Alan Shearer accused match officials of looking “petrified” without VAR after Newcastle progressed in the FA Cup with a 3-1 win over Aston Villa in a tie dominated by controversial decisions.

VAR was not in operation for the fourth-round fixture at Villa Park, and Newcastlewere left furious by a series of calls that went against them before they recovered to reach round five.

Tammy Abraham’s opener appeared offside on replays, Lucas Digne escaped a red card for a shin-high challenge on Jacob Murphy, and Newcastle were awarded only a free-kick despite Digne handling clearly inside the penalty area.

Shearerdid not hold back in his post-match assessment, directing much of his criticism at assistant referee Nick Greenhalgh.

“There was perhaps a small excuse for the referee to not see this (handball being in the box) – and I’m being kind to him – but there was no excuse whatsoever for the assistant who is 10 or 15 yards away,” he said.

“(Greenhalgh) had an absolute nightmare today. If you ever needed any evidence of the damage VARhas done to the referees, today is a great example of that because these guys looked petrified to make decisions because they didn’t have a comfort blanket.

“That’s the damage VAR has done to officials. For me they are actually getting worse. I really don’t think that is a difficult decision at all, in fact, it is easy, and at this standard that has to be given. There is no excuse for the assistant not to tell his referee. He has got that totally wrong.”

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Former PGMOL chief Keith Hackett echoed that view when assessing Digne’s challenge.

“The challenge by Digne should have received a red card,” he said. “It was clear serious foul play.”

Hackett also questioned the handball decision.

“Oh dear. Referee Chris Kavanagh really should have received appropriate intervention by the assistant to advise that it was in the penalty area.”

Wayne Rooney was equally scathing about the failure to award a spot-kick.

“That decision is one of the worst decisions I have ever seen in football,” he said.

“At no stage was Digne out of the penalty box. He is three or four yards inside. The linesman is just in front of it and you can clearly see how much he is in the penalty box. The referee looked like he blew and looked like he was listening to someone in his ear, so I’m assuming the linesman gave the decision, and it’s an absolute shocker.”

Newcastle eventually made their numerical advantage count after Marco Bizot was sent off, but head coach Eddie Howe admitted the absence of VAR influenced the afternoon.

“I think there’s an argument to say that, because when VAR is there, there’s always a, ‘Well, I won’t give that, but let’s check it’,” he said.

“And I think then your decision-making maybe isn’t as sharp as it may normally have to be so maybe there’s a difference there.

“The officials don’t make any [wrong] decision on purpose. It’s what they think at the time. But without VAR, I thought there was a lot of errors.”

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