Go Ahead Eagles vs Aston Villa ref watch: Three decisions Filip Glova got wrong
Filip Glova stole some of the spotlight as Aston Villa suffered a shock defeat to Go Ahead Eagles in the Europa League.
Villa took the lead inside five minutes on Thursday, 23 October, with summer signing Evann Guessand netting his first goal since his arrival, taking advantage of some comedic defending.
However, with Mathis Suray scoring an equaliser just before half-time, an inspired second-half performance saw Mats Deijl help Go Ahead Eagles to go 2-1 ahead against the Premier League side.
Emi Buendia has been in fine form, but he missed a penalty in the 79th minute, possibly justice done as Dean James was punished for handball, and the Dutch side claimed an incredible win against the Villans.
Milan Smit’s shirt is almost ripped off his body
During the first half, Milan Smit was forced to jog over to the sidelines to get his shirt replaced, having just clashed with Lamare Bogarde, who clearly had a hold of the striker.
A grip strong enough to cause that sort of damage should be punished by the referee, but instead, Glova did not even award a free-kick against Villa’s defender.
Smit continued to cause problems for Emery’s defence throughout the 90 minutes, and obviously, some of the players were struggling with just how to keep him quiet away from Villa Park.
Filip Glova takes his time over head injury stoppage
In a week when Alexis Mac Allister’s head injury against Man United was a major headline, Glova’s failure to stop play straight away for a clear head injury on Smit was rather frustrating.
It appeared that he was allowing Villa to play out the attack, only to blow his whistle just before one of Unai Emery‘s players was about to whip another cross into the penalty area. Strange timing.
Dean James punished for an extremely harsh handball decision
There was absolutely no doubt that Matty Cash‘s cross back into the box hit James’ hand, but with the two players separated by less than a metre, it seemed like a harsh decision.
Glova was not even sent to the pitch-side monitor for a second look, but as Buendia missed the resulting penalty kick, many of the home fans will see it as justice served in the Europa League.