Officials 'not here to try to take goals away if we don't need to'
- Published
Referees' chief Howard Webb believes match official Tony Harrington was right to rule out Max Kilman's late goal in Wolves' 2-1 defeat by West Ham last month.
The goal was initially awarded on-field by the referee before VAR reviewed the incident and saw that Tawanda Chirewa was stood in an offside position and impacting Hammers goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski's line of sight.
Hartington overturned his decision having seen the incident again, but Wolves boss Gary O'Neil called it "possibly the worst decision I have ever seen" and was subsequently charged by the FA and since received a touchline ban.
Speaking on Sky Sports' Mic'd Up programme, Webb said: "You can see there on the footage that [Chirewa] is really close proximity to Fabianski right in front of him and in an offside position.
"He positions himself there from the corner but doesn't get back into an onside position when Kilman heads the ball forward. He remains offside and he's therefore penalised for that offence."
The Key Match Incidents panel - the five-person independent committee which reviews all 'key' decisions made by Premier League referees and VAR after each round of matches - agreed unanimously with the officials' decision of offside.
"We're certainly not here to try to take goals away if we don't need to, but we are pretty consistent here and all over the world in terms of how we judge these types of situations," Webb added.
"It is in line with the way the laws of the game are applied all over the world. If you stay in that offside position right in front of the goalkeeper, you're going to have an impact. And most goalkeeping people I've spoken to at least expect this to be to be penalised."