Fulham were left aggrieved during their 1-0 loss to Liverpool at Anfield on Wednesday night, after it has been claimed that referee Stuart Atwell admitted to making a game-changing mistake to a Fulham player.
Liverpool were awarded a penalty in the 38th minute of the game when Issa Diop was adjudged to have fouled Darwin Nunez in the box. Replays suggested the centre-back didn't make contact with Nunez, but VAR didn't determine that Stuart Atwell had made a clear and obvious error.
Mo Salah stepped up and dispatched the spot-kick, but in the second half Fulham captain Tom Cairney claims Atwell told one of his team-mates that he had made a mistake.
“I thought we played very well at times, but to lose to a penalty that wasn’t a penalty is always a kick in the you-know-what's,” Cairney said.
“At the time, I wasn’t sure [if it was a penalty]. The ref made a decision, I thought he’d seen contact. I asked him on the pitch, ‘please just make sure they [VAR] check it.’
“He said they checked it, but he said 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," he added.
“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.”
The result leaves Fulham in no-man's land in the Premier League table, with Brentford a place above but five points ahead, while Crystal Palace are the side below them but also with a five-point gap.
The Londoners are tenth overall, having accumulated 45 points this season. With four games to go, Cairney seems focussed on finishing above close rivals Chelsea.
“If we said we’d be above Chelsea after 34 games at the start of the season, people wouldn’t have believed us. We’re in the top half, and we deserve to be."
