RALPH Hasenhuttl criticised VAR after his side’s second-half collapse resulted in a first defeat since mid-December.

Jack Stephens gave away the 65th-minute penalty from which Raul Jiminez equalised, after bringing down Jonny as Wolves came back from 2-0 down at half-time to win 3-2.

But Hasenhuttl was frustrated that referee Darren England was not able to give the decision after reviewing the replay himself, having not given the penalty initially.

The Saints boss said: “First I must say congrats to Wolves for this second half. They showed how you can turn a table even if you are far away from getting something after the first half.

“But it would be easier to accept if the second goal didn’t happen like this.

“As everyone knows I’m a big fan of the VAR but the final decision in such a moment should be by the referee.

“I spoke with him and it was absolutely right that he didn’t decide for a penalty because he saw Cedric was in front of him [Jonny] and he couldn’t go through to the ball.

“Yes, it was a foul, but he [Jonny] had no chance to go to the ball in that moment so this was the reason he decided not to give the penalty.

“Then I asked him why he didn’t look at the screen. He said he cannot do it, he can only do it if it was for a red card or something like that.

“It’s dangerous if the final decision in such a moment is not taken in the ground. This is what I said to him and this is something we have to think about.

“It was a crucial moment for my team. Mentally we have absolutely lost our way.”

VAR also reviewed the build-up to the winning goal before deciding not to penalise Adam Traore for a handball on the halfway line, before his excellent assist for Raul Jiminez.

“In that moment they stood with the decision,” added Hasenhuttl.

“Again, if you’re not 100 per cent sure look at the screen and you can decide it better. The referee is in the game, he knows about the duels, he knows how tough the game is in that moment and can handle it better if he makes the decisions. That’s the only thing that’s hard for me to understand at the moment.

“I want to know why the referee doesn’t take the decision by himself because our message before the season was that it has to be clearly wrong if you want to over-rule it.”