Aston Villa fans had every right to feel hard done by on Saturday as they beat Newcastle United 4-1 at Villa Park, but only in the fact that they should have won by a bigger margin.
Many fans would likely have you believe that Fabian Schar should have had a red card after pulling down Ollie Watkins when he looked to be clean through, but referee Jarred Gillett only brandished a yellow card.
At the time, I'll admit, I was shocked to see the Swiss defender remain on the pitch, although given Gillett's performance on the day, I shouldn't have been surprised to see him get a call wrong.
Fabian Schar was a key figure in the match either side of that red card decision, having deflected Ollie Watkins' shot into the net after 30 seconds and then scoring the equaliser for Newcastle.
The fact that Schar scored when Villa fans were expecting him to have received his marching orders certainly didn't help matters, but former referee Dermot Gallagher said on Sky Sports News' Ref Watch segment that he feels Jarred Gillett got it right.
“100% not a red card. Look at the tick boxes, first two say it’s not a red. Is he in possession of the ball? Quite clearly no.
“Is he able to regain the ball quickly? Again, you would say no as it has gone through to the keeper. I think the second one is probably and not obvious - so it cannot be a red.”
When you look at the incident again, it's clearly a good decision from Gillett, maybe his only one on the night, as Watkins was nowhere near the ball when the foul occurred, so you'd have to make a lot of assumptions before determining whether or not it was a goalscoring opportunity.
It was a heart-in-mouth moment on the night for sure, but given how the game unfolded, it was the least of our worries.
Although you could argue that picking up that yellow card on 14 minutes really hampered Fabian Schar's ability to get stuck in. He did seem to be backing off players a lot more than necessary.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
![]() |
37 | 45 | 83 |
2 |
![]() |
37 | 34 | 71 |
3 |
![]() |
37 | 22 | 66 |
4 |
![]() |
37 | 20 | 66 |
5 |
![]() |
37 | 9 | 66 |
6 |
![]() |
36 | 24 | 65 |
7 |
![]() |
37 | 13 | 65 |
8 |
![]() |
37 | 4 | 58 |
9 |
![]() |
37 | 9 | 55 |
10 |
![]() |
37 | 2 | 54 |
11 |
![]() |
36 | 12 | 53 |
12 |
![]() |
36 | -2 | 49 |
13 |
![]() |
37 | -3 | 45 |
14 |
![]() |
36 | -13 | 41 |
15 |
![]() |
37 | -18 | 40 |
16 |
![]() |
37 | -12 | 39 |
17 |
![]() |
37 | 2 | 38 |
18 |
![]() |
37 | -45 | 25 |
19 |
![]() |
37 | -44 | 22 |
20 |
![]() |
37 | -59 | 12 |