There was some awful refereeing all throughout the Wigan – Newcastle match, not just in the little things, but in plenty of big decisions, none of them worse than the terrible challenge from Callum McManaman on Massadio Haidara, pretty much unnoticed by Mark Halsey.

Halsey isn’t the Premier League’s strongest of referees, which he has proven more than once, but that handball that allowed Wigan their winning goal decided 3 points, not the health and the future of a player. Haidara entered the match at the 13th minute for Debuchy only to be injured himself 14 minutes later with a red card kind of tackle, McManaman going cleets high into a stationary player.

Newcastle are still not quite safe from the woes of relegation. Wigan took the 18th minute lead through Chilean Jean Beausejour, the Magpies found the equalizer through Davide Santon in the 72nd minute. In the 90th minute, however, Halsey messed up again and allowed a winning goal by Arouna Kone that should have been disqualified for Figueroa’s handball.