Watford’s ‘handball’ goal sparks video debate
Steven Davis, the Northern Ireland and Southampton captain, says he is now a firm believer in the importance of Video Assistant Referees after twice seeing crucial and controversial handball decisions go against him while representing club and country.
Abdoulaye Doucoure’s last-minute equaliser for Watford, courtesy of his right hand, denied Southampton a hard-earned victory at Vicarage Road and would surely have been ruled out by referee Roger East had the VAR been in operation for this fixture.
The incident came just days after Romanian referee Ovidiu Hategan spoke of the “worst mistake of my life” which saw him award a penalty for Switzerland in the World Cup play-off with Northern Ireland last November even though a goalbound shot had hit midfielder Corry Evans’s shoulder rather than his arm.
“I was never a great advocate of it but when it happened in a game of that magnitude, in an international game where a small nation like ourselves had a chance to go to a World Cup, that was ultimately the decision that cost us going there,” Davis said. “It makes you think differently about the situation.
“Clearly the Watford goal shouldn’t have stood; it’s a big decision to go against us in the position we’re in. It’s difficult to accept. You need decisions to go for you when you’re in the position that we are and I thought at the time it was handball and, having seen it again, it was definitely handball. They’re never going to be honest about it. Everybody is fighting for every point that they can get.
“We all know referees have got a difficult job but in games of magnitude and importance you need those decisions to go for you.
“It’ll even out, everyone says it does but I don’t think we’ve had too much luck this season in all honesty. But hopefully now and the remaining games we will get that bit of luck.”
The Football Association has already trialled VAR in the FA Cup and will do so again this week in the third-round replays between Leicester and Fleetwood and Chelsea and Norwich. The Doucoure controversy and Swansea’s anger that they were denied a penalty in the first half at Newcastle on Saturday, also for handball, has only served to add to the clamour for the greater use of the technology.
Andy Ambler, director of professional game relations at the FA, said: “We have always been open to trialling new innovations and were heavily involved in the advancement of goal-line technology before it was introduced.” However, the FA has no power to influence how the Premier League might use it.
The afternoon had started well for Southampton, who looked set to record their first victory since November after two strikes from James Ward-prowse put them 2-0 ahead at half-time.
But Watford were much improved after the break and heaped pressure on the visitors after Andre Gray had pulled a goal back, culminating in Doucoure’s late intervention, which prevented Marco Silva’s With Watford trailing 2-1 and the match in the 90th minute, Roberto Pereyra sends a cross from deep towards the area