Everton: Dermot Gallagher reacts live on air to ‘astonishing’ incident in Newcastle United draw
Dermot Gallagher has been blown away by an “astonishing” call from the officials during Newcastle United’s draw with Everton at St James’ Park.
Sean Dyche’s side salvaged a valuable point in the North East on Tuesday (2 April) as Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s second-half penalty cancelled out an early first-half strike from Magpies forward Alexander Isak.
Dan Burn thought he had doubled the home side’s lead early in the second period, only for the linesman and VAR to decide that Isak had drifted offside in the build-up and former Premier League referee Gallagher believes that was the correct call.
Speaking on Sky Sports Premier League (4 April) he said: “Well, it was clarified by the VAR but it is a great spot by the assistant because it was given offside on the field. How tight is that?
“What he’s done is he’s let it play out which he has to and then immediately it’s gone in the net and what he’s done, you can’t see it there, is he’s gone back up the line and signalled offside and it gets checked by the VAR.
“But it’s an astonishing spot by the assistant and what I will say is he’s brave enough to say he hasn’t waited for the VAR, the VAR has confirmed it. He’s made the decision himself.”
Will Everton be able to avoid relegation from the Premier League after Newcastle draw?
Throughout this season, there has been a feeling around Everton supporters that the Premier League is making their life even harder, with point deductions and delayed takeovers making relegation fears more commonplace.
For once however, it feels as though the league’s officials got everything right at St James’ Park on Tuesday as not only did they spot Newcastle’s offside, they also were switched on enough to award the Toffees a spot-kick.
While neither decision was exactly rocket science, it is good to finally see Everton get a couple of calls go their way and Dyche and the supporters will be hoping that level of consistency continues for the foreseeable future.
Even with the right calls being made, the Toffees could only manage a draw in the North East and Dyche will know his side have to put an end to this winless run sooner rather than later if his side wants to avoid relegation.
In other Everton news, Martin O’Neill has identified a new problem for Dyche at Goodison Park after the Toffees’ draw with Newcastle
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