‘I hate to say’ :Howard Webb makes eye-opening admission involving Everton, he hates to admit it:

Everton have had their fair share of problems with VAR over the years, but it was a refereeing decision until recently owned by Howard Webb.

   Everton are not on the best of terms with VAR and the referees after the Newcastle incident caused some controversy at Goodison Park.

   Dominic Calvert-Lewin couldn’t believe his eyes when Craig Pawson decided not to award the Englishman a penalty for a blatant foul on Dan Burn.

   Howard Webb spoke about the incident on TV and stated that VAR got it right.

   In the end, the decision not to award a penalty may have cost Everton three points as the game finished 0-0.

   Now Webb has come forward and admitted he made questionable decisions that affected Everton.

   Howard Webb made a stunning debut at Everton and Bolton

   Howard Webb’s role at PGMOL does not allow him to judge, and that may be for the best after the recent admission he made at Everton.

   Interestingly, when talking about the overlap, Webb recalled the game between Everton and Bolton Wanderers where he made a mistake in awarding the Toffees a penalty involving Leon Osman.

   Here’s what he had to say.

   “I had a really tough game in my second season. I only played eight games in my first year in the Premier League. In my second season I was refereeing Everton against Bolton and that day some really big characters took me to the cleaners. People like  are Duncan Ferguson and Tommy Gravesen and David Weir.

   “For the first 20 minutes, I started to judge the game well. I make decisions, but the atmosphere in the hall was really toxic and maybe I missed some things that I don’t know or made some fouls that could have looked soft, but you know, 20 minutes  it really passes in it.

   “And I started to kind of like hide from it because I started to let things go a little bit. My threshold for a false shot went too high because when I was blowing I was getting a lot of negative feedback, so in a moment I kind of  started to bottle up a bit, which I don’t want to say.

   “But you know, I was a fairly new inexperienced Premier League referee with some really experienced players.

   “Gary Speed told me after about 40 minutes that you’re starting to let us down, he said you’re not doing your job. But he was spot on. I mean, he was absolutely right.”

   Not Howard Webb’s best tribute

   The fact that Howard Webb is coming out and saying he lost some decisions because the atmosphere got to him is really disturbing.

   All decisions on the football field should be 100% focused on the event you are officiating, not external noise or other variables.

   This is why many fans point the finger at certain decisions that go in favor of the big clubs, as referees can seem afraid to go against the big crowd.