Controversial Luke O’Nien decision explained after Sunderland’s loss at Watford

The decision not to send off Sunderland defender Luke O’Nien during the Black Cats’ Championship match against Watford has been explained from a referee’s perspective.

O’Nien appeared fortunate to stay on the pitch after a blatant handball during last month’s match at Vicarage Road, which Watford won 1-0, with the Black Cats player stopping Ismael Kone’s pass which could have sent forward Matheus Martins through on goal. 

Despite Watford’s protests, referee Oliver Langford only gave O’Nien a yellow card and didn’t feel the defender was preventing a clear goalscoring opportunity. The incident was reviewed on Sky Sports’ first EFL edition of Match Officials Mic'd Up, as select group 2 referee manager Kevin Friend and EFL referee Matt Donohue reviewed the footage.

“As you can see when the ball is first played through, Luke O’Nien deliberately handles the ball on the halfway line,” said Friend. “There are no doubts about that. The facts that are considered here are, is it a goalscoring opportunity? 

“You can quite clearly hear the assistant referee Mike Jones say that it’s a yellow card from his perspective on the line. He’s got a real good view and depth of vision from his angle, which then offers the question to Ollie, is it an obvious goalscoring opportunity?

“When we look at it we factor in different elements like distance from goal, control of the ball, where the ball is going to go, where the defenders are. There’s that much element of doubt because the ball is in the air, he’s not in full control of the ball. If the ball goes past O’Nien would the player have control of that ball? There is that much element of doubt regarding it. It’s a yellow card because there are too many variables into the decision.”

When asked about the different variables referees have to consider, Donohue added: “You’ve got to weigh up those variables and analyse in real time whether you feel those boxes have been ticked that we’ve spoken about. Certainly in this clip, we’re not quite sure where the ball’s going, we’re not quite sure whether the attacker will get onto it, the attacker doesn’t have control of it.

“When you start adding up the variables, while I can see from a football fan’s point of view, why a football fan would look at that and think that’s a definite red card because of the action from Luke O’Nien. When you actually add the variables up from the laws of the game point of view, that’s a yellow card and we’re more than happy with Ollie going down the yellow card route from this clip.”