Article by Tudor Belivacă – Published Saturday, February 14, 2026, 10:46 p.m. / Updated Saturday, February 14, 2026 10:56 p.m.
Newcastle beat Aston Villa 3-1 in an FA Cup fourth round match. However, Cotsofen fans reacted on social media after multiple refereeing mistakes. In the matches of this phase of the competition, the VAR system is not in use, it comes into action only from the fifth round.
Supporters were furious at the absence of VAR in the FA Cup fourth round, and a run of three refereeing mistakes put Newcastle at a disadvantage against Aston Villa. However, the mistakes did not impact the final result. Aston Villa opened the scoring with a controversial goal scored by Tammy Abraham, but the “cotofenes” came back with Tonali's “double” (63rd and 76th minutes) and Nick Woltemade's success in the 88th minute.
Newcastle – Aston Villa, butchered by the referees! Fans react and Wayne Rooney is shocked: 'One of the worst decisions I've seen'
The first phase came right after the first goal of the game scored by Tammy Abraham. The forward scored for Ramsdale after Douglas Luiz crossed from a free kick. Tammy Abraham was in an obvious offside position which assistant Greenhalgh failed to spot. Without VAR, the decision on the field was the validated one, and Aston Villa opened the scoring.
After replaying the match, BBC commentator Danny Murphy said: “I think it was a meter offside”. The fans were on fire, too.
Photo with phases in order / Photo: Twitter The Athletic
Fans took to social media and criticized the refereeing in Aston Villa v Newcastle. “Bring back the VAR. Terrible mistake by the referee, it wasn't even a boundary”, “It's crazy how offside goals are called in the FA Cup because of the lack of VAR. Tammy Abraham was almost a meter offside”, “You can hate VAR but Newcastle got robbed haha”, “Tammy Abraham was so clearly offside”, “Bring back the VAR” were some of the reactions fans, according to The Sun.
A tackle by Lucas Digne on Jacob Murphy followed, and both the Newcastle bench and the BBC commentator felt the French defender was lucky to escape with only a yellow card as the foul looked bad. In the extra time of the first half, the Villa goalkeeper, Marco Bizot, was also eliminated, correctly by the way, after a foul on Jacob Murphy.
Later, after the break, there was the blunder that drove Wayne Rooney, a legend in the Premier League and current TV analyst, out of his mind. “Central” Kavanagh only awarded a free kick instead of a penalty for a handball committed by Digne in the box. The decision was made in front of assistant Greenhalgh, who did not intervene, although the French defender was clearly inside the box.
That decision is one of the worst I have ever seen in football, because at no time was Digne outside the box. He's three or four meters in. The linesman is right in front of him and you can clearly see how much he is in the box.
The ref looked like he blew his whistle and was listening to someone in his headset so I assume the linesman made the decision which is absolutely shocking
– Wayne Rooney, about the hentz moved outside the square
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Newcastle will play in the next phase with Manchester City, a team that won its match with Salford today, score 2-0.
