Video assistant referee John Brooks helped cancel a penalty in Fulham’s favor against West Ham after an incident involving Tom Cairney and Tati Castellanos in the box.
Marco Silva goes on a rant about John Brooks after Fulham defeat (Image: TNT Sports)
Manager Marco Silva could find himself in trouble after suggesting John Brooks was biased against Fulham following a controversial decision in Wednesday night’s defeat to West Ham. The Hammers secured a decisive 1-0 victory over their London rivals at Craven Cottage, but Silva was furious.
Crisencio Somerville scored the only goal of the game in a close game, but Fulham were left frustrated when Brooks overturned a penalty decision. In the 49th minute, with the score still 0-0, Tati Castellanos committed a foul on Tom Cairney in the box and referee Matt Donoghue awarded a spot kick.
However, Donoghue reversed his original decision after being sent to the pitchside monitor by Brooks. It was assumed that Cairney actually kicked Castellanos. Donoghue announced: “After consideration, Fulham No. 10 kicked West Ham No. 11 in the back. My final decision is therefore a free kick to West Ham.”
In his post-match press conference, Silva admitted his team was far from its best without star player Harry Wilson, but said he couldn’t help but call out Brooks for his influence on the game.
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Silva told BBC’s Match of the Day: “There’s a lot of reasons, but first and foremost it’s the result and we lost the match. There’s no doubt that this match, and a lot of the things that affected the result tonight, shouldn’t have been given more credit.”
“For me, it’s clear that first of all we talk about ourselves and the goals we conceded. If you want to win football matches, it’s basically impossible to concede a goal at this level. And of course the referee’s decision after the incident was of a very low level in my opinion.”
“VAR should be applied and has an impact in crucial games at this moment in the season, although not at the level of a game like this one. And John Brooks of Fulham Football Club was under VAR, but it’s incredible that he was able to make a decision on the pitch that went against the referee’s decision.”
Referee Matt Donoghue canceled Fulham’s penalty after consulting with VAR (Image: Julian Finney/Getty Images)
“John Brooks’ involvement with us has been a bit of a talking point in our season. It’s been very unfortunate once again in terms of decisions he’s made when he’s not on the field, decisions he’s made in his office asking for decisions.”
“So many things that could have affected the game in our direction. Even the penalties, I repeat, John Brooks took the on-field call and made the decision on it. It’s very hard to understand mistakes in a game against ourselves, but that’s the fact. We have to respect. We have to. We can’t control. Every decision, they were against us.”
West Ham’s goal came from mistakes by Bernd Leno and Calvin Bassey, and goalkeeper Mads Hermansen needed to make a crucial save to give the visitors a point.
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