Alan Shearer and Wayne Rooney slammed “one of the worst decisions ever in football” after a series of refereeing errors as Newcastle United knocked Aston Villa out of the FA Cup.
Like a lot of games nowadays, VAR became the main talking point, despite not being in use at Villa Park.
A series of poor decisions
Aston Villa took the lead through Tammy Abraham, evading the Newcastle defenders with his quick movement after a well-worked free kick.
Replays showed the former Roma striker was clearly offside, but with VAR not in use until the fifth round of the FA Cup, the goal stood.
Just before half-time, Villa defender Luca Digne was lucky to stay on the field, with his late studs-first challenge on Jacob Murphy earning just a yellow card.
But it was Digne’s second-half handball that had the England goalscoring legends blasting the match officials.
Newcastle full-back Kieran Trippier crossed the ball from just outside Villa’s 18-yard box, striking Digne on the arm.
Despite the offence clearly taking place inside the penalty area, referee Chris Kavanagh inexplicably awarded Newcastle a free-kick.
Fortunately for The Magpies, Sandro Tonali scored immediately after the set-piece was taken and they went on to win the game 3-1, alleviating any sense of Newcastle injustice.
Shearer and Rooney blast officials
Following the game, Alan Shearer expressed his dismay at the officiating.
“There was perhaps a small excuse for the referee to not see this [handball] – and I’m being kind to him” Shearer said of Kavanagh.
“But there was no excuse whatsoever for the assistant who is 10 or 15 yards away – Nick Greenhalgh, who had an absolute nightmare today.”
Former Everton and Manchester United forward Wayne Rooney echoed Shearer’s sentiments.
“That decision is one of the worst decisions I have ever seen in football because at no stage was Digne out the penalty box. He is three or four yards inside the penalty box.
“The referee looked like he blew and it looked like he was listening on his ‘ears’ so I’m assuming the linesman has given that decision – and it’s an absolute shocker,” Rooney added.
After heavy criticism of the officiating from Shearer and Rooney, Saturday’s game has been seen by some as the perfect advert for VAR.
