Anthony Taylor had himself another contentious refereeing moment during a Championship clash between Preston North End and Coventry City.
The Premier League referee was demoted to the second tier of English football this past week after controversially handing Newcastle a penalty in their 2-2 draw with Wolves last month. The official adjudged Hwang Hee-chan to bringing down Fabian Schar when attempting to clear the ball.
The 45-year-old was backed up by VAR but was subsequently slammed by Wolves boss Gary O'Neil who said: "[Newcastle's] second goal was never ever a penalty, ever. It was a terrible decision on-field and from VAR (but) we managed to bounce back."
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READ MORE: Ref Anthony Taylor 'demoted to Championship' after controversial Premier League penalty
Taylor was then demoted to the Championship to take charge of the clash between Preston and Coventry on Saturday (November 4) in what was his first Championship tie since 2019. Unfortunately for the Sky Blues fans, they fell victim to yet another controversial penalty decision by the referee.
With the score at 1-1 in the first-half, Coventry skipper Kyle McFadzean was adjudged to have brought down Milutin Osmajic in the box as Taylor awarded a penalty for the home side. Replays of the challenge showed McFadzean made minimal contact with his opponents as fans on social media hammered the official for his decision to grant the spot-kick which was scored by Preston captain Alan Browne in an eventual 3-2 win for the Lilywhites.
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One fan wrote: "He's even having a stinker in the championship" as another was left baffled by the penalty decision, commenting: "Absolute joke honestly how on earth does he give that". A third said the state of football in this country is "doomed" as they added: "That is a ‘Premier League’ ref… we are truly doomed".
It's been a tumultuous season for officials so far who've been under scrutiny after several high-profile errors and were recently criticised by Arsenal who released a statement backing up Mikel Arteta's comments about the refereeing performance in their 1-0 loss to Newcastle this past weekend.
The statement read: "Arsenal Football Club wholeheartedly supports Mikel Arteta’s post-match comments after yet more unacceptable refereeing and VAR errors on Saturday evening. PGMOL urgently needs to address the standard of officiating and focus on action which moves us all on from retrospective analysis, attempted explanations and apologies."
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