![\"Newcastle](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771956669_913_0_Aston-Villa-v-Newcastle-United-Emirates-FA-Cup-Fourth-Round.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe referee will be back in action this weekend in a high profile game less than two weeks since the FA Cup farce<\/p>\n
Chris Kavanagh made a number of errors in Newcastle’s win at Aston Villa(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Chris Kavanagh was dropped by the Premier League last week after his poor performance in Newcastle United’s FA Cup fourth-round win at Aston Villa.<\/p>\n
After failing to rule out Tammy Abraham<\/a> for an offside in the build-up to the striker opening the scoring for Villa, an uncomfortable night lay ahead.<\/p>\n After that, Lucas Digne<\/a> escaped a red card for a shin-high tackle on Newcastle winger Jacob Murphy<\/a>. Kavanagh awarded a free-kick – not a penalty – when Digne blocked a cross with his arm inside the box. Wayne Rooney<\/a> described it as ‘one of the worst decisions he’s ever seen’.<\/p>\n Kavanagh was not given a game last weekend but he will be back on Sunday after being appointed ref for the Man United vs Crystal Palace.<\/p>\n It means Kavanagh’s punishment was only a short break and he will be back in the cauldron of Old Trafford this weekend.<\/p>\n Speaking about the decisions at the time United legend Alan Shearer said: “For me, they’re actually getting worse because I really don’t think that is a difficult decision at all, in fact it’s easy and at this standard, that has to be given.<\/p>\n “There’s no excuse for the assistant not to tell his referee that he’s got that totally wrong.”<\/p>\n Eddie Howe had said at the time: “I’m always torn on VAR. I said this many times because I still love the emotion, even tonight, when a goal is given and you don’t see a flag or a referee, it’s a goal, and no one’s going to take it away from you.<\/p>\n “That joy that you get in that moment, I still really love and VAR takes it away. But then on the other side, I was wishing there was VAR on the first goal against us, and probably throughout that game.”<\/p>\n Legends of Newcastle United – Our special publication is on sale now. A new special publication<\/a>, Legends of Newcastle United, recalls the finest footballers to have worn the famous black and white jersey of the Magpies.<\/p>\n The Chronicle’s legendary NUFC writer John Gibson has selected his greatest-ever Newcastle players and managers, penning tributes to these icons of the beautiful game, famed for their footballing brilliance on Tyneside and beyond.<\/p>\n Buy your copy today HERE<\/a> or in participating supermarkets, high street retailers and independent newsagents from Wednesday, February 18.<\/p>\n Ensure our latest Newcastle United headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate<\/a> or add us as Preferred Source in your Google search settings<\/p>\n Here at ChronicleLive, we are dedicated to bringing you the best Newcastle United<\/a> coverage and analysis.<\/p>\n Make sure you don’t miss out on the latest NUFC news by joining our free WhatsApp group. You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here<\/a> to subscribe.<\/p>\n You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Click here<\/a> to be sent all the day’s biggest stories.<\/p>\n And, finally, if you would rather listen to our expert analysis then make sure to check out our Everything is Black and White podcast. Our shows are available on all podcast platforms, including Spotify<\/a> and Apple Podcasts<\/a>, and you can also watch along on YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The referee will be back in action this weekend in a high profile game less than two weeks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,2806,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-443380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-newcastle-united-fc","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0_NUFC-Legends-Standalone_Facebook_Landscape_1200x630px.jpg\")
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