeeper's vision or his ability to move to save the shot. I think it's a terrible decision. My honest opinion is that he should never be offside, David Moyes and Fabianski agreed. Only the referee and the VAR consider this to be offside.”

O'Neil spoke with Harrington on the field at full time and attempted to continue the conversation inside the locker room. “I went to him and asked him some questions and he didn't like the way they were asked, so he felt like he didn't want to discuss it,” O'Neil said.

Harrington had been at the center of most of the game's big moments. He conceded a penalty to each side, converted by Pablo Sarabia and Lucas Paquetá, and disallowed a goal by Emerson Palmieri. The referee also awarded West Ham the corner which James Ward-Prowse kicked straight into the far corner, although the wind and José Sá had much more influence on that kick than the referees.

Former Nottingham Forest manager Steve Cooper was in the stands and he, like everyone else present, could not have imagined that West Ham would walk away with three points after a woeful first half in which they were second best in all departments. Wolves scored from the penalty spot after Emerson fouled Rayan Aït-Nouri, and the hosts had all the momentum, but without a recognized striker in the starting line-up they were unable to turn the score into more goals before the break.

West Ham's abject performance resulted in David Moyes making two changes at half-time with Michail Antonio coming on to provide a focal point in the attack and leading the turnaround, despite fellow striker Jarrod Bowen being forced to retire due to a hip injury, which left him a doubt to Thursday's trip to Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League. “We have to hope he's okay,” Moyes said. “I hope it's not that bad. We need it this week, we need our great players.”

All control passed from Wolves to West Ham after the break, reversing the roles. Unlike their hosts, West Ham did have an advantage. Emerson was deemed to have fouled Nélson Semedo before returning home. The Italian finally got redemption for giving away the penalty that allowed Wolves to take the lead when his cross hit Kilman on the hand and Paquetá did the rest. “I think both teams changed shirts at half-time,” Moyes said. “The wolves were the best team in the first half and dominated us. The best thing is that we only arrived with a disadvantage of one goal. In the second half we were the better team and we had the most opportunities.”

West Ham were the only team capable of winning the match, but no one could have anticipated that Ward-Prowse would deceive the goalkeeper with a wicked corner. The midfielder certainly intended to shoot and got his reward, as did Moyes for his half-time substitutions, but most of that was forgotten in stoppage time as Kilman and Wolves were rightly furious. .