Thomas Frank defends referee over missed handball from Guglielmo Vicario

Posted Sunday, September 22, 2024 by PA

Brentford boss Thomas Frank defended referee John Brooks after he missed Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario’s deliberate handball during their 3-1 defeat.

The Bees made the perfect start in north London when Bryan Mbeumo scored after 22 seconds, which had also been the case at Manchester City last weekend.

Spurs stormed back to take all three points with Dominic Solanke able to open his account after his £65million move in the eighth-minute before Brennan Johnson put them 2-1 up with a fine finish after 28 minutes.

James Maddison wrapped up the points late on with a slick chipped effort, but Frank was booked in the 58th minute when Vicario tried and failed to gather a cross in front of Mikel Damsgaard and subsequently swiped at the ball with his hand outside the penalty area.

Referee Brooks waved play on and VAR was unable to intervene as it was not deemed a goalscoring opportunity.

Measured Bees manager Frank said: “Not only looked, he had handled it outside the box, but that incident did not define the game.

“When we come here, we need to play 90 good minutes. We played 60. The margins need to go our way and there were a few deflections and balls drop that didn’t add up to our possibility of winning the game.

“It was a mistake. It could have been a free-kick to us. It could have helped us. But, hey, you never know. I think the probability of scoring from a direct free-kick is like 0.0543, so probably not the biggest probability for scoring anyway.

“And I think John Brooks overall had a very good game. The way he handled soft fouls both ways was really good.

“I understand how it is. We can’t be too — I don’t like the word aggressive, but — in-their-face because it’s just our frustration. We can’t do anything about it. Hey, move on.”

Postecoglou eventually reflected on the Vicario incident after a light-hearted exchange in his press conference.

“I think I saw exactly what you saw,” Postecoglou said.

“I was closer to the pitch? You were higher up though! Okay, so maybe I saw exactly what you saw.

“Get away with it? So have you seen it and said it’s outside, because I haven’t seen it. I’ve got no idea.

“If it wasn’t an obvious goalscoring opportunity, it means even if he was penalised it would have been a free-kick and that’s a big turning point in the game? A free-kick outside the box?

“Okay, look I guess we were lucky to get the result.”

The Spurs boss was more forthcoming about record signing Solanke, who got off the mark at the fourth time of asking for his new club.

“He was good again. I think he’s been good in every game he’s played for us and strikers love scoring goals and, yeah, a great moment for him to score his first goal for the club, particularly at home,” Postecoglou reflected.

“Aside from that, again it was a really strong performance by him. I thought he led the line really well.”