Eddie Howe, Manager of Newcastle United, reacts during the Emirates FA Cup Fourth Round match between Aston Villa and Newcastle United at Villa Park on February 14, 2026 in Birmingham, England. (Photo by Molly Darlington/Getty Images)placeholder image
Eddie Howe, Manager of Newcastle United, reacts during the Emirates FA Cup Fourth Round match between Aston Villa and Newcastle United at Villa Park on February 14, 2026 in Birmingham, England. (Photo by Molly Darlington/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Aston Villa 1-3 Newcastle United: Eddie Howe has his say on the lack of VAR and quality of refereeing following his side’s FA Cup win.
benefitingEddie Howe and Unai Emery were in agreement on the use of VAR following Newcastle United’s 3-1 win at Aston Villa in the FA Cup fourth round on Saturday.
Aston Villa took an early lead through Tammy Abraham in a goal that replays showed was offside but was allowed to stand due to a lack of VAR available to overturn the on-field decision.
Goalkeeper Marco Bizot was then shown a straight red card on the stroke of half-time for a denial of a goalscoring opportunity foul on Jacob Murphy.
Newcastle were able to make the most of their numerical advantage in the second half with Sandro Tonali scoring twice and Nick Woltemade adding a third as they secured progress to the fifth round. It was The Magpies’ first comeback win away from home this season and marked successive away wins for the first time this season.
Despite the win, a big talking point during and after the game was the lack of VAR and the refereeing performance of Chris Kavanagh and his officials. Villa were wrongfully awarded a goal while Newcastle were denied several penalties at the other end.
One major penalty shout saw Kavanagh award Newcastle a free-kick for a handball against Lucas Digne despite the Villa defender clearly being inside the penalty area.
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‘A lot of errors’ - Eddie Howe
After the win, Eddie Howe was asked about the lack of VAR and the quality of officiating at Villa Park.
“Yeah, that was certainly a tough first half for us,” Howe said. “Obviously we got the benefit of replays on the bench and you can see what's right and what's wrong and we felt really agreed in that first period that every decision seemed like it was going against us.
“The officials don't make any decision on purpose, is what they think at the time, but without VAR I thought there was a lot of errors today.
“Once the decision is made and it seems like there was no way back, there's nothing you can do. You've got to move on quite quickly, although all through that half, it seemed like I was debating a referee decision. That's not me, I don't do that.
“But I felt that there were so many [decisions] going against us.”
Despite his side benefitting from some key refereeing decisions and the lack of VAR, Villa boss Unai Emery was in agreement with Howe after the match.
“Today makes sense why VAR is necessary,” he said. “To help the referees.”
Are referees too reliant on VAR?
Saturday’s match sparked the debate surrounding the use of VAR and whether Premier League referees have become so reliant on the use of technology that it has impacted the quality of their decision making when it is suddenly not in use.
“I think there's an argument to say yes,” Howe admitted. “Because when VAR's there, there's always a, ‘well, I won't give that, but let's check it’.
“I think then your decision-making maybe isn't as sharp as it may normally have to be, so maybe there's a difference there.
“I'm always torn on VAR, I've said this many times, because I still love the emotion, even tonight when a goal's given or when a goal goes in and you don't see a flag or a referee eats a goal, and no one's going to take it away from you.
“That sense and that emotion, that joy that you get in that moment, I still really love, and VAR takes it away. But then, on the other side, I was wishing there was VAR on the first goal against us and probably throughout that game.”
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