Mark Halsey: The offside rule is an ass and Elliot Anderson’s Newcastle goal being ruled out doesn’t sit right with me

FORMER Premier League referee Mark Halsey has branded the decision to rule out Elliot Anderson’s goal against Nottingham Forest a “nonsense decision”.

The 20-year-old was robbed of his first Newcastle goal after VAR instructed Paul Tierney to go to the monitor over offside concerns.

PAElliot Anderson thought he had his first Newcastle goal – but Paul Tierney had other ideas[/caption]

Mark Halsey took exception to the controversial decision at the City GroundRex

The ref then controversially ruled out the goal.

It has sparked debate on the offside rule with Tierney’s interpretation not shared by many fans and pundits.

The moment came after the impressive Alexander Isak played a low cross into the Forest area.

It was then cleared by Felipe into the path of an offside Sean Longstaff who briefly touched the ball back to Isak.

The striker delivered a wonderful cross for Anderson who sparked wild celebrations in the away end after converting his chance from close range.

But Felipe was judged to have not deliberately played the ball to Longstaff and therefore making the Newcastle midfielder offside.

Halsey, who refereed hundreds of Premier League games between 1999 and 2013, disagreed with the reasoning.

He told SunSport: “The offside law is an ass.

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“It’s a nonsense decision. Surely it’s a deliberate play by Forest defender Felipe?

“But goals being ruled out for something like this does not sit right with me.”

Anderson’s came with the game drawn at 1-1.

Emmanuel Dennis scored an impressive chipped effort in the first-half but that was cancelled out by an equally inventive goal by Isak at the end of the 45.

The Swedish forward would eventually get the winner for the Magpies with a stoppage time penalty.