BBC pundit Alan Shearer expressed his frustrations at Chris Kavanagh's officiating during Newcastle United's 3-1 win over Aston Villa in the FA Cup on Saturday night
Alan Shearer
Alan Shearer was furious with the refereeing decisions in Newcastle United's win over Aston Villa(Image: The Rest is Football podcast)
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Alan Shearer has conceded the BBC could have been forced into sacking him if he was on co-commentary for Newcastle United's 3-1 win at Aston Villa, after the shambolic refereeing decisions in the FA Cup tie.
Eddie Howe's men came from behind to prevail at Villa Park and progress to the fifth round of the competition. However, the tie was overshadowed by several glaring errors by Chris Kavanagh and his linesman.
Tammy Abraham's opener was allowed to stand despite being offside before Lucas Digne escaped a red card for a high challenge on Jacob Murphy. In the second half, Newcastle were denied a blatant penalty when Digne handled Kieran Trippier's cross inside the box and Kavanagh awarded a free-kick instead.
Two days after the FA Cup win, Shearer was discussing the controversial FA Cup tie on 'The Rest is Football' podcast alongside Gary Lineker and Micah Richards. The St. James' Park legend revealed that being in the studio as a presenter, and not on live commentary, saved him from landing himself in huge trouble after Kavanagh's bizarre decisions.
"You've got time to think when you're in the studio, because more often or not, by the time they've come to you, you've got a fewer minutes to work out what you're going to say, how you're going to say it and you've got time to look at your analysis - unless it happens in the last seconds," he explained.
Kieran Trippier and Dan Burn of Newcastle United react after referee Chris Kavanagh
Kieran Trippier and Dan Burn protested to Chris Kavanagh after their missed a blatant penalty(Image: Getty Images)
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"If I were on the co-comms on the Aston Villa vs Newcastle one, I might have been sacked! Because with what I wanted to say RE the referee and the assistant, honestly!"
He added: "We're allowed a bad day, but let's be honest, guys, those three yesterday, seriously, how bad were they? They were terrible. I would say out of five, maybe four, big decisions, simple decisions, I would say, they got one correct."
"What's been happening is they've been with VAR since the beginning of the season, all the Premier League, and everything they've had to do.
"Then they get to that game and all of a sudden, they haven't got their comfort blanket that they have been relying on to say, 'Oh it doesn't really matter if I get it wrong because the VAR will correct me.' Well yesterday, because of that, they were hopeless!
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"Digne should have been sent off for a terrible tackle. The assistant who missed the handball also missed the handball, a simple decision. I know it's a hard job, but we all have a bad day. Come on, guys, they have to do better.
"At this level of football, the importance of it. Luckily, Newcastle won the game because of the decisions that went against them, but can you imagine if they hadn't gone through? The backlash that would have happened."
During the BBC's coverage of the game, when Shearer was working as a pundit alongside Wayne Rooney and Dion Dublin, he unleashed a scathing rant at the officiating. At the time, Shearer said: "He cost for the offside free-kick (Tammy Abraham's opening goal for Villa) and he's 15 yards away from that. Goodness me!
"If you ever needed any evidence of the damage VAR has done to the referees, I think today is a great example of that, because these guys, I think, look petrified to make a decision today because they didn't have a comfort blanket.
"And that's the damage it's done to the officials. For me, they're actually getting worse because I really don't think that is a difficult decision at all, in fact it's easy and at this standard, that has to be given. There's no excuse for the assistant not to tell his referee that he's got that totally wrong."