Wayne Rooney last night accused referee Chris Kavanagh of making ‘one of the worst decisions’ he has ever seen in football on a shambolic night for officials at Villa Park.
Despite being on the wrong end of multiple game-changing decisions, Newcastle United still managed to navigate their way past Aston Villa to reach the fifth round of the FA Cup.
But the story of the night was not Sandro Tonali’s brace in a 3-1 win but the decision-making of Kavanagh and his linesmen, specifically the decision to award a free-kick after Lucas Digne committed handball more than three yards inside his own penalty area.
‘That decision is one of the worst decisions I have ever seen in football because at no stage was Digne out of the penalty box,’ Rooney fumed.
‘He is three or four yards inside. The linesman is just in front of it and you can clearly see how much he is in the penalty box.
‘The referee looked like he blew and looked like he was listening to someone in his ear, so I’m assuming the linesman gave the decision, and it’s absolute shocker.’
Wayne Rooney has launched a scathing attack on referee Chris Kavanagh after his FA Cup shocker
Kavanagh awarded Newcastle a free kick for handball despite the offence occurring in the penalty area
Even losing manager Unai Emery – who saw his side benefit from an offside opening goal as well as a handful of obvious refereeing mistakes – agreed that the atrocious standard of officiating on the night underlined just why VAR is essential in the modern game.
‘Today it makes sense understanding that VAR is necessary,’ Emery said. ‘It’s necessary to help the referees.’
This was a game where Villa’s opening goal through Tammy Abraham was offside, multiple penalty calls for Newcastle against Lewis Hall and Harvey Barnes were waved away and Digne should have been sent off for a reckless shin-high challenge on Jacob Ramsey long before his handball inside the area that caused such anger.
Former Newcastle striker Alan Shearer was enraged by the standard of officiating and pointed to an over-reliance on VAR diluting the quality of refereeing these days.
‘I would just like the officials to do their job properly. That’s all,’ Shearer said. ‘Not too much to ask is it?
‘For five or six months they’ve been reliant on VAR. Then they’re coming into this situation now and it all changes.’
Howe was philosophical after winning but was in agreement with Shearer and Emery on the increasing reliance from officials on VAR, even if he stopped short of throwing his full support behind the technology.
Rooney labelled the decision ‘one of the worst I’ve ever seen’ in a scathing rebuke
‘I think there’s an argument to say yes [they are reliant], because when VAR is there, there’s always a, “Well, I won’t give that, but let’s check it”,’ he said.
‘And I think then your decision-making maybe isn’t as sharp as it may normally have to be so maybe there’s a difference there. I would probably say, you’re right in that respect.
‘I’m always torn on VAR. I said this many times because I still love the emotion, even tonight, when a goal is given, or when a goal goes in and you don’t see a flag or a referee, it’s a goal, and no one’s going to take it away from you, that sense and that emotion, that joy that you get in that moment, I still really love that, and VAR takes it away.
‘But then on the other side, I was wishing there was VAR on the first goal against us, and probably throughout that game!’
