SMITH SLAMS ‘PATHETIC’ POGBA SPOT-KICK CALL

DEAN SMITH hit out at the ‘pathetic decision’ to award Manchester United a penalty for Douglas Luiz’s challenge on Paul Pogba at Villa Park yesterday. The same two players were involved in an incident that led to Bruno Fernandes scoring United’s winner from the spot at Old Trafford in January. Fernandes also converted a penalty at Villa Park last season when he was fouled by Ezri Konsa. And the Portuguese scored a spot-kick for the third time against Villa yesterday to make it 1-1. Villa manager Smith felt Pogba went down far too easily again to sway referee Chris Kavanagh’s decision, which was confirmed by VAR. ‘I’m fed up with talking about penalty decisions against Man United,’ said Smith. ‘Paul Pogba tripped himself up at Old Trafford and it’s another soft pen today. Douglas Luiz shouldn’t have planted a foot or given him the opportunity to go down. ‘But it looked a pathetic decision to me. Was that enough for him to go down? No. But he goes down, similar at Old Trafford, similar last season here, and I said that before the game. ‘Everybody’s confused that Raheem Sterling can go through last night (for Manchester City against Chelsea), have four or five touches on his backside, go down and not get a penalty. ‘Then there’s one touch and we go down and it’s a penalty (for Pogba). ‘The whole of the football world is confused at the moment.’ Smith also criticised the decision to show Villa striker Ollie Watkins a second yellow card for diving after he went down under goalkeeper Dean Henderson’s challenge late in the game. ‘There’s no way the referee can tell me that he’s convinced he (Watkins) hasn’t been touched,’ added the Villa manager. ‘I just don’t understand the decision-making of the officials at the moment and, more important, Stockley Park when they’re actually looking at it slowly. ‘It looks like now he’s going to have to get hurt to win the penalty. ‘He touches it past the goalkeeper. Is there enough contact for Ollie to go down? No. But, like I said, there wasn’t enough for Pogba to go down.’ United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said he doesn’t expect Manchester City to slip up in the title race but was happy to see his team secure a Champions League place ahead of this week’s games against Leicester and Liverpool. ‘It’s a massive result,’ said Solskjaer. ‘It takes a little bit of the pressure away.’

Fuming: Villa boss Dean Smith