Cairney claims referee admitted mistake over Liverpool penalty

Referee Stuart Attwell told Fulham players Liverpool should NOT have been awarded a penalty for Issa Diop’s foul on Darwin Nunez, claims Tom Cairney, with Mo Salah’s spot kick handing Jurgen Klopp’s side victory

  • Fulham’s Issa Diop was adjudged to have fouled Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez 
  • Mohamed Salah scored the penalty in what proved to be the decisive goal 
  • Tom Cairney though has revealed that referee Stuart Attwell made a mistake 

Fulham captain Tom Cairney has claimed that referee Stuart Attwell admitted he made a mistake over Liverpool’s match-winning penalty.

Liverpool clinched a narrow 1-0 victory over the Cottagers thanks to Mohamed Salah’s 39th minute penalty.

The spot-kick had been awarded after Issa Diop was adjudged to have fouled Darwin Nunez as the striker sprinted to steal the ball from the Fulham defender. 

Attwell pointed to the spot and VAR did not overturn the penalty, leaving Cairney and his Fulham team mates feeling aggrieved.  

Cairney has now claimed that Attwell told one of his team mates that the wrong decision had been made. 

Liverpool were awarded a penalty after Darwin Nunez (left) was adjudged to have been brought down by Fulham defender Issa Diop

Mohamed Salah scored what proved to be the decisive goal from the resulting spot-kick

Tom Cairney though has revealed that referee Stuart Attwell had admitted he made a mistake to one of his Fulham team mates during the second-half of Wednesday evening’s game

Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, he said: ‘The ref made a decision, I thought he had seen contact. I asked him ‘please just make sure they (VAR) check it’. 

‘He said they had checked it but then he said in the second-half to one of our players that it wasn’t a penalty.

‘So it’s frustrating because it goes to other people to make the correct decision.

‘Issa Diop hasn’t touched him, Nunez has taken another step and then gone over, and then you lose to something like that at Anfield which is frustrating when we’re trying to climb as high as we can.’ 

It comes just days after Tottenham interim boss Ryan Mason criticised Paul Tierney for failing to send off Diogo Jota for a high boot on Oliver Skipp.

Jota went on to score the game’s winning goal in a thrilling 4-3 victory for the Reds.

Fulham players felt aggrieved over the awarding of the penalty by Attwell (left), with VAR reviewing the incident but deciding to stick with the on-field decision from the referee

In what has been a frustrating season for the Reds, their victory over Fulham was their fifth win in a row – their best run of the campaign.

Liverpool have narrowed the gap to the top-four to four points, though fourth placed Manchester United have two games in hand.  

For Fulham it was their third consecutive defeat, though they comfortably sit inside the top-half of the Premier League table in 10th – five points ahead of Crystal Palace.  

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