Southampton continued their recent resurgence this afternoon, defeating Birmingham City 3-1 at home as they moved up to fourth place in the Championship table. However, the main talking point after the game was the officials making an absolutely bizarre decision relating to an incident involving Ireland goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu.
Russell Martin's side would lead 2-0 at the interval in the fixture thanks to goals from Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Carlos Alcaraz, with a late strike from Adam Armstrong wrapping up the three points after the visitors got back into the game in the second half.
In saying that, the result could have been a different one were it not for a controversial refereeing decision in the first half.
It came when Gavin Bazunu rushed out of his goal to claim a high ball on the edge of his box, only to absolutely clean out Birmingham City forward Oliver Burke. It was the most obvious penalty you are ever likely to see, but the referee somehow waived away the claims for spot kick.
You can watch the incident below, with former referee Mike Dean labelling the decision not to award a penalty as an 'embarrassing' one.
"It's embarrassing to be fair!"
Mike Dean is shocked Birmingham were not awarded a penalty in their clash against Southampton pic.twitter.com/tksc2pvCnz
- Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) October 28, 2023
An absolute howler. Of course, VAR is not available to review decisions in the Championship.
Wayne Rooney furious over Gavin Bazunu incident As you might have guessed, Birmingham City manager Wayne Rooney was hugely unhappy with the decision.
These decisions happen when you don't have VAR.
I'm not a fan of VAR and you accept referees and linesmen might make mistakes but what you can't accept is the penalty decision.
It is ridiculous and everyone in the stadium could see it. The keeper is committed and is coming at pace and is reckless. If he is coming like that then he has to win the ball but he absolutely wipes out Burkey.
The most frustrating thing is that the fourth official told me that the referee was clear in his decision and wasn't willing to take advice from his fourth official and assistant.
He was clear there was minimal contact. That is a worry for me. I hope VAR doesn't filter down but we would have got a penalty if VAR was here.
I know referees will make mistakes, I can accept that but for me that was too much and a big error.
Fair comments. Southampton boss Russell Martin would also admit post-match that his initial thoughts after the Gavin Bazunu were that it was a penalty.
The game could have been a different one had the penalty been awarded, although Southampton will be pleased to secure yet another win to extend their decent run of form. Now undefeated in the league since September, they are very much back in the mix when it comes to the promotion race.