FULHAM manager Scott Parker has heaped more pressure on football’s authorities to revisit the controversial handball rule introduced this season that denied his team a deserved equaliser against Tottenham Hotspur on Thursday. 

“Tonight, it’s just about common sense really,” Parker reflected. “We’re trying to make the game so pure and sterile and trying to control every single phase of every single moment to an absolute tee. That’s where the problem lies for me.”

“What we want to see as fans and spectators is goals and excitement and VAR is killing every bit of it. You’re losing the raw emotion of the game we absolutely love. We did more than enough to win the game, let alone get something out of it.” 

This was billed as a London derby pitting together two sides with contrasting objectives — one eyeing a glittering seat at the top table of European football’s illustrious banquet. The other has hearts set firmly on the far humbler ambition of securing Premier League survival. 

The gulf in class showed in an opening 45 minutes dominated by the visitors who boasted an abundance of attacking riches. Talisman Harry Kane spearheaded the attack with a supporting cast of Gareth Bale, Son Heung Min and Dele Alli – the “awesome foursome” starting a game together for the first time. This was the side that Tottenham fans had been longing to see. 

They did not disappoint, combining impressively to create a glut of opportunities and eventually taking the lead inside 20 minutes thanks to a quality sweeping move involving all of the front four.

It began with Bale inside his own half and was finished seconds later with Alli turning in Son’s cross helped in by a deflection from Fulham’s Tosin Adarabioyo.  

Despite all their possession, Tottenham lacked the clinical edge in front of goal to extend their lead. Alli now turned provider for Son who headed narrowly past the post.

Fulham’s best move of the half, coming just before the break, would have focused minds, though Spurs surely felt good value for their 1-0 half-time lead. 

But Fulham came back out for the restart with a renewed sense of purpose and belief, more akin to the side who had lost just one of their previous eight matches than the team who went winless in their opening six of the campaign. 

In typical Jose Mourinho fashion, Spurs threatened barely a jot, their well-drilled backline forced to repel wave after wave of attacks. 

On the hour-mark, Parker’s men thought they had found a leveller through January loan-signing and academy product Josh Maja.

The 22-year-old regained possession after a scramble in the box and lashed home a wicked left-footed strike inside Hugo Lloris’s near post.

But VAR extinguished the emphatic celebrations when replays showed the ball had struck Mario Lemina’s arm in the build-up. Rather callously, the new laws allowed no room for mitigation so the goal was duly chalked off. 

Asked about the decision afterwards, Spurs boss Mourinho said: “My view is not important. I don’t make the rules. Sometimes goals go in your favour, sometimes they go against.”

There’s no denying the Portuguese is right there. But many agree with Parker who feels that to strip the game down to what’s prescribed in black and white by people in suits is to remove all meaningful substance and poetic justice from it. The very things which ultimately make the game so enthralling.