Newcastle mistake confirmed by KMI Panel after Chelsea incident

Newcastle United have been on the receiving end of some shocking refereeing decisions this season, some of which have cost the club valuable points.

The bad luck with poor officiating has followed Newcastle into Europe, too, with some disgraceful refereeing in Champions League games overshadowing big nights for the Toon Army.

Back in January, the Key Match Incidents (KMI) panel ruled that in the game against Chelsea, Newcastle should have been given a penalty when Trevoh Chalobah clattered into Anthony Gordon.

While it was nice to get the acknowledgement of what we already knew - that Newcastle had been fleeced - apologies count for nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Newcastle were denied penalty

The KMI panel have met again this month, and once again Newcastle and Chelsea and a penalty that wasn't given was ruled over by the panel.

According to the BBC, the five-person panel ruled 4:1 that referee Paul Tierney should have awarded Newcastle a penalty when the two sides met earlier this month, when Malick Thiaw was wrestled to the ground by Reece James.

We'd love to know if Liam Rosenier was the one who felt it wasn't a penalty because he was the only one at the time who didn't seem to think it was.

Interestingly, though, the panel ruled that VAR Michael Salisbury was right not to get involved as the error 'didn't meet the threshold for VAR intervention'. Eh?

Newcastle went on to win that game regardless, but that's hardly the point, is it?

Officials have made 54 errors this season

The KMI panel has now ruled that officials have made a shocking 54 errors this season so far, which is 10 more than at the same stage last season.

When you consider the number of games that covers, you may think that 54 isn't that many in the grand scheme of things, but in the days of VAR, it should be nowhere near this many.

We always thought the whole point of VAR was to catch clear and obvious errors, not to make them. The big question is what will be done to address this next season?

VAR is being given more to do next season, being able to weigh in on second yellow cards and corners, so we can't wait to see what the error figure is a year from now.