Deeney at double to put Magpies in a spot of bother
Newcastle boss Steve Bruce became the latest Premier League manager to question the capability of VAR after seeing his side lose to two Troy Deeney penalties at Watford.
Dwight Gayle had given the visitors the lead at Vicarage Road before Deeney stepped up to smash home two spot kicks and earn Watford a 2-1 win as the Hornets took a big step closer to top-flight survival.
Deeney made no mistake in ending a sixgame scoring drought after Craig Pawson pointed to the spot following Matt Ritchie’s trip of Kiko Femenia, with the Watford skipper repeating the feat 10 minutes from the end as Ismael Sarr was adjudged to have been fouled by Javier Manquillo.
After the Premier League admitted to making three VAR errors across three games on Thursday night, Bruce was unhappy with the award of both Watford penalties and felt referee Pawson should have made use of his pitchside monitor.
“I thought the first penalty was really, really soft,” he said. “I thought it was supposed to be clear and obvious and what is the point in sending it to VAR when they are not going to overturn anything any more?
“All this nonsense we have got with VAR, they are supposed to be clear and obvious but they looked remarkably soft to me. They looked remarkably soft, especially the first one, it was a massive game for them and gave them a lifeline..”
Bruce’s side were the better team for the opening 45 minutes but ended the afternoon with nothing to show for their efforts courtesy of Deeney’s penalty prowess.
Given their respective results in midweek it was Newcastle, looking to make amends, who started the brighter of the two sides.
They forced Ben Foster into his first meaningful
save after 10 minutes as he did well to react and keep out Miguel Almiron’s closerange effort.
Watford came even closer to breaking the deadlock as Welbeck turned Kiko Femenia’s cross goalward and off the inside of a post.
The visitors deservedly took the lead when Federico Fernandez flicking on Matt Ritchie’s corner for Gayle to bundle home.
The Watford defence had left both men free and were struggling to stem the flow of Newcastle attacks, Foster again doing well to prevent Allan Saint-Maximin adding a second after bursting through on goal.
Pearson must have got into his players in the dressing room because the hosts looked a different side after the interval.
They were level just seven minutes after the restart, referee Craig Pawson pointing to the spot after Ritchie had caught Femenia inside the box.
Deeney stepped up to smash the resulting penalty down the middle of Martin Dubravka’s goal to end his goal drought.
They were awarded their second penalty with 10 minutes remaining as Javier Manquillo manhandled Ismael Sarr.
Deeney again made no mistake, slamming home from 12 yards.