Several of us in the away end last night at the Vitality Stadium wondered why Ryan Sessegnon – who looked like Fulham’s most likely source of a goal in the hour he was on the field – was being withdrawn early by Marco Silva with the Whites desperate to get back into their crucial clash with Bournemouth.

It turns out, of course, that it was a mistake by the officials – which Silva alluded to in his post-match comments, both immediately after the game in his television interview with Sky Sports and during his post-match press conference. The fourth official, Tim Robinson, whose decision-making has been questionable in Fulham fixtures this term, mixed up the numbers of Sasa Lukic and Sessegnon, leading to the wrong number being displayed on his board. That drew the wrath of Fulham’s dugout and a bemused Sessegnon but as the winger had already trudged disconsolately off the field, referee Michael Oliver insisted that he had to be substituted. The reaction of the assistant referee, who puts a consoling arm around a shocked Sessegnon, shows the officiating team knew that this was error entirely of their own making.

As Silva himself said afterwards:

“He [the fourth official, Tim Robinson] said about number two and number three, that was the confusion between Ryan and Robinson. We had enough time to correct it when I saw Sessegnon [coming] out. I tried to correct it, they saw that it was a mistake from a lack of communication and he decided not to let us correct it.”

The shambles had a demonstrable impact on the remainder of the match. Sessegnon, who has scored twice and made four further goals this season, and despite spurning a simple header chance in the first half was causing problems for Milos Kerkez. Without him, Fulham’s tactics changed – and that had a bearing on Silva’s final substitution, which saw Lukic finally sacrificed for Willian, and Alex Iwobi moved infield. The Whites might not have scored anyway, but such a calamitous cock-up didn’t help.

Oliver’s insistence that the IFAB guidelines of the game had to be followed to the letter is particularly interesting – especially given that only five minutes were added on at the end of the second half following the furore – and that some of his on-field decisions were questionable. Silva wisely sidestepped those questions in the light of suggesting that the officials had got the decision to only caution Marco Senesi wrong, but Fulham could legitimately argue that they were disadvantaged by PGMOL incompetence during a fixture that could prove critical to their final finishing position.

You’d certainly love to see the assessment score submitted by Fulham following the game after Oliver’s performance.