Huge VAR incident missed during Newcastle 1-1 Watford according to reports – Did NUFC get lucky?

According to several reporters, VAR ‘missed’ Isaac Hayden’s ‘handball’ just moments before Fabian Schar’s goal against Watford on Saturday.

While it was not a clear handball and wouldn’t have been given under previous laws, the new rules state that a goal will be ruled out if the ball strikes any part of the arm/hand of an attacker in the build up.

As The Athletic’s Adam Leventhal states below, this highlights that VAR is ‘not immune from human error’ – not that we’re complaining now this ‘mistake’ has gone on to earn us a point:

Re the #NUFC goal v #WatfordFC today. Have had it confirmed that VAR did simply miss the handball in build up to Schär’s goal & it should have been ruled out. Too late now obviously, but reminder VAR not immune from human error.

— Adam Leventhal (@AdamLeventhal) August 31, 2019

The Mail’s north-east reporter Craig Hope has also claimed that VAR should have intervened, saying that new laws

Replays suggest NUFC equaliser should have been disallowed for Hayden handball (under new laws). Not sure why VAR has not intervened.

— Craig Hope (@CraigHope_DM) August 31, 2019

This one worked in our favour, but there needs to be far more consistency with VAR.

It’ll take time for everyone to adjust to it – officials included – but there was one incident on Saturday where Atsu was in behind but given offside – yet replays showed he was on. What happened to keeping your flag down if you’re unsure?

Anyway, I don’t think we can have too many complaints given the new VAR rules technically should have ruled out our equaliser!

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