Mon 8 Apr 2024, 13:59 · Ash Harrison

Sky Sports Ref Watch weighs in on Fabian Schar's disallowed goal against Fulham

Sky Sports Ref Watch weighs in on Fabian Schar's disallowed goal against Fulham
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Newcastle United had a goal chalked off after a VAR review on Saturday which had a lot of people scratching their heads.

Referee Sam Allison was called to the pitch-side monitors to review the incident after originally awarding the goal.

Fabian Schar swept home after an Anthony Gordon cross eluded both Fulham defender Calvin Bassey and giant Dan Burn, however, VAR ruled that Dan Burn had impeded Bassey and that foul stopped him from being able to prevent the goal.

I don't think many people can claim that Burn didn't foul Bassey, but the big question for me, and many others, was whether or not Bassey would have made any difference had Burn not intervened.

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Fabian Schar celebrates the goal that never was

We're not convinced there was a strong enough case to rule the goal out

The replays show that not only was the ball over the head of Bassey, it was even over the head of Dan Burn, so the Fulham defender had no chance of getting any contact regardless of the push.

The other point is that Burn doesn't make contact with Bassey until the ball is beyond both of them anyway.

VAR and Sam Allison obviously thought different and they have now been backed up by former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher on Sky Sports' Ref Watch.

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Even after Dermot Gallagher's input, we're not having it

In a very short statement, Gallagher said he believed that the officials got it right on the day.

“He pushes him, he gets above him and stops him from heading the ball.

“Foul for me."

Again, he was never getting to that ball, the only reason I can see why it was ruled out is that the foul stopped him from doing anything about Schar's shot because he was on the deck, but even then, the push from Burn put him more directly in front of the shot so it helped him rather than hindered him.

Never mind, it is what it is and a few minutes later Bruno Guimaraes scored and rendered the whole thing moot anyway. Had the game ended in a draw or a defeat we'd be having a much different discussion.