Wolves boss Gary O’Neil says referee Michael Salisbury admitted he ‘got it wrong’ with Fulham’s first penalty in their 3-2 win at Craven Cottage… and insists his team are SEVEN points worse off because of officials’ mistakes

• Wolves have had a series of refereeing decisions go against them this season 
• O’Neil revealed that he spoke to referee Michael Salisbury after defeat at Fulham
• If Steve Cooper goes, he’ll be sacked with honour and walk into another top job – Listen to why on It’s All Kicking Off 

Gary O’Neil insisted that Wolves are seven points worse off this season due to incorrect refereeing decisions after they lost to an injury-time Willian penalty at Craven Cottage in another game filled with VAR controversy.

Three penalties were awarded in the second half, with two to Fulham, and O’Neil revealed that in a lengthy post-match meeting in the referee’s room referee Michael Salisbury admitted that he had made a mistake for the first Fulham penalty, which was given after Nelson Semedo caught Tom Cairney on the edge of the box.

‘He (Salisbury) doesn’t think the first one is a penalty because he thinks he should have been sent to the (VAR) screen and he would have overturned it from the images that we watched together in his room,’ said O’Neil. 

‘He regrets the fact that he wasn’t sent to the screen to overturn the Nelson penalty.’ 

O’Neil refused to go after the officials at full-time but admitted that he felt aggrieved as yet more decisions went against his side.

Gary O’Neil (right) was again frustrated at another officiating call that went against Wolves

Referee Michael Salisbury is said to have told O’Neil giving a penalty for Nelson Semedo’s foul on Tom Cairney (pictured) was the wrong decision at Craven Cottage on Monday evening

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‘Behaving respectfully and conducting myself in this manner has probably meant that we’re seven points down due to PGMOL reviews,’ said O’Neil. 

‘The difference between 22 points and 15 for the thousands of supporters who follow the 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,’ he added.

‘We’re going to try and conduct myself in the way that I think is right and I will continue 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’re good enough to win the game regardless of what the officials do.’

O’Neil is pictured talking to Salisbury and his assistant referees at the end of Monday’s match

O’Neil added that he felt both Tim Ream and Carlos Vinicius should have been sent off for separate incidents. 

Ream was fortunate to survive a second booking when he fouled Hwang Hee-chan in the box while Vinicius wasn’t punished for a headbutt minutes before Willian’s winner,

‘They’ve sent somebody out since then speak to one of my staff and said that by the letter of the law, Tim Ream should have received a second yellow card,’ said O’Neil. 

‘We discussed the headbutt and he (Salisbury) debated that a little bit with me and said that it was a soft headbutt. 

‘I just said that’s crazy. It’s absolutely crazy. So we can headbutt people on a football pitch as long as it’s deemed soft or not hard enough? So my son at home watching that or millions of children watching that, we’re telling them that you can headbutt people on a football pitch, as long as it’s not too hard. 

‘But they’ve since come out after that and sent their representatives to speak to one of our staff and said that by the letter of the law, that got that one wrong as well. That should have been a red card.’

Fulham eventually came out on top in dramatic fashion, with Willian (left) scoring two penalties

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