Ex-Premier League referee hits back at Marco Silva - sides with Newcastle United over Fulham drama

The former Premier League referee believes Newcastle United were unfortunate to conceded a penalty to Fulham.
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Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher has provided his view on Fulham’s two penalty appeals against Newcastle United.

Substitute Alexander Isak scored an 89th-minute winner for the Magpies at St James’ Park - but the result wasn’t without its drama.

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Indeed, in the 66th minute, the Cottagers initially had two penalty shouts turned down by referee Robert Jones seconds apart.

The first incident saw Dan Burn tug Andreas Pereira’s shirt before Bobby Decordova-Reid then fell to ground under a challenge from Kieran Trippier.

After a VAR check, where Jones went over to the monitor, it was Trippier who was penalised, not Burn, and a spot-kick was awarded.

However, it was the Burn incident that angered Fulham boss Marco Silva after the game. The Portuguese boss slammed the match officials for missing a “clear penalty and red card.”

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Gallagher, however, disagreed with Silva’s assessment. He told Sky Sports Ref Watch: “If you at the referee, he waves it (the penalty appeal) away straight away and tells the player to get up.

“For me, (it’s) not a foul. What I would say if it were a foul, it’s would have been a red card, but I don’t think it’s a foul.”

Interestingly, Gallagher also questioned the penalty that was awarded, insisting it could have quite easily been a foul on Trippier.

He explained: “This is a very interesting clip actually because if you look, you see Decordova-Reid step on Kieran Trippier’s foot first of all then Tripper catches his other foot and brings him down and the referee was asked to go to the screen and gave a penalty.

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“But that could have easily been a free-kick the other way. You could have easily said Decordova-Reid committed the offence.

“They felt between them (referee & VAR) that the first one was just a normal football contact and the second one he swept his leg away, which is why the penalty was given.”

Former Newcastle striker Aleksandar Mitrovic comically missed the resulting penalty by kicking the ball onto his standing foot.

Isak then netted a dramatic winner 20 minutes later to fire United back up to third in the Premier League table.

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