Wolves Fans' Verdict v West Ham: A VAR farce
Our Wolves fans have their say on the defeat to West Ham.
Clive Smith
28,000 football experts would not have come up with that line-up and formation. It was inspired. The first half was as good as we’ve been all season. The number of passes we made felt like our highest in any game. It was a joy to watch.
Passing long and short, quickly and often first time was far more accurate than it often is – we constantly found a man in space, frequently it was Doyle or Ait-Nouri while we also had the marauding Semedo and Doherty as willing supporters. Sarabia meanwhile was just ‘floating’. At times it was amusing to see two or three West Ham defenders central, but with no-one within 10 yards to mark. That’s not to say we didn’t get men in their box, we did, and we had an abundance of shots too.
Obviously it was disappointing to only lead by a goal, but if the game continued the way it had been then there was nothing to worry about. Besides one early bad miss the Hammers had not been in it at all.
As for the second half, my, now that was a different story! Quite a few things changed. Firstly Antonio came on at the break. From then on he was the best player on the pitch and virtually unplayable. 10 minutes later Ait-Nouri went off, having been our best player until then. His replacement, Cunha, was initially just not up to the pace of the game as we constantly turned over the ball.
The flea in the ear Moyes must have delivered to his team was having an immediate effect and the momentum had changed. The time and space Wolves had up until then had vanished and instead West Ham were almost permanently on the offensive.
You wonder if Wolves’ earlier pass and move approach contributed to us looking second best. As the half wore on we looked depleted of energy. Lemina and Sarabia were replaced, both looking tired, but our replacements could not turn the tide. Following the equalising penalty there looked only one likely winner. The source of the goal was disappointing to say the least. A crowded box and blustery conditions should have been handled better.
Then.
VAR was not the reason we lost. It was however the reason we did not draw.
VAR, the gift that keeps taking away. Yet again I left the ground feeling cheated.
