Ex-referee, Howard Webb, has slammed the performance of former colleague Craig Pawson and said that he deserves to be dropped from the New Year's Eve clash between Liverpool and Manchester City.
Speaking toBT Sportahead of Manchester United's game against West Brom, Webb said:"He's been given, on New Year's Eve, Liverpool against Manchester City.
"I don't think he should be on that game, not after the performance he gave on Wednesday night[United's game against Crystal Palace].We're accountable, we make mistakes, we influence the outcome of games and we should pay the price."
Pawson officiated Leicester City's away trip to Stoke and became the centre of attention when he controversially sent Jamie Vardy off early in the first half. Leicester went on to salvage a point from the game after going two goals down.
The red card for Vardy was followed by a penalty decision in favour of Stoke, which was nowhere near as questionable as the red card, but Pawson seemed to have lost control of the game when he began dishing out bookings left, right and centre (eight in total); meaning that Robert Huth and Christian Fuchs will alsomiss Leicester's Boxing Day game against Everton through suspension.
The game became somewhat comical for Pawson when he brandished a yellow card for Erik Pieters... as punishment for a Bruno Martins Indi foul. Lookalikes.
This performance is the second time this week that Pawson has been the centre of controversy after he caused a stir on Wednesday when he only booked for Marcos Rojo wholunged dangerously in on Palace starWilfred Zaha with a two-footed challenge that wasfar more reckless than Vardy's.
Pawson may have regretted his decision not to send the Argentinian United defender off and used Vardy's similar (barely) challenge to redeem his mistake. But, unfortunately for him,all the Yorkshireman managed to do on this occasion was create more mess that he may have to account for.