Manchester United are today set to make a formal complaint to refs’ body PGMO after they were controversially denied a second penalty in last night’s draw with Bournemouth.
Daily Mail Sport understands Old Trafford officials have been left furious at what they believe is ‘yet another VAR blunder’ which has cost their Champions League chasing side.
Amid extraordinary scenes, forward Amad Diallo appeared to be wrestled to the ground with no attempt to play the ball inside the area with the visitors leading 1-0.
Referee Stuart Attwell, who was positioned just yards away, waved play on and from the resulting passage Bournemouth levelled through Ryan Christie. A subsequent VAR check then failed to overturn what may well have been a two-goal swing.
To rub further salt into the wounds, after United had retaken the lead Harry Maguire was sent off for a foul on Evanilson, before Junior Kroupi tucked away the resulting penalty to level. The view within United is that Maguire’s foul was similar to that committed by Bournemouth’s Adrien Truffert on Diallo, which went unpunished.
Senior officials at Old Trafford believe the foul on Amad was a clear one and that, had the penalty been given, the likelihood was that Bruno Fernandes would have scored from the spot for the second time to give Michael Carrick’s men a 2-0 lead midway through the second-half.
Instead, within a minute the scores were level.
As Daily Mail Sport has previously reported, United have already made representations to PGMO boss Howard Webb following what they see as ‘numerous errors’ which have cost them valuable points. They include the failure to send off Brentford’s Nathan Collins for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity (the offence for which Maguire saw red at the Vitality Stadium), the failure to award them a penalty at Wolves and the disallowing of a goal by Lisandro Martinez in a 2-2 draw at Burnley they felt should have been allowed to stand. Attwell was again the referee at Turf Moor.
Following the game caretaker manager Michael Carrick spoke of his astonishment at what had unfolded. ‘For him (Atwell) to give one penalty and not the other… I find it crazy,’ he said. ‘I cannot understand it. Mental. It’s astonishing. One of them must be wrong.
‘A big opportunity to go 2-0 up and we get one penalty and not the other. It's exactly the same thing really - a two-handed grab. He's got one wrong so, I don't know which one but he doesn't give us the second one.’
Carrick’s view is shared by those above him at United who are fully behind their manager.
It is understood that Jason Wilcox, United’s director of football, plans to raise the matter with Webb later today in a formal capacity.
United will also now be without Maguire for their clash with Roses rivals Leeds United.
In addition, with the score at 2-2 and the 10-men visitors attempting to see the game out for a point commentators expressed surprise when nine minutes were added on.
United are also likely to ask for an explanation of where those nine minutes came from.
PGMO have been contacted for comment.
The draw leaves third-placed United looking over the shoulders at the chasing pack of Liverpool, Aston Villa and Chelsea. Villa can close the gap to a single point with victory over West Ham tomorrow.
