Newcastle came away from Brentford with all three points despite VAR’s best efforts

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That’s five wins in a row now for Newcastle United after overcoming a nervy first half against Brentford, eventually coming out 2-1 winners despite VAR’s valiant efforts to stifle Eddie Howe’s Magpies.

Goals from David Raya (o.g.) and Alexander Isak gave Newcastle the points at the Brentford Community Stadium this afternoon in a good old fashioned 3pm Saturday kick off. But it was anything but plane sailing for Howe‘s men.

Newcastle went in a goal down at the break but it could have been much worse. Ivan Toney put the Bees in the lead early on but the goal was eventually ruled out for offside. The former Newcastle man once again had the chance to give his side the lead when Sven Botman clattered Kevin Schade in the box gifting Brentford a clear penalty.

VAR was heavily involved at Brentford

Ivan Toney stepped up and hit a tame effort into the grateful hands of Nick Pope. It was his first penalty miss since 2018. However he got the chance to right that wrong when VAR deliberated for what felt like an hour on the most innocuous contact in the box. Eventually VAR, Darren England convinced on-pitch referee Chris Kavanagh to go to the screen. It’s inevitable when that happens that the ref is going to change his mind, and that’s what happened. The penalty was awarded and Toney stepped up and scored.

This is where I started to lose my mind. If VAR take that long over a decision, then it shouldn’t be overturned. If an infraction is that hard to spot in slow-motion from a hundred different angles, then it’s blatantly not a clear and obvious error from the referee. Move on. I still don’t understand how it was given as a penalty anyway. Rico Henry came belting towards the ball from behind Alexander Isak who was well within his rights to stick his foot out to clear the ball, Henry ran into Isak’s leg if anything, but contact was minimal anyway. No need to award a penalty.

What makes it worse is that Isak’s leg was no higher than hip height. Newcastle saw Fabian Schar get booted in the head in the box against Manchester United last week and nothing was given, and that’s not even the first time we’ve failed to be awarded a penalty for a Newcastle player getting a boot to the head. Where’s the consistency?

Newcastle held on despite VAR Darren England’s best efforts

Darren England wasn’t done messing with Newcastle though. Callum Wilson had the ball in the net which would have put the game beyond doubt, but Mr England and Co decided that Wilson handled the ball before he poked it home. The ball had indeed struck his arm, however, it was on the sleeve so therefore not a handball, add to that the fact that his arms were by his side and the ball came at him from about 3 inches away it seems that Wilson was penalised purely for having arms.

There are times when VAR is brilliant. When they get a call right we all love it, but when there’s zero consistency in how it’s applied it presents a huge problem in the game. There needs to be a time limit introduced on VAR checks. If VAR can’t determine the right call after 30 seconds then the on-field referee’s decision should stand as, like I said before, it’s not a clear and obvious error.

Luckily for Eddie Howe, his scrappy Magpies held on to see out the win and leapfrog back above Manchester United in the Premier League table after their victory over Everton in the early kick-off.