‘Feel sorry for officials’ – Furious VAR debate erupts in FA Cup as Newcastle denied blatant penalty

Newcastle United were denied a penalty in their FA Cup fourth-round win over Aston Villa in quite extraordinary circumstances.

There is no VAR in the FA Cup until the fifth round, and it proved to go against the Magpies on Saturday evening.

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With Newcastle trailing 1-0 thanks to a controversial Tammy Abraham goal, Kieran Trippier delivered a cross from the right.

The ball then hit Lucas Digne‘s arm, and a free-kick was awarded on the edge of the area by referee Chris Kavanagh.

But replays showed that Digne was clearly standing two yards inside the penalty area at the time.

The Newcastle players couldn’t believe what had happened, they all surrounded Chris Kavanagh to make their feelings well known.

However, because there was no VAR in action, the visitors were not awarded a penalty, which left the talkSPORT commentary team baffled.

Speaking after the incident, Joe Shennan said: “Eddie Howe cannot believe it! He’s miles inside the box there, Digne.”

And from there, Scott Minto added: “He’s at least a yard inside the box, his arm is up in an unnatural way. It’s a penalty that should be a penalty.”

Minto then went on to stick up for referee Kavanagh, saying on commentary: “I feel sorry for officials.

“They made a mistake and that’s what VAR is for. It’s for fixing clear and obvious errors.

“Everybody can make a mistake, it’s a bad mistake don’t get me wrong, the assistant is that side, he should be able to see it if the ref can’t.

“Two of them got it wrong, it’s a clear and obvious error, but he’s given the foul…he’s a yard inside the box, it’s a penalty.”

Incredibly, the error didn’t matter too much with Newcastle 3-1 up thanks to a Sandro Tonali double and a Nick Woltemade goal.

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A strange night

After the match, Hugh Woozencroft couldn’t work out if this was an advert to get rid of VAR or to have it all the time.

There were several very controversial moments across the match.

After a bright opening from Newcastle, Villa scored through Abraham.

The hosts were awarded a free-kick on the edge of the area that Douglas Luiz cleverly dinked over the top of the Newcastle defence.

Abraham wandered in and converted past Aaron Ramsdale for his first goal back at Villa Park.

However, replays showed that the striker was offside.

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