Manchester United’s game against Newcastle was a fixture that wasn’t noteworthy for any huge refereeing blunders.
Erik ten Hag’s men were thoroughly outplayed in all departments of the game and could only feel lucky that the scoreline wasn’t worse for them.
However, ESPN’s Rob Dawson now reports that the manager and captain Bruno Fernandes were not happy with one call and confronted the referee afterwards.
They went to referee Robert Jones in his room after the game and asked him why Fabian Schar hadn’t been sent off for his challenge on Fernandes.
The Newcastle defender had stepped on Fernandes’ leg in a tackle that looked ugly during the game.
However, even after VAR had a look at the incident, no further action was deemed necessary by the officials, causing fury among the United players.
United have regularly been on the wrong side of official decisions this season and a case can be made that this was another one.
They hardly threatened the Newcastle goal when facing 11 players so the team might well have a point if they think that the game could have been different against 10 players.
Marcus Rashford was sent off in the Champions League at Copenhagen for an even more innocuous challenge than the one Shar committed on Fernandes.
It is not clear yet what the referee’s reply to the pair was when they went into the game.
However, one thing is clear, and that is United can’t feel sorry for themselves based on one refereeing decision when they were way below par for the whole 90 minutes.
The standard of refereeing in England is hardly a cause for celebration, but their own performances this season are a bigger concern.