PGMOL chief Howard Webb has come out in defence of the refereeing team that allowed Matheus Cunha's goal directly from a corner kick against Manchester United to stand.

Part of Man United's overall subpar first half of the season was a 2-0 Boxing Day defeat to relegation-threatened Wolves. Before any on-field controversy was allowed to take place, the fixture had plenty of moving cogs in the build-up.

One was the Midlands team's decision to part ways with manager Gary O'Neil in the week beforehand, replacing him with Portuguese coach Vitor Pereira. Another was two prior defeats for Ruben Amorim's side.

And the last was the extended time it took to settle on a ban for Wolves striker Matheus Cunha. The Brazilian had elbowed an Ipswich Town staff member in the back of the head and grabbed their glasses from their face two matches prior and was subject to an FA investigation.

Of course, he scored and provided the winning assist against Man United before his two-game suspension was announced.

His goal was a matter of contention in itself as he found the net directly from a corner. The visiting team argued Andre Onana had been impeded by opposition defender Matt Doherty to the point he was unable to make a save, however referee Tony Harrington and VAR Matt Donohue allowed the goal to stand.

Now, the incident has been reviewed retrospectively by PGMOL chief Webb along with newly-released audio of the officials' discussion on the Premier League's Match Officials Mic'd Up series.

VAR Donohue was heard to have said: "OK, the main thing here is any challenge between Doherty and Onana. Do you see anything else to look at?

"Doherty stands there. Onana engages Doherty. There's nothing on the foot, there's no hold of the hand, there's nothing that is an offence. Confirming the goal, check complete."

And Webb had full confidence the team of officials came to the correct conclusion - even if it was to Man United's annoyance.

"We definitely see more tactics being employed at set-pieces. Attackers being close to goalkeepers, we're seeing defensive offside lines being manipulated, being moved before the ball comes in. These are things that we have to adapt to, of course, and be aware of and and decide whether something is legal or not within the laws of the game," he reasoned.

Webb added: "And we think this one is. All players are entitled to their position on the field of play. Matt Doherty here stood in front, he's entitled to be there. Yes, he's going to make life difficult for Andre Onana, but he's got an absolute right to be there and to take that position.

"In the end Onana moves backwards away from Doherty and kind of moves a little bit into Bueno. So we just see this is all very normal. We don't see an offense by a Wolves player in this situation. Of course, defending teams often now think about how they can counter-act these these tactics by attacking teams and being close to goalkeepers.

"But as long as the goalkeeper doesn't have their arms interfered with...it's different maybe when the goalkeeper's jumping, that puts it in a different place because they're much more vulnerable to physical contact. But in this situation we see nothing like that. We see two players taking the position on the field and not committing an offense.

"And this leads to a goal being scored direct from the corner but not because of a foul by any of the attackers in that location."