Dan Burn of Newcastle United scores a goal which was later disallowed during the Premier League match between Manchester City and Newcastle United at Etihad Stadium on February 21, 2026 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)placeholder image
Dan Burn of Newcastle United scores a goal which was later disallowed during the Premier League match between Manchester City and Newcastle United at Etihad Stadium on February 21, 2026 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Newcastle United felt key decisions went against them in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Manchester City.
The Blyth-born defender headed home what he thought was an equaliser on the brink of half-time, only to see his celebrations cut short by the offside flag.
The Magpies have been seeking clarification on why the goal was ruled out after replays showed Burn was shoved into an offside position by Man City centre-back Ruben Dias.
Former Premier League referee clarifies Dan Burn’s disallowed goal
There were suggestions that a player can’t be offside if shoved into that position by an opponent, but Gallagher says the only solution was for Newcastle to delay taking the free-kick until Burn got himself back into an onside position.
Gallagher told Ref Watch: “This happened a couple of times this weekend, where a player probably committed a foul before the ball is in play so he can’t be punished.
“He [Ruben Dias] gives him a little shove and the ball is kicked in and by that point, Dan Burn is in an offside position. It’s a bit unlucky.
“The only thing they can do is Dan Burn says to the kicker ‘stop, wait and let me get back in position.”
It was an incident that left Burn wondering what would have happened if he had made “more of a meal of it”.
Burn said: “Yeah, I've not seen it again, to be honest. I felt sort of a push on the back and I think maybe if I'm a little bit better with it I could probably make more of a meal of it, but I'm not great at doing that!
“I've not seen it back, but as I said, someone said that I was pushed and it's quite hard to get back on the side once you've been sort of pushed offside. So it was just one of them.”
Man City midfielder Bernardo Silva lucky to stay on pitch v Newcastle United
Burn was then the receiving end of a blatant foul by Bernardo Silva, who had already been shown a yellow card.
The Man City midfielder wasn’t looking at the ball when he barged into Burn, and Gallagher agrees that he was lucky not to see a second yellow.
Gallagher said: “Takes a massive chance, doesn’t he? Because if the referee is of the mindset... I think that is a reckless challenge, he doesn’t look at the ball. The ball’s not there.”
Former Premier League striker Jay Bothroyd, who appeared on Ref Watch alongside Gallagher, believes Silva’s height worked in his favour.
Bothroyd said: “I think the referee is looking at that situation, saying ‘it’s only little Bernardo Silva, he can’t really hurt him like that’. If that was [Erling] Haaland or someone like that jumping in, he’s going to get a yellow card because he would have wiped him out.
“I think the fact that Bernardo Silva is a small man is the reason why he hasn’t looked at it and said ‘that’s a yellow card’.”
When asked if he had seen the Silva challenge, Howe replied: “I didn't. It might be one I missed, complaining probably about something else.
“I don't think we were on the right end of the decisions today, but I don't want to go down that road, I'm not one of those managers that wants to continually criticise officials.
“But I thought, again, it was one that we probably didn't get the right end of the decisions.”
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