Ref Watch: Dermot Gallagher has his say on whether Fabian Schar deserved his red card

Newcastle United fans were waiting for Sky Sports' Ref Watch segment today to see what former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher would have to say on Fabian Schar's dismissal on Saturday.

After Fabian Schar was sent off for "violent conduct" on Saturday after some Oscar-worthy acting from Ben Brereton Diaz, the incident has been the subject of many a football debate.

Opinion is fairly split on whether Schar deserved his red card with some seeing it as a straight red as it is written in the laws of the game, while others thing it was extremely harsh and common sense should have prevailed as there was little to no forward motion, and if anything it was 50/50 in terms of leaning in.

The referee certainly got conned by Brereton Diaz's play-acting, but does former Premier League referee, Gallagher see it as anything other than a Fabian Schar red card?

Dermot Gallagher says Craig Pawson had no choice but to award the red card

As part of Sky Sports' Ref Watch, Gallagher reviewed the incident and claims that Craig Pawson had no choice but to brandish the red card, although Stephen Warnock and Sue Smith completely disagreed with his take.

"He's [Schar] got sucked in a bit hasn't he? He'll probably look back on it and think 'Well, I didn't need to do that' hopefully. I don't think for the referee he's got any choice but to give the red card. What I would say is, Brereton Diaz didn't do him a lot of favours with the way he went down, but he will argue that he did put his head into his so it is a red card. It's hard to say it's not a red card when you look at that evidence."

Stephen Warnock and Sue Smith both call out Brereton Diaz's behavior as shocking and say that there was no enough contact for that type of reaction and not enough in it to be a red.

Where's the room for common sense in the rules?

Gallagher continued to defend the referee's decision by saying that players were told in the pre-season referee's briefing that a coming together of heads would see a red card brandished.

We again go back to what we said in our post-match write-up where we said there has to be some common sense applied to the rules. There's the letter of the law but there should be some room for a common-sense decision to be made.

Everyone can see that Brereton Diaz made the most of it, and cheated to get a fellow professional sent off, therefore the punishment for both players should be the same whether the ref goes with a yellow card or a red card each or just gives them both a warning. It's the disparity in the punishments that's so irritating.