Newcastle United striker Callum Wilson has revealed that one of the Manchester United players asked him what has happened to "the standard of referees in this country" after the 0-0 draw at Old Trafford on Sunday.
The game was somewhat overshadowed by a series of controversial refereeing decisions and VAR calls, as Erik ten Hag's side failed to find a way past Nick Pope in goal. United had multiple penalty appeals turned away, as both Jadon Sancho and Cristiano Ronaldo appealed for fouls in the box, yet referee Craig Pawson ignored the pleas for a spot-kick on both occasions.
One of the biggest talking points from the game was the decision to disallow a goal for the Reds, after Ronaldo swooped in to take the ball off Nick Pope, claiming that the ball was in play. Despite numerous United players surrounding Pawson and asking him to have a further look, decision failed to go the way of Ten Hag's team once again.
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However, Newcastle themselves also felt aggrieved by the referee's failure to award the visitors a penalty when Raphael Varane appeared to bring down Wilson in the box after 15 minutes had been played. The Magpies forward has now shared his thoughts on Pawson's performance, as well as a conversation that he shared with a United player while on the pitch.
Speaking on BBC's The Footballer's Football Podcast, Wilson said: "It’s actually getting embarrassing [the decisions] because I was waiting for a goal kick in our game, and I don’t even want to get started on the decisions in our game. But one of the United players said to me ‘what’s happened to the standard of referees in this country?’ I was thinking wow, that’s from a foreign player saying that to me. They’ve not experienced that before.
"I got wiped out, the defenders on their team are saying that should’ve been a penalty so I’m thinking, I get taken out and I don’t even get up and start appealing now, I’m just fed up of going mad at referees, if it’s a penalty and the referee has missed it, you’re thinking VAR is going to do their job. So I’m waiting for the ball to go out of play. I say to the ref ‘what are you saying?’ and he says it’s never a penalty.
"Why am I even wasting my time here then? At the end of the day, if Martinez is not in the way, I go past Varane it’s still a foul. They’re trying to say I was trying to go through a gap that wasn’t there, I was one-v-one in the box and Varane steps across me. If you’re not going to get that then yeah… I don’t want to get too deep into it and start getting a slap on the wrist."
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