Mark Clattenburg says what 'saved' Fabian Schar from seeing red against Aston Villa on Saturday

Newcastle United were lucky to have 11 men on the pitch after just 14 minutes into their nightmare game against Aston Villa, some will have you believe.

When we say 'some', we mostly mean Aston Villa fans, as they were adamant that Fabian Schar's pull on Ollie Watkins as the last man warranted a red card.

As a ball was played over the top, Schar and Watkins wrestled with Schar hauling the Villa striker to the ground, resulting in a free kick and a yellow card.

At first, it looked and felt like a red card type action, but replays showed that the referee, Jarred Gillett got it right.

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Former referee Dermot Gallagher sided with Gillett in his Ref Watch segment on Sky Sports News, and now another former Premier League official has told Geordie Boot Boys his view on the incident.

“The referee gives Schar a yellow card for a pull of the arm on Watkins.

“People will argue that Schar should have been sent off, but the Newcastle goalkeeper Pope’s starting position saved Schar, as even though the foul was central, Watkins did not have control of the ball and Pope could have got to the ball first, so reducing the obvious goal scoring opportunity.

“Schar was correctly cautioned for stopping a promising attack.”

Jarred Gillet got one thing right on the night at least

In the end, it didn't matter as Newcastle played most of the match as if they only had nine men anyway, six of whom had just had hip replacements and the rest had glaucoma.

The fact that Jarred Gillett got this one decision right also doesn't undo all the poor calls he made during the rest of the game; the only thing we can say is that the Aussie wasn't biased, as he was poor for both teams.

While Fabian Schar may have avoided a suspension, he was withdrawn from the game with a hamstring complaint, so he might miss the game against Ipswich anyway.