Sheffield United fell to a 2-0 home defeat tonight as Newcastle came away with the three points thanks to a VAR aided decision for Jonjo Shelvey.
Jonjo Shelvey celebrates the second goal for Newcastle United last night. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
The Blades never quite got into their flow throughout the tie. A defensive-minded Magpies side stifled United’s attacks in the main.
Allan Saint-Maximin gave the away side the lead in the first half. For the home side, Oli McBurnie twice went close, while Billy Sharp perhaps should have scored from a deflected cross.
However, the main talking point in the game came in the second half, when Jonjo Shelvey scored after initially being flagged offside.
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But, once again, Sheffield United fell foul of VAR as Stockley Park overruled the initial decision on Shelvey. In fairness to the referee, he did play on and it was the Sheffield United players who all stopped, including the goalkeeper, Dean Henderson.
Shelvey went on to roll the ball past Henderson before enduring an agonising wait to find out if he’d got his goal.
Jonjo Shelvey glances at the linesman just ahead of putting Newcastle 2-0 up. (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
VAR duly obliged for the Newcastle man, sending the away end into pandemonium.
Following the game, Twitter was full of unhappy Sheffield United fans. The Blades followers were obviously fuming with VAR. Although the decision was right in terms of offside, the United supporters were quick to criticise the whole system.
We’ve taken a look, then, at just what the Blades fans had to say…
•school kid football, PLAY TO THE WHISTLE. taught it from 4 years old. Yes, linesman should have flagged, and it was the wrong decision, but keep playing blades.
•VAR needs to be looked at MASSIVELY! It’s getting out of hand with how bad it’s coming across.#twitterblades #sufc— Matt Waterhouse (@MW__photog) December 5, 2019
We weren’t going to win every game… the goal for VAR strange one but players shouldn’t have stopped so confusing
— Courtenay Crawford (@CourtenaySUFC) December 5, 2019
No point even having a linesman if they are going to check everything on VAR absolute joke #SUFC
— Lauren Siddall (@lauren_sufc2) December 5, 2019
How can anyone who truly loves football, advocate VAR. It’s killing the game. If it hasn’t already. Nobody knows what is expected, from referees to players to fans. Clueless. #VAR #PremierLeague @premierleague #sufc #twitterblades
— Liam Proniewicz 🔴⚪️⚔️ (@Liampron) December 5, 2019
The key point was that as soon as the linesman's flag went up, the whole Blades defence stopped and Henderson clearly thought play had stopped as well. Chaos.#VAR #SUFCNUFC #SHUNEW #NUFC #SUFC https://t.co/KrQu4fY6oS
— Adam Dickinson (@AdamDickinson01) December 5, 2019
Gonna get attacked for this but the referee did the correct thing in that scenario, and for the first time VAR did what it was supposed to do
— Limmy⚔️ twitch.tv/limmyplayz (@LimmySUFC) December 5, 2019
One fan even went as far to say he’d be happy to not be in the Premier League because of VAR.
https://twitter.com/Jonosufc1996/status/1202701721274896386
