The line was crossed with howler

Furious Villa players surround referee Thomas Bramall

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SETTING aside the rivalry that exists in football all over the world, surely all fans - win, lose, or draw - want to see fair play in a game we all love.

Villa had a justifiable complaint following their final-day Premier League defeat at Manchester United. Hand on heart, if it were against any of the clubs we support, we would be fuming.

All Blues fans will remember the FA Cup tie against Newcastle when a goal was given for the Magpies which had not crossed the line. That changed the course of the game, and it was the same at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Goals don’t just win games, they change them and having what looked like a perfectly good goal ruled out certainly changed the game for Villa and, quite possibly, denied them a place in next season’s Champions League.

Villa were not at their best on the day but that is not the issue. To go 1-0 up so late in the game would more than likely have changed the outcome. The referee incorrectly blowing his whistle before the ball had crossed the line bizarrely meant VAR could not get involved and that mystifies me.

The whole purpose of VAR is to ensure a “fair game” by rectifying any clear and obvious errors. Well, that looked pretty clear and obvious to everyone apart from the VAR, who was powerless to get involved because the referee had already blown his whistle before the ball had crossed the line.

An error that just needed the referee to go to the pitchside screen to review the incident where he would have seen the goal was valid. I am sure the PGMOL will have some way of explaining why this happened, probably with a ‘rules are rules’ attitude.

However, no amount of complaining will change a thing and Villa will have to dust themselves down and prepare for next season’s Premier League and Europa League campaigns.