Wayne Rooney explodes over Aston Villa vs Newcastle controversy: ‘One of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen’
Wayne Rooney has ripped into referee Chris Kavanagh for failing to award a penalty to Newcastle during their 3-1 defeat to Aston Villa on Saturday.
A Sandro Tonali double and a late Nick Woltemade goal saw the Magpies come back to secure their safe passage into the fifth round of the FA Cup, after Tammy Abraham had put the hosts ahead in the early stages.
Eddie Howe’s side played against 10 men for the entire second half, but they could have been given a bigger helping hand on their way back into the game had Kavanagh handed out the correct punishment for Lucas Digne’s handball in the 61st minute.
The Frenchman jumped to block Kieran Trippier’s cross with his arm raised above his head, but Kavanagh awarded the visitors a free-kick for the incident, despite the defender clearly being inside the box.
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Wayne Rooney fumes at Lucas Digne handball incident
VAR has not been used in the early rounds of the FA Cup in recent years, and that has only served to place further scrutiny on Kavanagh’s error.
The use of the technology will only begin from the fifth round onwards, which is sure to have left Newcastle frustrated on Saturday as they were denied a clear penalty.
However, Rooney still thought that Kavanagh and his fellow officials should not have allowed the error to take place, as he criticised the linesman for his role in the call.
“That decision is one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen in football,” the former England international said during the BBC’s coverage of the game.
“At no stage was Digne not in the penalty box. He’s three or four yards inside the penalty box, and the linesman was just in front of us, and you can clearly see how far he is inside the box.
“The referee looked like he blew, and it looked like he was listening to someone in his ear, so I’m assuming that the linesman has given that decision, and it’s an absolute shocker.”
Aston Villa were ultimately made to pay for the officials’ error regardless, as Tonali equalised from the second phase of the free-kick, but it was another moment that has prompted unwanted eyes on the refereeing team.
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Ex-PGMOL chief reacts to Marco Bizot red card
Villa goalkeeper Marco Bizot was shown a straight red card by Kavanagh after scything down Jacob Murphy during first-half stoppage time.
The shot-stopper was almost at the halfway line before he took out the onrushing attacker, and was duly given his marching orders for the challenge.
For all the other controversies in the game, former PGMOL chief Keith Hackett believed that Kavanagh got the right call on this occasion, with Bizot’s challenge made with “excessive force and endangering the safety of his opponent.”
It was a moment of madness from the Dutchman, and Newcastle ultimately capitalised on the numerical advantage that he handed to them in the second half.
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