Gary O'Neil fumes over 'disgusting' Mark Robins incident after Coventry scored winner vs Wolves

Gary O'Neil has described Mark Robins' actions as 'disgusting' after his celebration of Coventry's winning goal in their FA Cup quarter-final against Wolves.

The Sky Blues led 1-0 through Ellis Simms' goal, which was initially checked for over four minutes by VAR for a possible handball before it was given.

Despite being under pressure for much of the second half, Wolves looked like they had booked their spot at Wembley through late goals from Rayan Ait-Nouri and Hugo Bueno.

But Coventry fired back in sensational fashion, with Simms levelling the scores with a header in stoppage time.

Then, on 100 minutes, United States forward Haji Wright curled the ball into the bottom right corner from the edge of the penalty area to make it 3-2 and spark wild scenes among the away end at Molineux.

There were also wild scenes in the dugout as well, with Coventry boss Robins seen celebrating in the face of a Wolves ballboy.

When asked about the incident after the match, Wolves manager O'Neil didn't hold back in his assessment of the incident.

He told the media: "After the game, I waited for Coventry to finish their celebrations. I was respectful, spoke to Mark Robins.

"To celebrate in a young ballboy's face is pretty disgusting. He's just trying to do his job.

"He apologised, but to celebrate in a young boy's face like that I thought was disgusting. The boy is really upset. Of course it shouldn't happen, but I don't have too much to say because I've lost and it's going to sound bitter."

Footage of the incident in question was captured by ITV replay cameras, which you can see below.

So this is the Mark Robins celebration Gary O’Neil called “disgusting and disgraceful”.

Get a life Gary. #PUSB pic.twitter.com/Y5DA5eB0ya

— Alex Johnson 🇺🇦 (@AlexndrJohnson) March 16, 2024

As well as his private apology to O'Neil, Robins also publicly apologised in his own post-match press conference - and provided context for the incident in question.

He began: "I have an apology to make.

"Before the winner went in, the ballboy had the ball, a young kid, so I'm apologising to him, he has the ball in his hand, drops it and walks away smiling.

"It really annoyed me, but he's a kid at the end of the day.

"I have reacted, we scored the goal and I went and celebrated in front of him. I apologise to him."

Mark Robins: I apologise to the Wolves ball boy, he didn’t pick you up the ball and smirked…when we scored the winner, I celebrated in front of him - I shouldn’t have done that#wwfc pic.twitter.com/lGw1SWfgkB

— Nathan Judah (@NathanJudah) March 16, 2024

He continued: "I do not show emotion very often, and before that happened I apologise to him. I don't show emotion very often but that's what the FA Cup does to you - I apologise unreservedly to him."