Igor Jesus' first Premier League goal claimed the points for Nottingham Forest as they beat still winless Wolves 1-0 at Molineux to leave Rob Edwards angry at the prospect that his team "go out with a whimper" this season.
The Brazilian striker rose well to nod in the only goal of a low-quality game in the 72nd minute when Sam Johnstone came for Omari Hutchinson's right-wing cross and did not get there. It was no more than Jesus deserved given the incident late in the first half.
There was a moment of controversy then when the Forest player appeared to have headed Sean Dyche's side into the lead. The goal was ruled out for offside with his team-mate Dan Ndoye stood in the line of sight of Wolves goalkeeper Johnstone.
The decision appeared relatively straightforward given the recent spate of such offside calls but it took the officials five minutes to reverse the initial decision following a VAR review, referee Tim Robinson spending considerable time in front of the monitor.
It was typical of a bitty game that underlined the problems Wolves have had all season and having started with three straight defeats, Edwards is no closer to solving them. Forest move up to 15 points, giving them just a little breathing space at the bottom.
Nottingham Forest boss Sean Dyche speaking in the press conference:
"Tonight, I'm bound to say he doesn't impede anyone. He doesn't. He just stands still. He's not trying to deflect it in or anything like that. I'm bound to say I'm disappointed in it. I don't think the keeper would have saved it. But you never know, these keepers are so agile. He's a good keeper as well. So he might have, I'm bound to say that I'm aggrieved.
"Now going on to the fans, that for me, is miles too long. You know, there's a lot of people sitting in those rooms, and if that decision is the final one, that can be made a lot quicker than that. And then the referee gets put under pressure, which I'm not a fan of. I don't agree with them going up to the screen. I think usually they turn it around and that takes a long time.
"So I do feel for fans, but the professional side of me says my job might depend on those decisions. So, it's a tough call. But when it takes that long, I think that's where I spoke years ago, when it first come in, and it seems like years ago now, and I said it's how quickly they can speed it up, and it still hasn't.
"But I don't understand talking to the crowd, and I just think it's a waste. It's already taken forever. Just call it and get on with it. I really don't understand it. They all wanted it in the Premier League. They tell me, all the stakeholders wanted it. I'd love to know who those stakeholders are, because I speak to the managers, they go, 'We didn't want it'. No, I'm serious. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe fans want that, but it just takes more time.
"And the referees, I personally, I think referees have a hard job, and I think they do a great job overall. Why put them under more pressure? You know, it's not natural for everyone to want to speak in front of 20, 40, 50, 60, 70,000, people. So why put that on their plate as well? Why not just let them officiate. I'm saying take it off them. Give them just a chance to officiate. Give them a chance to breathe and get their job done without layering up more and more and more on top."
Wolves boss Rob Edwards speaking in the press conference:
"Yeah, I'm really disappointed tonight. Compared to the levels that we set on Sunday, I try not to keep reflecting back to the weekend. It was hard not to, it was only three days ago, it was almost like the opposite, the opposite tonight.
"I asked the players at half time, are you scared? I asked them that. It looked in the first half like we were very passive, we didn't play forward, it looked like we were afraid to make a mistake. Maybe afraid of the reaction from the crowd, I don't know, I don't know, maybe that's human nature.
"But yeah, I know we conceded in the second half, I feel like the game was lost in the first half, the lack of intensity, and we didn't show many of the things I want from my team, and that hurts."
Asked how the players responded to his question, Edwards added: "They said they weren't, they said they're not. And I was sort of looking in their eyes and stood there and let it linger for about 30 seconds and just go, like, are you? No, was the answer. We saw a response, we were a bit better in the second half, a bit, not a lot, a bit.
"We're in the position we're in now, we don't want to die like that. So that's probably going to be the message now going forward. We don't want to go out with a whimper. And that's just, the first half, that's how it felt."
Edwards also stressed that he understands the fans' frustration at seeing yet another defeat.
"Yeah, I understand. I don't know when the last time they saw the team win. So I get it. I'd be really angry if I was one of our fans as well at the moment.
"They want to see effort and they want to see passion and fight and determination and grit and endeavour. We didn't show any of that tonight. So my message to them is I understand."
