Newcastle United beat Manchester United 2-1 at St James’ Park at the start of the month, but the win was overshadowed by a ludicrous sending off for Jacob Ramsey.
Despite being reduced to 10-men on the stroke of half-time in the game, Newcastle still managed to dominate Manchester United, fully deserving their win in what was our last Premier League home game before Sunday’s derby.
It was one of those games where Newcastle weren’t getting any of the decisions, sparking cries of Premier League corruption, particularly around officials favouring the ‘Big Six’.
The sending off of Jacob Ramsey in the 45th minute was a prime example of the kind of decision that had been going against Newcastle this season.
Ramsey slipped over under a challenge from Senne Lammens in the area, didn’t appeal, didn’t even look in the referee’s direction to see if he was entertaining the idea of a penalty, and yet, the referee reached into his pocket and produced a second yellow for Ramsey, and off he went.
The BBC has reported that the KMI (Key Match Incidents) panel have ruled 3:2 that the decision was incorrect, highlighting one of many mistakes referee Peter Bankes made that night.
It was judged that Ramsey’s “left foot appears to slip as he goes past the keeper” and that it “wasn’t an attempt to deceive the referee”.
Thankfully, it didn’t cost us on the day, as we still went on to beat the Red Devils 2-1 thanks to Will Osula’s wonder-strike. But it did have a knock-on impact, with Ramsey suspended for our FA Cup tie with Man City that weekend.
VAR can’t currently intervene when it comes to second yellows, but that is due to change next season.
For now, Newcastle can take comfort in the fact that the red card didn’t negatively affect the outcome of the game. In fact, there’s a case to be made that it galvanised the team and they played even better with 10-men.
We can also take some solace in the fact that our outrage has been proved to be justified, although it doesn’t do much else, as Jacob Ramsey has already served his ban.