Rafa Benitez
A raging Rafa Benitez accused referee Mike Dean of incorrectly sending off DeAndre Yedlin and missing an elbow in the face of Ayoze Perez which would have meant a penalty for Newcastle and red card for Wolves defender Willy Boly.
The Spaniard was furious when he emerged to reflect on the 2-1 defeat and said he could not believe the standard of officiating.
Yedlin was shown a straight red card in the 57th minute having lost the ball to Diogo Jota before dragging the forward down as he made his way in on goal.
Then, with the score at 1-1 on 81 minutes, Boly caught Perez in the face from a corner kick but Dean said the ball had hit the forward.
And Benitez fumed: ‘When you care and are fighting to do the best for your team, you cannot believe this type of situation can happen in the Premier League.
‘(Jota) was in the corner of the box, with the ball two or three metres away, he was pulling DeAndre and DeAndre was pulling him, and Lascelles was close enough. I cannot believe that every time he would put the ball in top corner and it’s a clear chance to score, I cannot believe that.
‘Then, it was an elbow in the face (of Perez), he was bleeding. It was so obvious. I have seen the replay, you can see the face of the player (Boly) and after what happened, which is a penalty and a red card. You can see the two incidents in the video – it was unbelievable.
‘But I’m wasting my time when you try to explain things (to the fourth official) in a polite way, it seems it’s not working. Everything you’ve done in terms of hard work with the players and managing the game against a good team, now it means nothing. We need VAR, right now.’
Perez said: ‘I don’t know what we have to do to get a penalty. The guy elbowed me really hard, straight in my nose, but the referee said it was the ball that hit me.’
Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo countered: ‘It’s a clear elbow but he jumps for the ball and doesn’t see so it’s not intentional.
‘The penalty… the law is clear, Jota is clear, I don’t think Lascelles can arrive on time to avoid the one-on-one with the goalkeeper.’