· April 3 2025, 11:30
**Mark Clattenberg, the former Premier League referee, now seen on the BBC as part of the Gladiators reboot, has been speaking about the decision to award Brentford a penalty at St James' Park last night.**
Newcastle United were 1-0 up at home and doing well to keep Brentford at bay for the most part, when Nick Pope brought down Yoane Wissa in the area leaving referee Peter Bankes no choice but to point to the spot.
At first it did look like Nick Pope had beaten Wissa to the ball and there was a little bit of hope that it could be overturned by VAR.
However, just one replay was all it took to see that Peter Bankes had probably made the right call, so unless something had happened in the build-up, the chances of the decision being overturned looked slim.
VAR saw no reason to overturn the referee's decision
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VAR saw nothing and the penalty was awarded with Bryan Mbeumo making no mistake from 12-yards.
Now, North East-born former referee Mark Calttenburg has given an explanation of the process behind the decision to [Geordie Boot Boys.](https://www.geordiebootboys.com/news/mark-clattenburg-gives-verdict-on-nick-pope-penalty-incident-as-newcastle-united-beat-brentford/)
> “Peter Bankes the referee correctly awards Brentford a penalty against Newcastle United.“As the ball is played in, Wissa gets just in front of Nick Pope, Newcastle United’s goalkeeper, and Pope catches him with his arm and creates a tripping action.“Therefore, this is what the referee sees so he correctly awards a penalty kick. What the VAR does is he’ll make a quick check for an offside in the build-up which there isn’t.
>
> “Therefore, the on-field decision is a penalty kick and there’s not a clear and obvious error from the referee for the VAR to overturn as there is contact from Nick Pope.”
It looked to us like it wouldn't have been overturned if Peter Bankes hadn't given it
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Nick Pope did make contact with the ball and played it away from Yoan Wissa, so if the penalty wasn't awarded, we're not sure that VAR would have given it.
However, VAR is there to rectify clear and obvious errors which this was not. Different referees would probably have seen things differently and maybe not given it on the field. Perhaps VAR would have recommended an on-field review if the ref had missed it.
Although, I could just be looking at it with my black and white specs on. What were your thoughts?