No show Murray grabs victory but VAR not used for his ‘controversial’ winner

Roy Hodgson, the Crystal Palace manager, last night congratulated the video assistant refereeing system on its competitive debut in English football, after a late Brighton winner was not judged to have struck Glenn Murray’s arm. Hodgson said he was initially suspicious about the goal because of the “incensed” reactions of the Palace players, but added that he would have been “very upset” if it had been scored by his side and subsequently ruled out.

Murray’s late intervention brought a controversial end to a game that had failed to ignite for 70 minutes and was drifting to a forgettable conclusion until Palace forward Bakary Sako’s thunderous strike had cancelled out Dale Stephens’s first-half opener.

Against his former club, Murray arrived at the back post in the 87th minute, where he knocked the ball into the net with what was judged to be a knee, rather than an arm. Referee Andre Marriner, who was connected via radio to VAR Neil Swarbrick in west London, was not advised to consult the on-pitch video reviewing system, as he would have been if there was a clear and obvious error.

“We had suspicions at first, without a doubt, and those were fuelled by the people close to the goalkeeper and the players close by,” Hodgson said. “They seemed to be incensed and, from our angle, to be fair, it looks for all the world like he’s guided the ball in with his arm, but I think you have to congratulate the system.

“When you watch it lots of times, like they have been able to do from different angles, I think it would have been very harsh. There is still a slight risk, a slight thought that it might just have come off his thigh and brushed off his arm into the goal but, to be honest, if it had been my player scoring that goal I would have been very upset if it had been disallowed for handball. I think it was a genuine goal and I think the referee on the field was helped by the fact that he had Swarbrick in the VAR studio making a judgment that could help him out.

“There was a brief pause and I was of the impression Swarbrick and Marriner were talking together. I accepted that. I had a few spiteful comments to the referee on the way, but that is just my nature, I’m afraid. I regret them now.”

Chris Hughton, the Brighton manager, said he was not aware at the time of the goal that there had been suspicions of handball. “I am not sure there is any confusion,” he said. “I am under the impression VAR was used and did not see an infringement on the goal. Having seen it since, I think it’s reasonably clear that it did not hit his hand. That’s what I am led to believe, that it was used and there was not a decision to be made.”

Long before Murray’s winner, the game had begun with injuries to Brighton’s Izzy Brown and Crystal Palace’s Jeffrey Schlupp, who both appeared to jar a knee in a fierce first-minute collision.

Schlupp’s injury was particularly problematic for Hodgson, even before he was forced to remove winger Andros Townsend from the fray at half-time with an ankle injury. He later said both players left the ground on crutches, and he now finds himself without nine first-team players at a crucial part of the season.

“My only concern with this game, going into it with seven players out injured, was not to lose any more,” said Hodgson. “To have two players leave on crutches, that for me is the bitterest blow.

“I would have swapped virtually any result to make certain we had Schlupp and Townsend and a few other injured players fit in the Premier League games coming up.”

Despite Hughton making eight

changes from the side who drew with Bournemouth on New Year’s Day, Brighton began the game well and took a deserved lead through Stephens, who was left unattended in the penalty box by Palace’s Jairo Riedewald, a defender playing in midfield.

The goal came despite Sako threatening with a sashaying run into the Brighton box a few moments earlier, leading to a Townsend strike that was deflected wide. The injuries, though, had done nothing to help the flow of a disjointed game which was played in a far more tranquil atmosphere than the fiery M23 derby between these sides earlier in the season. After the break, Solly March and Tomer Hemed both went close for Brighton, before Sako ignited the game by plucking a high ball from the air and cannoning a strike with his weaker right foot in off the far post. It was more than Palace deserved as a team, but the least Sako merited as an individual.

In response, Brighton turned the screw. Sam Baldock struck the outside of a post, then Beram Kayal blasted over following a weaving run into the box from March. With the tide turning, Murray emerged to notch that late winner and start the debate.