Thomas Bramall sent congratulations amid delight at Rodrigo Bentancur punishment in Tottenham draw
Newcastle’s penalty against Tottenham has sparked delight thanks to Thomas Bramall’s controversial decision.
Cristian Romero equalised twice for Tottenham to snatch a point at Newcastle with a 2-2 draw on Tuesday night, and ease a bit of sack pressure on Thomas Frank.
The Spurs captain’s first was almost immediately cancelled out when Rodrigo Bentancur was penalised for holding Dan Burn at a Magpies corner mid-way through the second half, following a VAR review.
Bramall was sent to the screen and awarded the penalty, with Jamie Carragher claiming it was “harsh” on the Sky Sports match commentary, and both Jamie Redknapp and Micah Richards questioning the consistency in the decision in the broadcast studio after the final whistle.
Keith Hackett hails Newcastle penalty award vs Tottenham
But former PGMOL boss and ex-FIFA referee Keith Hackett is extremely pleased with Bramall and wants “grappling” at corners to be further stamped out.
Such infringements are frequently allowed to slide in the Premier League but the former top flight official feels they are against the rules and wants to see them punished more frequently.
He exclusively told Tottenham News: “At last!! I send my congratulations to referee Thomas Bramall and VAR for penalising the grappling offence by Spurs’ Bentancur on Dan Burn and awarding a penalty kick decision to Newcastle United.
“If we are going to see a reduction in these grappling offences we need more referees to follow Bramall’s course of action.”
Bentancur escapes brainless incident
Tottenham fans might justifiably ask why their struggling side are suddenly the ones who get penalised for something that seems to happen every week up and down the league.
But by the letter of the law Bentancur fouled Burn and by giving the officials the opportunity to actually do their job properly, by never looking for the ball and using both hands to impede Burn, he was wrong.
Were it not for Romero delivering a 95th-minute overhead kick to steal a point it would have been the reason why Spurs had been beaten in a fourth-consecutive game.
There are such fine margins when a team are down on their luck so throwing away a vital equaliser – Romero’s first was just moments before the penalty which Anthony Gordon scored – could have sunk Spurs.
Frank has criticised the decision to award the penalty, but will surely need to warn his midfielder to be smarter, while all can rightly praise Romero for leading from the front when his team couldn’t have needed it more.
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