Former referee Mark Halsey has recently discussed a penalty incident for Southampton in their recent Premier League game.
Ralph Hasenhuttl’s men were recently held to a 0-0 draw by Fulham at Craven Cottage but after the game, the Saints boss made it clear that he thinks that his side should’ve had a penalty for a handball by Ola Aina. A cross had hit the Torino loanee’s arm but after a VAR check, play continued and no spot-kick was awarded.
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When talking about the incident, Hasenhuttl said: “He goes with his hand to the ball and that it is a clear goal chance for us also so we were unlucky not to get a penalty there.”
Halsey gives his opinion about a potential Southampton penalty
Halsey was speaking exclusively to The Transfer Tavern and he talked about the possibility of whether Southampton should’ve had a penalty for Aina’s potential handball. The former referee believes that it was a subjective call and while Saints fans would want a penalty for that, the Fulham defender Aina had his arms in a natural position and he doesn’t think the call was a clear and obvious error.
He said:
“Looking at that, it’s subjective and if you’re a Southampton fan, you want it but his arms in a natural position in a running motion. I would agree (with the officials) that it wasn’t a penalty. In my own personal opinion, you don’t want to see penalties given for those sort of situations.”
The game saw Southampton have the ball in the back of the net on two occasions, but both goals were correctly ruled out for offside.
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Penalty could’ve been a game-changer for Southampton
Hasenhuttl’s men currently find themselves in ninth place in the Premier League table and they have 25 points in the bag so far. Having said that though, they are only three points behind third-placed Leicester City (as per Whoscored).
If Southampton had won the game, they would’ve been in the third spot in the table but the draw means that they have dropped out of the top-four. It shows how important the handball call involving Aina was and it turned out to be vital when it came to determining Southampton’s position in the table.
However, the home side had generated an Expected Goals tally of 0.87 in the game – higher than Southampton’s tally of 0.12. So perhaps, getting a point from the tie wasn’t a bad result at all for the Saints, despite the frustration of Hasenhuttl.
In other news, Southampton fans have slammed Stuart Armstrong for his performance against Fulham – read more about it here.
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