The 61st minute of this afternoon’s engaging Premier League encounter between West Bromwich Albion and Manchester United marked controversy, with the Red Devils seeing a penalty overturned.
Bruno Fernandes whipped in a free-kick from deep, with the ball floating over to the far post, where beasts in the air Harry Maguire and Semi Ajayi duelled.
United captain Maguire slumped to the floor after a tussle between the pair, with replays showing Ajayi brushing the shoulder of his centre-back counterpart.
Referee Craig Pawson initially pointed to the spot, but then called on the pitch-side VAR monitor to review the decision.
United legend Gary Neville, who was on commentary for Sky Sports wasn’t having any of the appeals, the former defender joked that Maguire was ‘going down in instalments’ after the minimal contact.
Neville insisted that the ‘right’ decision was made when Pawson overturned the spot-kick.
See More: Video: Bruno Fernandes leads furious Man United stars after referee Pawson stops counter-attack with halftime whistle in lucky moment for West Brom
PENALTY OVERTURNED! ?
Craig Pawson consults the monitor and decides that Ajayi hasn’t made sufficient contact for Maguire to go to ground. No penalty.
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Here’s what Neville had to say on the matter, via Sky Sports’ live commentary also found here:
“The referee delayed and delayed, it looked like Maguire was going down in instalments. Is he just offside? He may be.”
“It’s something and nothing, it’s whether the legs make contact. Ajayi’s wrong-side.”
“The strange thing is they didn’t look at the offside to start with, Maguire’s not complaining too much.”
“He’s got it right, he just goes down off that hand off the shoulder, it’s not enough to make Maguire fall.”
In another bizarre point rightfully mentioned by Neville, Pawson and VAR surprisingly didn’t review the incident from an offside aspect, with Maguire looking to be in an unlawful position.
We’ll never know if VAR was to investigate that matter, perhaps they weren’t aware in a massive oversight or they were only going to judge so if Pawson ruled the incident a foul.