Former Premier League referee, Dermot Gallagher has given his take on the three controversial decisions during Tottenham’s 2-1 win over Brighton on Sunday.
The Tottenham players were left fuming when referee, Graham Scott allowed Brighton’s equaliser to stand despite replays seemingly showing that Solly March had brought Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg down in the build-up.
Jose Mourinho insisted after the game that Scott should have explained his decision while Eric Dier admitted to being in disbelief that the referee had ruled it out despite watching the incident back on the pitch-side monitor.
Gallagher believes that the home side were right to feel aggrieved by Scott’s decision to let the goal stand.
He told Sky Sports: “I do not think it should (have been allowed). That is a foul and a yellow card, but for whatever reason, the referee [Graham Scott] chose not to give it.
“He goes on and the goal is scored and then the Video Assistant Referee [Jonathan Moss] does him a massive favour by sending him to the screen. He goes to the screen, looks at it and I think he has looked at it too much and in the end he has looked for a reason to back himself.
“And that is where he has made his mistake, he has not gone with an open mind and if he had done that, I think he would have given a different decision.”
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There were a couple of other controversial calls in the game including the penalty awarded to Harry Kane in the first-half but Gallagher insisted that VAR was right to give Spurs spot-kick for the foul by Adam Lallana.
Gallagher said: “I think it was (a penalty), Lallana chose to make a challenge which I do not think was the wisest decision for him and caught Kane in the back.
“What is interesting here is when the VAR looks, it comes down to a factual decision and his feet are planted on the line, the shot from behind the goal quite clearly shows that, and the process here was really, really good because Moss has fed back to him: ‘You’ve given a foul, I can assure you factually his feet are on the penalty area line,’ which belongs to the goalkeeper and so, therefore, a penalty was correctly given.”
The former referee also did not think that Matt Doherty’s pull back on Leandro Trossard was enough to warrant a spot-kick being awarded for Graham Potter’s side.
On that incident, the 63-year-old said: “This is a very interesting call and I think he takes a massive risk when you do that, but because he grabs at him and then lets him go very quickly, and the way Trossard goes down very theatrically sells it to the referee that if he pulled him, he would not go cannoning forward like that.
“And on that basis, he has turned it down. The VAR cannot get involved as he does not think it is a clear and obvious error and therefore they have stuck with the on-field decision.”
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