Aston Villa lose at Wolves: Sky Sports pundit loses his mind at ‘controversy’
Aston Villa should not have seen their equaliser against Wolves ruled out after a “soft” decision, according to an animated Don Goodman.
The Villains went into Saturdays (1 February) match-up with Midlands rivals Wolves, hoping to move to within one point of the Champions League places.
Wolves came flying out of the gates, putting in a series of hefty challenges as they looked to disrupt Villa, before taking the lead through Jean-Ricner Bellegarde in the 12th minute.
Following a nervy first-half, Villa came out in the second half and looked the more dominant side, and seemed to have found an equaliser in the 54th minute.
The goal was ruled out, as Morgan Rogers was adjudged to have impeded with a Wolves defender whilst offside, despite not being involved in the build-up to the goal otherwise.
The decision incensed former West Brom striker, Goodman, who said on Sky Sports Main Event (6.39pm): “This is gonna stand, this [isn’t] gonna be overturned…Quite clearly, its 1-1”
Rob Hawthorne then said: “Well, they are ruling it out, because of the position of Morgan Rogers and the impact he has on the defender.”
Goodman: “No. Tell you what. This is gonna be another controversy at Molineux, we had one last week…the referee should have been sent to the monitor to look at this one. He’s clearly offside but does he impact the recovering run of the defender? I don’t think so. I don’t think so.
“I said the free kick in the first instance was soft, THIS is soft. Morgan Rogers blocks there from an offside position but doesn’t actually make any contact.
“He doesn’t look to me like he’s impeded him. This’ll be better [replay angle], this’ll be clear. He hasn’t impeded at all. This is controversial. I don’t think Aston Villa, when they see that, are gonna be overly happy.”
Aston Villa fall short after Jhon Duran and Ollie Watkins drama
Football Insider Verdict
Following the decision to rule out half-time substitute, Donyell Malen’s equaliser, Villa looked deflated.
The Midlands club then conceded in the dying moments, as Villa target, Matheus Cunha, ran through on goal and finished neatly past Emi Martinez.
Ollie Watkins, subject of an Arsenal transfer bid recently, looked off the pace and seemed to be suffering from a knock that he picked up in the first-half.
Having sold Jhon Duran to Al-Nassr, manager Unai Emery was left with no options to replace the English striker on his bench, and Watkins failed to make his mark on the match.
Another glaring issue was the lack of centre-back options for the Spanish manager, as he was forced to use Boubacar Kamara out-of-position, and the Frenchman was routinely caught out by the Wolves attackers, including for Bellegarde’s opener.
Villa must strengthen their areas of weakness in the January transfer window, or else the dream of back-to-back qualifications to Europe’s elite competition will disappear.
In other news, Marcus Rashford’s transfer to Villa may have dire financial consequences for the club.
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