Aston Villa boss Dean Smith maintains trust in goal-line technology

Opponents Sheffield United were denied a goal when Villa goalkeeper Orjan Nyland carried the ball over his own line but the technology failed to register.

Manufacturer Hawk-Eye later apologised to the Blades and the Premier League for the error.

Smith, who admitted Villa ‘got away with one’ after the match, believes the system is still worth having.

He said: “It’s not 100% perfect but that was the first error in 9,000 games. If we have one more mistake in the next 9,000 games we’ll accept it, as difficult as it was for Sheffield United on Wednesday. I said after the game they have my sympathy, but it was a technology error.”

Smith dismissed the suggestion, made in some quarters, that Villa should have allowed the Blades to score, while also rejecting any comparison with an incident between his team and Leeds last season.

Leeds’ boss Marcelo Bielsa instructed his players to let Albert Adomah equalise after Mateusz Klich had scored a controversial opener when Villa expected their opponents to put the ball out of play.

“There are no comparisons whatsoever,” said Smith. “Five minutes before Leeds scored, their player was on the ground and we put the ball out of play in a sporting gesture and then our player goes down in the centre circle and we stop, expecting the ball to go out in a sporting gesture. They played on and the manager gave us a goal back, rightly.

“This wasn’t a question of integrity. It’s a technology fault. We can’t go back and re-referee games. I’ve seen questions about replaying the game. Well, there’s four or five games from this season I’d want to replay.”

Smith continued: “At the time nobody (on the sidelines) knew. I can guarantee that me and my coaches, and Chris Wilder – and Alan Knill – we didn’t know it went across the line.

“We look at the officials and all four of their watches said it didn’t cross the line. It wasn’t until after that the analysts saw the still images and got the message that it had gone across the line. As I say it was a technological fault.

“In regards to concessions, Chris thought we had a big penalty shout in the first half. He wasn’t thinking of giving us a penalty in the second half, that’s for sure.”