Sandro Tonali scored twice as Newcastle overcame a raft of baffling refereeing decisions by Chris Kavanagh to beat 10-man Aston Villa 3-1 in a pulsating FA Cup fourth-round tie.
With VAR not in use until the next round, Kavanagh and his team appeared to get at least three major decisions incorrect on a night which showed officials have perhaps become reliant on their colleagues at Stockley Park.
Villa went ahead through Tammy Abraham’s clearly offside goal before Kavanagh failed to send Lucas Digne off for a reckless shin-high tackle on Jacob Murphy before the break.
The worst decision of all came when Newcastle were denied an obvious penalty for handball when a cross hit the arm of Digne three yards inside the area, instead awarding a free-kick.
But there was no question about the decision to send Villa’s Marco Bizot off in first-half stoppage time, with the goalkeeper wiping out Murphy near the centre circle.
And that gave Eddie Howe’s side the momentum to turn the game around in the second half, with two Tonali strikes in 13 minutes and a late Nick Woltemade effort sending them into the hat for the fifth round.
