A shocking decision to incorrectly award a free-kick instead of a penalty during the FA Cup clash between Aston Villa and Newcastle has seen fans slam rant at the standard of officiating without VAR.
The cup clash at Villa Park saw a plethora of controversial moments, including an offside in Villa’s opener and a potential red card for Lucas Digne, both missed.
Newcastle fans would have been forgiven for thinking that the world was out to get them when they trailed 1-0 to Tammy Abraham’s goal at the break, despite the most obvious red card of all-time being shown to Villans stopper Marco Bizot for whipping out Jacob Murphy at the halfway line.
But it soon got worse for the visitors when Digne, who was fortunate to even be on the pitch for a studs up, late tackle in the first-half, jumped to block the ball with his arms in the penalty area.
However, despite being at least two yards inside the 18-yard box, referee Chris Kavanagh gave a free-kick comfortably outside the box.
Despite the game being played between two Premier League clubs at a top-flight ground, VAR is not being used in the fourth round to ensure a consistent refereeing experience at all matches.
Newcastle players protested furiously, as did the travelling Toon Army, who had the perfect view of the incident sitting directly behind the linesman behind Kieran Trippier as he fired in the cross.
However, the original decision of free-kick remained, but justice was done for the visitors as Sandro Tonali scored via a deflection from the resulting set-piece.
Newcastle then completed a remarkable turnaround 13 minutes later when Tonali struck a sweet effort into the far bottom corner to give the Magpies a 2-1 lead.
More to follow…
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