Robbie Savage was pleased that referee Roger East awarded Wolves a penalty during the 1-1 draw with Bournemouth after Matt Doherty was brought down.
The pundit shared that he wasn’t overly sure that the referee got all his decisions right on Saturday during Wolves’ clash with the Cherries but did think it was the right-call to award a spot-kick after Adam Smith brought down Doherty.
Savage did add that he thought Smith should have gotten his second yellow for the foul, therefore his red, but aside from East’s decision to penalise the player by awarded a penalty pleased him.
“What I will say, this is just my opinion, so you’re a Wolves fan, the first one Moutinho on Joshua King, I’ve got to say we had Peter Walton, whose our referee, whose reffed over 170 Premier League games and reffed loads, lovely lovely fella and he knows the laws of the game and everything, he obviously sees the incidents,” said Savage on BBC 606 (BBC Radio 5 Live, Saturday February 23rd, 20:13).
“We all go to him on the panel what do you think? It was my game Moutinho against King, I’ve got to say I watched it, slowed down three times and I still don’t know, if you watch the match tonight, if there was contact as it was so close.
“Moutinho goes to kick King and King goes down easy, I’m not saying contact is a definite penalty but when you see it tonight, you watched it in real time, I still don’t know Glenn even VAR would struggle with that.
“Because the referee gave a penalty I don’t think VAR would have changed his mind as it wasn’t a clear error, that one was a tough one so I’m with ya.
“The second penalty for Bournemouth which Joshua King missed was outside the box so VAR would have cleared that one up and it’s very close in real time, slow down outside so he got that wrong.
“And the Wolves penalty was…for..just remind me..that was a definite penalty and you know what Roger East was the referee and I was so pleased that he gave that penalty and you’re right, what happened is the ball went across to Doherty, he has a shot with his left foot, Adam Smith who came charging in after he got his shot away cleans out Doherty and it’s a definite penalty, thought East got it wrong as he should have given Smith a second yellow and therefore a red, but he got that decision right he just failed to book Smith.”
OPINION
It’s fair to say that the referee will be a hot topic among Wolves and Bournemouth supporters following their draw on Saturday. Both sides saw their goals come from penalties and East was handed yellow cards out like they were going out fashion. While Savage correctly highlighting that East had some difficult decisions to make during the match, and only one would be aided by the use of VAR, the referee did affect the game in a negative way. The official made it hard for himself by handing out a yellow card in the opening minutes as it might he had to keep handing out bookings throughout. This saw the clash between the two Premier League sides become unnecessarily feisty and it was a shame by all accounts. Both Bournemouth and Wolves are capable of playing eye-pleasing football but due to the referees actions, the challenges and controversy in the match over shadowed the football on offer.