Newcastle United fans were left livid after seeing a series of contentious decisions waved away by Andy Madley.
The West Yorkshire official first overlooked a clear barge on Anthony Gordon in the first half in which Virgil van Dijk could have been sent off. But nothing came back from Madley or VAR after the first-half incident.
Then in the second half with 78 minutes gone Jarrell Quansah clearly tripped Alexander Isak for what should have been a spot-kick with the score tied at 2-2. The man in the VAR box that opted not to tell Madley to take another look on the screen was Stuart Attwell.
Liverpool themselves had two penalty claims waved away but Madley was booed and jeered as he headed down the tunnel with his team of officials. Beforehand, the Gallowgate End verdict on Madley had simply been: “Who’s the Scouser in the blue?”
A Dan Burn “handball” was spat out by VAR with the Premier League Match Centre stating afterwards “The referee’s call of no penalty for a potential handball by Burn is checked and confirmed by VAR, deeming that his arm was tucked into the body.”
In the end, after Fabian Schar’s equaliser at the death, all that was left to reflect on was that Newcastle and Liverpool had been involved in another crazy game. Eddie Howe said afterwards: “I thought it was a penalty on Alex, but I haven’t seen a replay, that was just an initial thought.”
The game ended in utter chaos as Newcastle tried to set up one last attack and Howe channelling his inner Sir Alex Ferguson as a time keeper. He said: “I was surprised by the final whistle because I think we’d spend around two minutes on a free-kick in extra-time, so I was expecting seven minutes to be played. I think it was 5.15 when he’s blown, so that was a blow because it looked like we were in a good position.”
A tale of two draws
Just days after Newcastle were choked by a last-gasp equaliser at Selhurst Park and it felt like the end of the world following the 1-1 draw, this time the same outcome of a football match felt very different.
It was still a score draw and still a point. But the nature of Fabian Schar’s equaliser, as he stretched in to apply the finish for Bruno Guimaraes’ free-kick, felt very different.
Just when all had seemed lost, Schar stabbed home to earn a point that raised the roof for a pulsating 3-3 draw. It was exactly the type of occasion the Prime Video studio directors would have been hoping for and a far cry from being close to end of Match of the Day only on Saturday night for Newcastle.
Two players hit the 100 mark
Both Bruno Guimaraes and Dan Burn made it 100 appearances for Newcastle in the Premier League. The pair were both signed in winter 2022 and have watched on as Newcastle have gone from relegation battlers to teams that can stand up to a side like Liverpool and get something from the game.
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