Callum Wilson’s honest view on Cristiano Ronaldo’s ‘goal’ for Manchester United vs Newcastle

Callum Wilson has had his say on the referee decisions during Newcastle United’s goalless draw at Manchester United.
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Callum Wilson has claimed a Manchester United player voiced his frustration at the standard of refereeing during the goalless draw with Newcastle United.

The Magpies No.9’s penalty appeal in the opening stages was one of four incidents in the game that left both clubs unhappy. The Red Devils also appealed for two penalties on Jadon Sancho and Cristiano Ronaldo, who also had a goal disallowed.

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Even the Man United defenders admitted that Raphael Varane’s challenge on Wilson was a penalty, which caused the 30-year-old to voice his frustration on his BBC Footballer’s Football Podcast.

“It’s actually getting embarrassing,” Wilson said. “I don’t even want to get started on the decisions in our game but I was waiting for a goal kick and one of the United players says to me, ‘what’s happened to the standard of referees in this country?’

“I was thinking wow. That’s a foreign player saying that and they’ve not experienced it before. I got wiped out and the defenders on their team are saying it should have been a penalty. I don’t even appeal now because I’m that fed up with going mad at referees.

“If it’s going to be a penalty and the ref has missed it you’re thinking VAR is going to do its job, so I’m waiting for the ball to go out of play.

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“Then I go to him, ‘ref, what you saying?’ He was like, ‘It’s never a penalty’. I was thinking why am I wasting my time here. If (Lisandro) Martinez is not in the way and I go past Varane, it’s still a foul. They were basically trying to say I was going through a gap that wasn’t there.”

Manchester United were furious with referee Craig Pawson when he did not allow Ronaldo’s goal to stand. The 37-year-old gambled that Fabian Schar had taken a quick free-kick to Nick Pope and rolled the ball into an empty net.

Wilson said: “Fabby’s put the ball down and not really gone to take it but the ball’s stop and he’s just passed it back and gone out well.

“If it was me and I was Ronaldo, I would have done the same thing so I was thinking ‘come on Popey, kick it now!’”

“You don’t know which way it could have gone. In hindsight, the goalie is still standing over the ball. I’d want it to stand really, but glad it didn’t.”