STUART ATTWELL was at the centre of more VAR controversy after he ruled out Hwang Hee-chan’s potential equaliser to spark fury among Wolves fans.
Then sent off Bournemouth bad boy Milos Kerkez for a crunching tackle on Matt Doherty.
It was the last thing the Luton-supporting ref needed, after Nottingham Forest publicly called him out for his failure to spot three potential penalties during their relegation battle with Everton.
This time Attwell was the man in the middle – five days on from Luton-gate – and it was VAR Darren England who put him on the spot.
Ironically, Attwell initially awarded Wolves an equaliser when Nelson Semedo crossed for Hwang to head home after he out-jumped Bournemouth’s Illya Zabarnyi.
But England had spotted a potential foul in the build up and called on Attwell to take a second look.
This time Attwell did spot foul play as he judged that Matheus Cunha had elbowed Justin Kluivert in the build-up.
Although Kluivert was able to continue playing and no Cherries player appeared to complain, the goal was ruled out, sparking fury among home fans.
“Nuno’s right, Attwell’s sh**e,” chanted Wolves supporters.
And they followed it up with “It’s not football any more,” and “Premier League, corrupt as f**k.”
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And even though Attwell reduced Bournemouth to 10 men – again checking his monitor to confirm Kerkez had gone in recklessley on Doherty – it did nothing to appease Wolves fans.
In the end, Antoine Semenyo’s first-half goal was enough to earn the Cherries three deserved points to keep them on course to set a new club Premier League points record.
Andoni Iraola’s men now need just two more points from their final four matches to surpass their previous best of 46 points set seven years ago.
Wolves in contrast looked as if they had the weight of the world on their shoulders after making it seven games on the spin without a win.
Only the brilliance of Jose Sa prevented Bournemouth from wrapping up the three points by half-time.
The visitors started brightly and Semenyo’s early shot crashed off Max Kilman for a corner.
Marcos Senesi made first contact with the flag kick and sent the ball looping towards the back post where it bounced off the Wolves crossbar, with Sa scrambling.
Wolves finally came to life when Pablo Sarabia took a pass from Kilman and fired in a curling shot which looked netbound until Mark Travers, making his first Premier start for the Cherries, brilliantly parried it away for a corner.
Jose Sa saves
At the other end Sa saved from Solanke before surpassing himself to palm away Kerkez’s shot, after Kluivert set him up with a cute backheel.
Wolves’ Portuguese goalkeeper made it a hat-trick of rapid saves when he defied Kluivert with a stunning save low to his left.
But he was helpless to prevent Bournemouth finally making the breakthrough they had been threatening eight minutes before the break.
Semenyo started and finished the move working the ball out to Kluivert who played in Kerkez.
His low cross was cut out by Kilman but the ball landed perfectly for Semenyo who slammed the ball beyond Sa from eight yards.
Wolves thought they had equalised twice during a bad-tempered second half, first through Hwang, and then deep into stoppage time Max Kilman slammed a shot past Mark Travers.
But following a lengthy VAR check it was confirmed that the giant defender had strayed offside.
This time Attwell had nothing to do with the decision!
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
