‘You could almost see the fear in the referee’s eyes’ Gary Neville expresses sympathy for Craig Pawson in Everton vs Tottenham Hotspur call

Gary Neville claimed you could “see the fear” in referee Craig Pawson’s eyes after a step taken in Everton’s Premier League meeting with Tottenham Hotspur.

Thomas Frank’s side took the lead in under 20 minutes, when Rodrigo Bentancur shouldered a corner back into the six-yard box for Micky van de Ven to nod in from point-blank range.

The Toffees thought they’d netted an equaliser just over 5 minutes later when Jake O’Brien headed one in from a corner, before Pawson was called to the monitor to review a subjective offside.

Gary Neville spots “fear” following Craig Pawson’s tough decision process

Craig Pawson was sent to the monitor at the Hill Dickinson, before having to announce his decision to the stadium (Image credit: Getty Images)The referee took his time reviewing the incident, with those at Stockley Park suggesting that Iliman Ndiaye had interfered with Guglielmo Vicario from an offside position.

Pawson agreed with his assistants and, under new protocols, had to relay the decision vocally over the public address system to the fans inside the Hill Dickinson Stadium, to a chorus of boos and jeers from the home support.

Everton’s equaliser was ruled out as Ndiaye, in an offside position, was deemed to have interfered with Spurs goalkeeper Vicario.What’s your thoughts? 💭 pic.twitter.com/Kgwvocf9otOctober 26, 2025

“Who would want to make that announcement in here?” Peter Drury posited.

“You can almost see the fear in the referee’s eyes,” Neville chuckled.

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Pawson did indeed look like he’d rather have cracked on with the game than be forced into becoming a public speaker inside the newly-built 52,000-seater stadium, but Neville didn’t have too many problems with the call itself.

“What I would say, as a defensive team and with a defensive mindset,” the former Manchester United man continued, “[is that] the reason that these teams stay now and don’t put men on the post is to make sure that there are offside players.

“And he [Ndiaye] is very close to Vicario. I don’t think he’s ever going to save it, but again, it’s subjective, and the officials have made a decision.”

Everton defender Jake O’Brien was denied his first Premier League goal of the season in the end (Image credit: Getty Images)In FourFourTwo’s opinion, while the efforts to keep the fans in the stadium as informed as those at home is admirable, the system of having referees sheepishly explain their call to tens of thousands of furious fans is not an ideal solution.

As those who have experienced it in the ground will know, you usually already know the decision before the referee speaks and – certainly if it’s going against the home team – the rest of the official’s announcement is then drowned out by boos.

It’s questionable whether this new system is serving anyone, and we can’t imagine referees objecting too harshly, were it scrapped.