Howard Webb has explained why VAR intervened to award Newcastle a penalty in their recent Premier League win over Nottingham Forest at St James’ Park. The Magpies went a goal behind early on against Nuno Espirito Santo’s side but fought back superbly and then survived a late scare to win 4-3.
Goals from Lewis Miley and Jacob Murphy in the space of two minutes turned the game on its head with an Alexander Isak brace seeing Newcastle up 4-1 at half time. One of those strikes from the Swede came from the penalty spot after it was deemed that Lewis Hall’s cross was blocked by the hand of Ola Aina.
Newcastle were initially given a corner but VAR recommended that referee Jarred Gillett review the incident and upon looking at the screen, he awarded the hosts a penalty for handball. Isak converted the spot-kick and scored again just moments later.
Webb has now explained why the decision by making a VAR point. “Yeah, we’ve continued to deliver the officiating of handball in the way that the game asked us to, less is more, you know, not penalising players who are moving in a pretty natural way. We know the arms move as players move,” he said on Sky Sports Match Officials Mic’d Up.
“Of course, trying to identify those situations where there’s a clear, deliberate action to handle or the player puts his arms in a really unnatural position, making himself bigger that’s not justifiable.
“We think this one falls into that last category. As Aina jumps, his arm comes away from his body, blocks the ball, blocks the cross by Hall, and we think this is a good use of VAR to rectify a miss on the field. And, yeah, for us, it’s a clear handball offence.”
Newcastle will certainly be thankful that call was overturned especially as Nikola Milenkovic and Ryan Yates both scored for Forest in the second half.
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