Referee Anthony Taylor appears on Sky Sports and addresses Man Utd controversy

Manchester United were left furious that Brentford’s second goal was allowed to stand despite an injury to Matthijs De Ligt but referee Anthony Taylor has now stood by his decision

Premier League referee Anthony Taylor has insisted his decision to allow Brentford’s second goal against Manchester United to stand was the correct decision. United fell to a 4-3 defeat away at the Bees on Sunday afternoon.

Mason Mount put the visitors ahead before the hosts levelled through an unfortunate own-goal from Luke Shaw. But United were left fuming 12 minutes before half-time when Kevin Schade towered over Tyler Fredricson to power in a superb header.

Taylor awarded a goal but the United players surrounded the refereeing insisting he should have stopped play earlier in the move. They pointed to Matthijs De Ligt suffering an injury in a challenge with Yoane Wissa as the reason the game should not have been allowed to continue.

De Ligt went down clutching his leg before sitting up and putting his arm in the air. Taylor did not pause the game though and Brentford did not put the ball out of play, subsequently scoring.

Taylor appeared on Sky Sports ‘ Monday Night Football where he was questioned around his decision making. But the referee stood firm on his call that the goal was right to stand.

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“The main consideration was my responsibility is to decide if De Ligt is seriously injured or not. Generally you consider a serious injury a head injury in the main. In this situation because he’s sitting up I don’t consider that serious and allowed the game to continue. It’s probably more a foul on Wissa than the other way,” he said.

“In this situation we were more than happy to let the game continue. Brentford were in a promising attacking situation so they don’t want the game stopped. United were the defending team, they probably do want the game stopped.”

Schade would go on to head in his second of the afternoon from a Bryan Mbeumo cross with 20 minutes to go. Wissa appeared to put the game to bed four minutes later.

But Alejandro Garnacho scored a stunning long-range effort eight minutes from time to give United some hope. And Amad ensured it was a nervy finish when he scored deep into added time, though Brentford held on.

De Ligt now looks set for a spell on the sidelines in what is a nightmare scenario for boss Ruben Amorim. United still have hope of winning the Europa League and seeing De Ligt sit on the sidelines would be a major blow to their hopes.

Amorim said of De Ligt’s injury: “I don’t know, we will check. I hope it is [only] a small issue because I am concerned, not only about this game [against Athletic Club, but about the squad for the next year.

“I hope it’s nothing serious. We took a risk with [Harry] Maguire [having to come on]. [Luke] Shaw had to go off [at half-time] because we need players for Thursday.”

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