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Lampard feels hair pull should have led to Coventry penalty
Everton came from behind to beat Coventry 3-1, but Coventry manager Frank Lampard questioned three refereeing decisions that he felt could have changed the match. He argued that James Tarkowski’s hair pull on Caleb Yirenkyi should have brought a first-half penalty, while also disputing the calls on a challenge against Taiwo Awoniyi and a possible handball by Thierno Barry.
Yann Gboho put Coventry ahead after the break before Barry scored twice and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall added a late goal. The rules introduced this season mean hair pulling is not automatically a foul or a sending-off, with force and intent considered; Lampard said the tug was still a foul, while Everton manager David Moyes denied Barry handled the ball and criticised the hair-pulling rule. Coventry’s defeat left them 16th, while Everton moved up to fifth.
In short
- Everton beat Coventry 3-1 after coming from behind.
- Lampard disputed three decisions, including a hair-pull penalty appeal.
- Coventry dropped to 16th as Everton moved fifth.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Lampard’s case is that Tarkowski deliberately tugged Yirenkyi’s hair and that, even under rules requiring officials to assess force and intent, the contact was enough to constitute a foul. If so, Coventry were denied a penalty that could have altered the match, and the disputed calls on Awoniyi and Barry add to concerns about how consistently such decisions were judged.
The case against
Moyes’s case is that hair-pulling is not automatically a foul under the current rules, so the referee had to judge the force and intent of the contact rather than penalise it by default. He also disputed that Barry handled the ball, and the other incidents may likewise have appeared insufficient to warrant penalties on the evidence available to the officials; Coventry’s defeat does not by itself establish that the decisions were wrong.