FOOTBALL fans saw history made in the Championship play-off final.
Sheffield United took on Sunderland at Wembley for a place in next season’s Premier League.
Tyrese Campbell gave the Blades the lead on 25 minutes, expertly dinking in to round off a superb counter attack.
Less than ten minutes later, Harrison Burrows thought he had made it 2-0.
Burrows let fly from outside the area as the ball flew into the back of the net.
But replays showed Vini Souza was impeding Anthony Patterson’s vision and ability to save the shot.
That saw VAR intervene – the technology in force for the play-off final despite not being used during the regular season.
But rather than overturn the decision, the VAR sent referee Chris Kavanagh over to the pitchside monitor to watch the incident and make a call on the subjective offside.
Kavanagh decided Souza was interfering and therefore ruled the goal out.
That led to the referee announcing over the tannoy that the goal was ruled out because United’s No21 was offside.
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And it became the first time in a Championship play-off final that a VAR decision was explained to the crowd over the PA system inside the stadium by the ref.
Fans at the Carabao Cup final saw similar scenes at Wembley in March.
Federico Chiesa’s consolation goal for Liverpool against Newcastle was initially chalked off by the assistant’s flag.
But the referee announced over the tannoy that it was in fact allowed to stand – much to Chiesa’s bemusement.
The play-off final saw eight minutes of injury time added on at the end of the first half.
As well as the stopagge for the disallowed goal, there was also a lengthy delay right at the start when Sunderland’s Luke O’Nien dislocated his shoulder.
Premier League clubs went into the final hoping to see a United win – because that would mean an extra £39million windfall cash bonus for top-flight teams.
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