PGMOL Chief and former Premier League referee Howard Webb has defended the decision of match official Tony Harrington to disallow Max Kilman’s late equaliser against West Ham last month.

Kilman’s goal to equalise for Wolves against the Hammers was initially given, however, VAR intervened and noticed that Wolves’s Tawanda Chirewa was standing in an offside position and affecting West Ham keeper Lukasz Fabianski’s view. Having watched the incident back on a monitor following the VAR review, referee Tony Harrington overturned his on-field decision and the goal was disallowed.

After the game, Wolves manager and former Hammer Gary O’Neil referred to the disallowed goal as: “Possibly the worst decision I have ever seen”. O’Neil was subsequently fined £8,000 and received a one match touchline ban for these comments and his conduct post match after his side’s defeat against the Hammers.

Discussing the decision on Sky Sports programme Mic’d Up, as reported by the Independent, Howard Webb said: “You can see there on the footage that (Chirewa) is really close proximity to Fabianski right in front of him and in an offside position.”

Webb went on to add: “He positions himself there from the corner but doesn’t get back into an onside position when Kilman heads the ball forward. He remains offside and he’s therefore penalised for that offence.”

The Key Match Incidents panel who are a five person independent panel that review all major decisions made by Premier League referees and also VAR after each match week reviewed the incident and were in unanimous agreement with the officials decision to rule out the goal.

Howard Webb went on to further explain the thinking behind the decision to disallow Kilman’s goal: “It is in line with the way the laws of the game are applied all over the world. If you stay in that offside position right in front of the goalkeeper, you’re going to have an impact. And most goalkeeping people I’ve spoken to at least expect this to be penalised.”