Dermot Gallagher delivers verdict on farcical VAR delay during Burnley's agonising defeat to Bournemouth

Reviewing the weekend’s officiating controversies on Sky Sports’ Ref Watch this morning, former referee Dermot Gallagher has revealed Jay Rodriguez was 27cm offside before his late ‘goal’.

The strike was ruled offside, however, on the field of play, before a farcical five minute and 20-second delay ensued while VAR checked.

Initially the wrong lines were drawn, with a green line signalling the goal should have stood. But the lines were then redrawn, before turning red.

While Gallagher admits the VAR check took far too long, he says the right call was eventually reached.

“It did take an awful long time,” he said. “The lines were drawn in the wrong place the first time, VAR wasn’t happy obviously and had them recalibrated.

“They did get the right decision, it was a tough call. It was only 27cm offside, that’s how tight it was. But it was offside.

“Unfortunately it did take so long but we have talked about Brentford that time, when we said it didn’t take long enough, so it took too long but it was right.”

Fellow Sky Sports pundit Stephen Warnock also weighed in on the controversy, adding: “As long as you come to the right decision…

“What you don’t want is where the game restarts, you’ve given a goal and we get the same as the Tottenham game. At least eventually it’s come to that decision.

“Yes it doesn’t look good on TV with the way it was sent out, seeing the green line and everyone thinking it’s going to be a goal. That doesn’t look good, so that’s something Howard Webb and VAR are going to have to look at and talk about.

“They will say they will improve that side of things and I’m sure they will, but as long as they got the right decision eventually, that’s the most important thing, as much as it looks a mess.”

Vincent Kompany was also left angry at the end of the game by the referee’s failure to check a potential handball as Sander Berge attempted to level matters deep into stoppage time.