Everton boss criticises VAR as he felt Luton's opener should have been disallowed for a push on Calvert-Lewin

Everton boss Sean Dyche was critical of VAR once more after he felt it should have intervened to disallow Luton’s opening goal in the Hatters’ 2-1 FA Cup fourth round victory at Everton on Saturday.

With 39 minutes gone at Goodison Park and the scores goalless, the visitors won a corner which was swung into the box by Alfie Doughty, missed by home striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin at the near post, before being turned into the net by a combination of home defender Vitaliy Mykolenko and Luton centre half Reece Burke, the goal finally being awarded to the Toffees player. Replays showed afterwards ex-Toffees midfielder Ross Barkley had in fact nudged Calvert-Lewin as he went to clear, causing him to fall to the floor, but the officials at Stockley Park ruled it was insufficient contact to disallow the opening strike.

It left Dyche bitterly disappointed, as he said: “Unfortunately I’ve got to mention VAR again. I don’t know what’s going on with it as Dominic Calvert-Lewin gets a clear two hands in his back. Of course everyone will argue, well it's not a big push in the back but the fact is you see penalties given, if I touch you on the shoulder they say it’s a foul, so you can’t have it all ways. For me that’s a clear foul, I strongly thought they would turn it over, they don’t turn it over, we can’t seem to get the right side of the VAR at the moment. It’s not about how much contact, you can clearly see he put him off balance and I just find it very confusing, I think it’s in a very confusing stage.”

Discussing the incident on Match of the Day, former Sheffield United and Leeds United midfielder Michael Brown agreed with Dyche, saying: “You can see why (the Everton boss was annoyed), there will be people saying there wasn’t that much contact on Calvert-Lewin, but his right foot comes off the ground so it only needs the tiniest of nudges. You see him lean forward, he's asking for it, (James) Tarkowski behind is saying ‘yes it’s a foul.’’ If you look at the angle of it and it’s only a tiny push, not really clinical, Ross Barkley does so well. It’s just as he lifts his leg it’s a minimal push but it’s enough to knock him over.”

Fellow pundit Stephen Warnock agreed, saying: “He’s also going to win the header, he only goes underneath it because there’s a push.”

Former Newcastle and England midfielder Joey Barton also decided to get involved with his views on Twitter, saying: “Luton’s 1st goal against Everton? For me shouldn’t have stood. That is a blatant push on DCL at front zone by Ross Barkley. What is the point of VAR if not to disallow that type of goal.”

Although annoyed by the decision, Dyche had seen his side get back on level terms when Jack Harrison’s shot evaded the grasp of Town stopper Tim Krul and crossed the line to make it 1-1 early in the second period. They were eventually undone in stoppage time though as Cauley Woodrow toe-poked home Luke Berry’s corner, with the Toffees chief adding: “I don’t want to harp on about that (VAR), I don’t think we were as good as we can be.

"I thought it was an ugly, tight game, second half I thought we were stronger and put more of a performance on that looked worthy of winning the game without finding the real true moments as two set-pieces go against us which is unlike us and unfortunately, strangely it’s happened against this side again this season. When we scored to get equal we had 15 minutes when we looked the side more likely but we conceded a soft corner at the end and conceded a goal from a bit of a ricochet. Fair play to them, they found their way through it and got the win.”