Ex-ref Halsey turns on Pawson after Chelsea draw at Villa

Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey has criticised Craig Pawson.

Halsey was unimpressed by how Pawson refereed a game over the weekend.

The official was in charge of Aston Villa and Chelsea's dramatic 2-2 draw on Saturday.

Chelsea saw a last-minute winner ruled out by the official due to a push in the build up.

Halsey told The Sun: I was baffled why VAR got involved because it wasn't a clear and obvious error. Referee Craig Pawson had a great view of the incident, he was looking directly at both players and allowed play to continue.

If Pawson thought it was a foul by Benoit Badiashile on Diego Carlos then why didn't he award a free-kick straight away? I felt it was a foul but Pawson had to give it in real time and then there wouldn't have been a fuss afterwards.

My big problem with this incident is it's a classic case of technology re-refereeing a game and not what VAR is there for. VAR official Chris Kavanagh recommended an on-field review and Pawson changed his mind.

I've watched Pawson for a long time and he does not seem to make the big decisions and uses VAR as a back-up. Although we got the right decision, the process of how we got there is not how we should be operating VAR in the Premier League."