Igor Jesus’ first Premier League goal gave Nottingham Forest a point with a 1-0 win over unbeaten Wolves at Molineux. Rob Edwards was angered by the prospect of his team “going into games whining” this season.
The Brazilian striker nodded in the only goal of a low-quality game in the 72nd minute, when Sam Johnstone met Omari Hutchinson’s cross from the right, but it just fell short. Considering what happened in the second half of the first half, it was natural for Jesus to do so.
There was momentary controversy on that occasion when the Forest player appeared to have put Sean Dyche’s team ahead by a head. The goal was ruled out for offside as teammate Dan Ndoye was standing in the line of sight of Wolves goalkeeper Johnston.
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Watch Igor Jesus score his first Premier League goal for Wolves!
The call seemed relatively easy given the recent spate of such offside calls, but it took the referees five minutes to overturn the initial call after a VAR review, with referee Tim Robinson spending a considerable amount of time in front of the monitor.
It was a typical little game that highlighted the problems the Timberwolves have had all season, and Edwards is far from solving them after losing their first three games. The forest will move up to 15 points, giving the bottom a little more leeway.
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Nottingham Forest’s goal was dismissed by VAR for offside after it took ‘more than five minutes’ to review
Daiche speaks out about VAR decisions and long delays
Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche said in a press conference:
“Tonight, I have to say he’s not interfering with anyone. He’s not. He’s just standing there. He’s not trying to deflect the ball in or anything like that. I have to say I’m disappointed in that. I don’t think the keeper saved it. But you never know, these keepers are so agile. So he could have done that, I have to say.
“Then it’s too long for me to move on to the fans. You know, there’s a lot of people sitting in that room and if that decision was final, it could have been made a lot faster than that. And it puts pressure on the referees, which I don’t like. I don’t agree with them going to the screen. Usually I think they turn it around, but it takes a long time.”
“So, I feel for the fans, but the professional side of me says my job may depend on those decisions. So it’s a tough call. But if it takes that long, I think that’s what I was talking about when it first came out, many years ago, and it seems like many years ago now. And I said it’s about how quickly they can get up to speed, and they haven’t done that yet.
“But I just don’t understand and think it’s a waste of trying to talk to the crowd. It’s taken forever. Just call it up and keep going. I just don’t understand it. That’s what they all wanted in the Premier League. To me, everyone involved I want to know who those people are because when I talk to the coaches they say, “No, we don’t want it.” Maybe I’m wrong. Fans may want that, but it’s just going to take more time.
“And the referees, personally, I think referees have a tough job and overall I think they’re doing a great job. Why put more pressure on them? You know, it’s natural that everyone wants to speak in front of 20, 40, 50, 60, 70,000 people. So why not put that on them as well? I’m saying take the officiating off of them. Give them a chance to catch their breath and do their job without layering on top of them.”
Edwards: I don’t want to go out whining.
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Dejected Rob Edwards admitted it looked like his Wolves side were waiting to lose in the first half against Nottingham Forest.
Wolves manager Rob Edwards said in a press conference.
“Yeah, I’m really disappointed tonight. I’m trying not to think about the weekend compared to the level we set on Sunday. It was hard not to. It was just three days ago, but tonight it was almost the opposite. Tonight was the opposite.”
“I asked the players at half-time if they weren’t scared. They looked very passive in the first half, they didn’t play positively, they looked like they were afraid of making mistakes. Maybe they were afraid of the crowd’s reaction. I don’t know, I don’t know, maybe that’s human nature.”
“But I know we conceded a goal in the second half. I feel like we lost the game in the first half, we didn’t have the intensity and we didn’t show a lot of what we want from our team and that hurt.”
When asked how the players responded to his questions, Edwards added: “They said no, they didn’t either. And I looked them in the eye and stood there and left it like that for like 30 seconds and just went, yeah? No, the answer was yes. We saw the reaction and the second half was a little bit, not a lot, a little bit better.”
“We’re in this position right now. We don’t want to die like that. So that’s probably going to be our message going forward. We don’t want to end up whining. That’s just how I felt in the first half.”
Edwards also stressed that he understands the fans’ frustration after seeing yet another loss.
“Yes, I understand. I don’t know the last time I saw my team win, so I get that. If I were one of our fans right now, like I was, I’d be really angry.”
“They want to see effort, they want to see passion, they want to see fight, they want to see determination, they want to see grit, they want to see effort. We showed none of that tonight. So my message to them is I understand.”
