Dermot Gallagher shot down over reaction to contentious Everton footage
Dermot Gallagher believes the officials were correct not to award a penalty for Jannik Vestergaard’s shove on Beto as Everton beat Southampton.
Beto was sent crashing to the ground during the first half of Saturday’s (1 February) contest at Goodison Park, which the Toffees went on to win 4-0.
Darren Bond did not point to the spot and VAR did not feel necessary to ask him to review the incident, much to the anger of one Everton superfan.
While former Premier League referee Gallagher is adamant the right call was made, Sky Sports pundits Stephen Warnock and Sue Smith completely disagreed.
“I don’t think it’s a penalty,” Gallagher said live on Sky Sports News [4 February, 11:28am]. “I’ve got this thing about side-by-side, you have to be strong, and he wasn’t.
“VAR also says no. We debate many times about clear and obvious errors.”
Smith replied: “He gets shoved. I was so surprised this wasn’t given as a penalty.”
And fellow pundit Warnock added: “That’s not side-by-side. It’s 100 per cent a penalty.”
Everton should have been awarded a penalty in Leicester City win
As Richard Keys put it, the decision to not point to the spot was “utter nonsense”. Quite how the referee, his officials and VAR decided it was not a penalty is simply bizarre.
Vestergaard barged into Beto and knocked his opponent to the ground. If the argument was that Beto was not in complete control of the ball, that in itself is just silly.
As it is, Everton produced their best performance of the campaign and so this is all rather moot. Still, it goes to show just how bad the levels of officiating are right now.
Everton have been on the end of plenty of questionable refereeing calls this campaign, but thankfully it did not hurt them this time around.
All focus can now turn towards Saturday’s (8 February) FA Cup fourth-round clash with Bournemouth, which could well be the final cup tie to ever be staged at Goodison Park.
Let’s just hope that spectacle is not overshadowed by some questionable officiating from the man in the middle.
In other Everton news, sources have shared David Moyes’ stance to the club’s transfer business.
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