'We don't want those goals ruled out' says ex-ref as he hints at tactical change

A FORMER Premier League referee has hinted at clubs making a major tactical change following John Stones’ winner for Manchester City because “we don’t want goals ruled out for those situations”.

Mark Halsey appeared on the latest episode of SunSport’s The Whisteblower to run the rule over the key refereeing decisions from the weekend.

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And high on the agenda was Stones’ controversial goal at Wolves.

The Manchester City defender powered home a thunderous header in injury time.

However, after plenty of confusion, the goal was originally chalked off when the referees concluded there was an offside against Bernardo Silva.

Silva tussled with Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa as the ball came in and was in an offside position when it flew into the back of the net.

But following a lengthy VAR review, the goal was allowed to stand – because Silva was adjudged to be out of Sa’s line of sight and not impacting his compatriot once Stones headed goalwards.

So despite the complaints of Gary O’Neil, Halsey was pleased to see the goal given.

He said: “I think the VAR was absolutely spot on to recommend a review for Chris Kavanagh to go and have a look because when you do see the replay, you know straight away that Silva hasn’t impacted on the goalkeeper with being in his line of vision.

“He just moves out of the way straight away. So, for me, I think the correct decision was made and that’s what we want to see and that is what VAR is there for.

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“When the ball comes in, he can quite rightly stand there. When John Stones headers that ball, is he interfering with an opponent? Does he impact on his line of vision? 

“You can clearly see, no, he doesn’t. And you can clearly see that the keeper sees the ball all the way.

“It’s just a great header from John Stones and, in my opinion, the goal was correctly given. We do not want to see goals ruled out for those sorts of situations.”

Players cannot be offside directly from the original kick and corners.

So Silva getting away with his antics at Molineux could prompt more teams into trying similar tactics at corners to disrupt goalkeepers – before ducking out in time.

So Silva getting away with his antics at Molineux could prompt more teams into trying similar tactics at corners to disrupt goalkeepers – before ducking out in time.

Pressed on the issue, Halsey added: “Listen, there’s always a little bit of contact going on in the box and all the time you see goalkeepers pushing players, don’t you? 

“They push them out of the way just before the corner’s taken or while the corner comes across. 

“So, for me, that’s normal contact. And yes, if that’s the tactics they employ in other clubs, then so be it.

“But we do not want to see goals ruled out of that nature.”

Halsey also had his say on the William Saliba red card at Bournemouth.

The Frenchman received his marching orders after half an hour after pulling back Evanilson just inside the Arsenal half – but was the last man and was deemed to be denying a goalscoring opportunity.

But Halsey would have preferred the referee to stick with his original call of a yellow card.

The ex-Prem official said: “Rob Jones straight away showed a yellow card. Exactly what I would have done in that situation.

“Was it a clear and obvious error by Rob Jones? In my opinion, no. I thought he got it spot on.

“For me, there’s doubt there to whether that was an obvious goal-scoring opportunity.

“And we keep hearing about Howard Webb saying we don’t want VAR getting involved in subjective decisions. Well, for me, that was subjective.

“VAR shouldn’t have got involved. It wasn’t a clear and obvious error, in my opinion, from Rob Jones.

“We should have stuck with the on-field referee decision of a yellow card.”

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