Jeff Stelling now delivers his verdict on VAR after seeing what happened in Newcastle vs Liverpool game

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Jeff Stelling was left very frustrated by how VAR was used in Newcastle United’s defeat to Liverpool last night.

Liverpool were awarded a controversial late penalty against Newcastle after Martin Dubravka was deemed to have fouled Jota by both the on-field referee and VAR.

On talkSPORT, Stelling could not understand why Anthony Taylor had not at least been sent over to the monitor to reconsider his original decision to award the penalty.

Stelling says Liverpool were fortunate to win the penalty

It was a very contentious decision to award the spot-kick after the Portuguese attacker had actually ran a further two steps at least before deciding that he had been fouled and falling to the ground.

It was particularly disappointing for Dubravka who had worked so hard and played so well to try and keep Newcastle in the game despite their poor defensive efforts.

The Magpies ultimately deserved nothing from the game but at the same time they can rightfully feel aggrieved at the refereeing display which ended any hopes of pulling off a big result at Anfield.

Stelling simply couldn’t understand how Taylor was not sent to re-evaluate his original decision by VAR and was very critical of the referee’s overall performance on the night.

On the show, Stelling said: “For me last night, I though there were lots of issues, but the Jota decision at the end, why isn’t the referee called over to look at the screen?

“Why has his mate just told him ‘yeah, you’re right’?

“I mean he was almost in the crowd by the time he fell over.”

Newcastle deserved to lose again

There were a number of times last season where Newcastle had dropped points but were left disappointed either because they had dominated the game or a refereeing decision had gone against them.

This season, however, they have more often than not been the inferior team and have deserved to lose in pretty much all of their defeats so far, including the games against Luton and Nottingham Forest.

These results can easily spiral out of control and leave Newcastle and Eddie Howe in a very tricky position, especially with their next three games coming against Sunderland, Manchester City and Aston Villa.