Gary O’Neil
During the first half of Cherries’ contest against Crystal Palace, with the game goalless, Eagles defender Joachim Andersen’s hand connected with the face of Lerma, the latter defending from a corner. The Colombian went to the floor and the game was stopped, but video assistant referee Andy Madley did not recommend to on-field official Michael Salisbury to review the footage, after checking for a potential red card for violent conduct. Webb, a former top-flight referee in England and in international competition, became chief refereeing officer of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) earlier this season. Asked for his take on the incident in the 2-0 defeat at Selhurst Park,
Gary O’Neil said: “Jefferson Lerma has broken his nose from it. It looked like a fairly clear punch in the face to me, on the footage. I spoke to the on-field ref and I understand them not spotting it. I think it’s from a corner, so there’s a lot of bodies and things moving fast. The ref needs to be trying to look at everything, so it’s difficult for him to spot it. But the fact that we got the usual check complete from VAR, as one that’s going against us, was a surprise. It was a significant blow to Jeff’s face with a closed fist by the look of it. So I’m disappointed something wasn’t done.”
Asked if he will speak to PGMOL about the decision, as he has done in recent weeks about various decisions,
Gary O’Neil said: “It’s an interesting one. I speak to Howard Webb most Sundays at the moment! I’ll speak to him tomorrow, because I feel like this one is an important one. Jeff’s obviously not happy about it. I’ll speak to him, as we have done even with the penalty decision last week (in defeat to Chelsea) on Dom (Solanke). It didn’t go our way. It’s important we discuss it, because it’s a significant blow to the face and Jeff has injured and broken his nose from it.”
Meanwhile, Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson played down the incident.
Asked if he was concerned Andersen may be in trouble at the time,
Roy Hodgson said: “I don’t know, I haven’t seen it. The penalty box is 65 to 70 yards away from me. My eyesight is not bad, but it’s not an eagle eyesight. All I know is I was watching the corner kick and trying to assess our organisation and suddenly the game was stopped and there’s a player on the ground. I have no idea what happened or how he landed on the ground, but I have to trust the referee, who at the time did not see any reason to give a free-kick. And that was backed up by VAR, so that’s perfectly good enough for me.”
