'It didn't leap out': Former PL ref gives a non-answer when asked if Romero should have seen red

Newcastle United deserved to lose last night, there's no doubt about that, but the Magpies should have had a one-man advantage to go with their consolation goal.

Joelinton may have given the Toon Army something to shout about in the 92nd minute when he fizzed the ball into the back of the net, but minutes before that, Cristian Romero should have been sent off for Tottenham.

Romero, who had just come back from suspension, lunged in at Callum Wilson who was already on the deck, Romero's leading foot rolled over the top of the ball and onto Wilson's ankle before he appeared to kick out his trailing leg to wipe out Wilson at the shin.

VAR messed up yet again

The ref gave a yellow card while VAR looked it over and deemed there to be no further action required.

Sky Sports' commentators were absolutely baffled by the decision as were all the pundits in the studio after the game. There aren't many people on social media who thought the ref got it right either.

However, on Sky Sports Ref Watch today, Dermot Gallagher said it didn't leap out to him as a red. Fair enough, it may not have in real time, but he's seen the replays, how can he stand by that decision? In fact, pundits Stephen Warnock and Sue Smith couldn't believe what they were hearing.

Dermott Gallagher danced around the issue

“It didn’t leap out to me as a red card but a lot of people have said since it is. It’s quite amazing isn’t it how people have gone for red card challenges now. We’ve had 31 red cards in 14 rounds of games.”

Host, Rob Wotton didn't hear a proper answer in Gallagher's response there so pushed him again pointing out that Romero has two swipes at Wilson.

“That’s what people say, it’s a double take, I don’t know why people do that, it’s not wise. Red cards are just mounting up and people want more and more.”

So we're no further forward as to why Dermot Gallagher thought the ref got the call right, but yes, let's talk about people wanting to see players punished for bad fouls like we're the problem.

Stephen Warnock went on to say he was gobsmacked at what Gallagher said, and frankly, we don't blame him.

There's no way in 2023 with VAR that that incident was not worthy of a red card. We don't care that it wouldn't have changed the game, we just want to see officials doing their job properly.