Marco Silva believes referee missed red card for Patrick van Aanholt
Tuesday 12 December 2017 23:13, UK
Watford boss Marco Silva felt the referee missed a clear red card for a tackle on Roberto Pereyra before they capitulated at Crystal Palace.
Daryl Janmaat's fourth-minute goal for the Hornets looked to have been decisive, but Tom Cleverley's sending off three minutes from time switched the momentum and Palace substitutes Bakary Sako (89) and James McArthur (90+1) struck to complete the turnaround.
Silva called the comeback "unbelievable" and pointed to a tackle by Patrick van Aanholt two minutes before Cleverley's red card. The Watford boss called Van Aanholt's tackle a "clear red card".
The full-back raked his studs down Roberto Pereyra's calf but the referee only brandished a yellow card.
"The red card gave them belief but it was clear though they should be playing with 10 players for the foul on Pereyra," Silva said.
"I think we didn't deserve it - it was something unbelievable. It can happen with our team. We need to learn fast to play at this level.
"This is football. We need to play until 95 minutes - we did everything really well until 80 minutes. They didn't have shot on our goal.
"We had a lot of chances to kill and in this level you need to kill the match. We had a one-on-one with their goalkeeper but didn't kill the match. We need to keep our organisation until the end of the match even if we did lose one player."
