Wounded Nix seek answers over ‘clear’ handball and foul

Wellington Phoenix are demanding answers following two controversial refereeing decisions they believe cost the A-League Men team a possible result, in Friday’s 2-0 defeat to Western Sydney Wanderers.

Coach Ufuk Talay was left fuming after video assistant referee Kris Griffiths-Jones failed to spot a clear and obvious foul on Callan Elliot in the lead-up to Wanderers’ opening goal, scored by former Nix striker Tomer Hemed in the 66th minute, when he checked the tape to see if the ball had crossed the goal-line.

But operations manager Shaul Gill said yesterday that the Phoenix had uncovered a second incident where neither referee Stephen Lucas nor Griffiths-Jones had seen the ‘‘clear’’ handball in the box.

Replays showed the ball had in fact brushed the out-stretched arm of Hemed prior to the goal, which defender Joshua Laws had ruled out for offside in the first half.

Although the goal still wouldn’t have counted, Gill believed the Phoenix should have been awarded a penalty and claimed Hemed could have been sent off, leaving Wanderers with 10 men for 60 minutes.

‘‘If we are correct in our view of the incident and it’s handball, then we’re at the spot and we’re playing [against] 10 men. From the spot we could be 1-0 up and playing 10 men, and the game is completely different,’’ he said.

Gill said Hemed’s push on Elliot gave the Israeli a ‘‘clear strike on goal’’ and should have resulted in a foul to the Phoenix.

Perplexed that neither the foul nor the handball had been picked by the video assistant referee given he had watched both incidents, Gill said the Phoenix had sent referees boss Nathan Magill a ‘please explain’.

He said the Phoenix were not expecting an apology, but instead wanted to get some greater clarification around the decisionmaking process.

‘‘The key thing we’re looking for is to get an understanding of the process and how it’s been looked at,’’ Gill said.

‘‘Obviously there’s an incident where we’ve scored the goal, and that becomes something they look at, so we want to understand what process the referee and the VAR went through.

‘‘From our perspective it’s about trying to get a handle on the process.

‘‘If the footage that we’ve seen everyone else in the world has seen we’ll probably get an apology, but at the end of the day that doesn’t mean a lot.’’

On Hemed’s goal, Phoenix captain Alex Rufer said the players knew straight away that Elliot had been fouled.

Elliot was standing right next to Lucas when the goal was awarded and was seen pleading his case to the ref in the immediate aftermath.

Facing a quick turnaround with a FFA Cup round of 32 clash against Western United on Tuesday night, Rufer said it was important the Phoenix did not dwell on Friday’s defeat.

‘‘We’ve got a pretty disappointed dressing room, but now it’s about the next game and the next training.’’