Richard Keys rails against failure to give Wolves a penalty against Man United after Andre Onana’s ‘assault’ on Max Kilman – claiming it was ‘identical’ to incident in opening game of the season

Richard Keys has hit out at the decision to not award a penalty against Man United‘s Andre Onana after he clattered into Max Kilman during their 4-3 victory against Wolves on Thursday. 

The television broadcaster described it as ‘identical’ to a contentious challenge that the goalkeeper had comitted on the opending day of the season. 

Back in August, Man United beat Wolves 1-0 at Old Trafford but Onana had almost conceded a penalty on his Premier League debut after he clattered into Sasa Kalajdzic as he jumped in the air to catch a cross. 

It was a robust challenge that went unpunished, with Wolves boss Gary O’Neil subsequently receiving an apology from referee’s boss Jon Moss after referee Simon Hooper had failed to award them a late penalty. 

Despite that, Keys has now hit out at the failure to penalise the goalkeeper for a similar foul during Thursday night’s game, writing on X (formerly Twitter): ‘Why is no-one talking about the pen that Wolves should’ve had last night?

Keys stated that the incident (pictured left) was a copy of Onana’s collision on on Sasa Kalajdzic (pictured right) in their previous meeting this earlier season

Keys wrote claimed that the two incidents were ‘identical’ and complained that ‘no-one was talking about’ the challenge on Thursday

‘Onana’s assault on Kilman was identical to the one at OT [Old Trafford] that went unpunished & Jon Moss apologised to Wolves for his team missing [it]. 

‘Ref Simon Hooper was dropped. I’ll wait for the next edition of sorry!’ 

In his previous apology, Moss had admitted to O’Neil that the original foul was a ‘blatant penalty’ with Hooper being benched from the next round of Premier League fixtures. 

Onana had also defended his actions in August claiming that VAR had made the right call in their first meeting, not to award a foul. 

Asked if his collision with Kalajdzic was a penalty, Onana said: ‘No, goalkeepers make decisions, sometimes you are right, sometimes you are not.

‘I made a decision and I am responsible for everything. For me it was contact between two big guys and nothing happened.’

Despite that, the same incident appeared to happen again on Thursday with Onana rising to punch the ball away from danger and made contact with Kilman, bringing him to the ground.  

Fans took to social media to hit out at the decision not to award a penalty, noting the previous incident

Keys stated: ‘Ref Simon Hooper was dropped. I’ll wait for the next edition of sorry!’

Gary Neville had also criticised Onana’s challenge back in August, stating that it was a penalty as he was too far away from the ball

Some fans on social media also took umbrage at the decision not to award a foul during Thursday’s game. 

One wrote on X: ‘If I had a pound every time Onana had been allowed to wipe out a Wolves player without getting near the ball and a penalty not be given I’d have £2. Which isn’t a lot but it’s mad it’s happened twice.’ 

Another added: ‘I’m not a sore loser, we didn’t deserve anything from the game being honest.

‘But, these decisions, on both occasions, should have changed the game, without doubt. Both penalties and both possible reds.’

Wolves almost came close to avenging their defeat by Man United earlier this season, after coming back from going 2-0 down in a thrilling second half that had five goals.

Marcus Rashford had put the hosts up within the opening five minutes of the match, before Rasmus Hojlund doubled their lead with his second Premier League goal of the season. 

Pablo Sarabia got one back for the visitors in the 71st minute with a spot-kick after Casemiro had fould Pedro Neto inside the penalty area. Scott McTominay would hit back three minutes later, before Kilman and Neto would both score in the 85th and 95th minute of the match.

Onana insisted that VAR was correct not to award Wolves a penalty for his challenge in their previous meeting 

Kobbie Mainoo sealed a late victory for Man United scoring in the fifth minute of injury time to give Erik ten Hag’s side a 4-3 victory

Despite having pulled the game back to 3-3 Kobbee Mainoo would dance his way around the Wolves defence before curling a brilliant right-footed shot into the bottom corner of the net to seal victory for Erik ten Hag’s side. 

After the match, O’Neil said: ‘As I said before the Man United game, you can give everything at this level and still cruelly come out the losing side. I’m looking at more from us, more progression, more togetherness, and see if we can keep producing.

‘The distance we’ve managed to move over the last six months – I’ve watched a few games from last season, where games like Thursday got away and it ended up five or six – so I think how far we’ve come shouldn’t be taken lightly, but that doesn’t mean we stop. We have to keep going.’