SKY Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp slammed a ‘rubbish’ VAR call in Coventry City’s defeat against Everton and felt three contraversial decisions went against the Sky Blues.

Coventry lost 3-1 on their first-ever visit to the Hill Dickinson Stadium after Yann Gboho put the Sky Blues ahead only for Thierno Barry’s brace and a Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall strike to condemn the visitors to defeat.

However, Coventry saw two penalty appeals turned down and a potential handball for Everton’s second goal go unpunished much to the frustration of boss Frank Lampard.

The first contraversial incident saw James Tarkowski clearly pull the hair of Caleb Yirenkyi in the box while the Everton defender also appeared to sumultaneously catch Ethan Pinnock in the face with an elbow.

VAR looked at the incident but decided not to intervene despite new guidance coming in this season regarding hair pulling as per the Premier League’s Game Improvement Advisory Group (GIAG).

The guidance says: “A red card will be issued when there is a clear and deliberate action to pull an opponent’s hair with excessive force and/or brutality.

“A yellow card will be issued if the action is deemed to be without excessive force and/or brutality.

“Referees will enhance recognition of clear holding actions that have clear material impact, and/or non-footballing holding actions with no place on football pitch.

“This includes penalising defenders where they are clearly only focused on opponents and making a holding action that is impactful on the attacker’s ability to play or challenge for the ball.”

Replays showed a clean tug on Yirenkyi’s hair by Tarkowski and Redknapp felt the officials should have awarded the Sky Blues a penalty.

Jamie Redknapp told Sky Sports: “Yirenkyi goes up, Tarkowski gets hold of his hair. He yanks it down. Is it excessive force? Probably not, but he pulls his hair, stopping any elevation. It’s a definite penalty for me.

“Yirenkyi knows he has his hair pulled. It’s unusual for Tarkowski to do. It’s not the best piece of defending that’s for sure. It’s a foul. It’s not a red card anymore but it’s definitely a foul.”

Lee Hendrie on Sky Sports co-commentary said: “There’s a clear pull. Tarkowski is in the heart of this. There’s an elbow, which isn’t a problem, but the hair pull will raise awareness.

“You can clearly see he’s utilising the hair. It’s a tight one. VAR have completely not looked at it or felt the need to look at it.”

Coventry saw a second penalty appeal waved away by referee Stuart Attwell and VAR Tim Wood early in the second half when Taiwo Awoniyi went down in the box under a challenge from Vitalii Mykolenko.

Redknapp again said Coventry should have had a penalty and felt the VAR rushed the process when making a decision.

Redknapp added: “It’s a definite penalty and it’s rubbish from the VAR. It’s a poor decision. It’s a definite foul, they rush it too quickly, and his foot’s on the line.

“VAR said it was outside the box – but it’s on the line. If you’re in the line, you’re in the box.

“Awoniyi puts his right foot across and then Mykolenko just gets him. It’s on the line. It’s a definite foul and goes over. Mykolenko goes over as well.

“Just take a breather, tell the referee to have a look at it and he will have come to a different conclusion.”

Everton’s winner was also shrouded in controversy with the ball appearing to strike Barry’s hand on its way into the net.

VAR again looked at the incident but declared the ball hit Barry’s side and not his hand.

The Premier League Match Centre posted on X during the game: “Okay, that’s his side that’s definitely not hand. Confirming the on-field decision of goal, check complete.”

However, Sky Blues boss Lampard and Sky Sports pundit Redknapp both felt the ball hit Barry’s hand.

Redknapp said: “We’ve looked at it forensically and I do think it touches his hand. But when you’re asking VAR to intervene and disallow the goal, it’s difficult.

“I watched it for maybe five to 10 minutes and I’ve come to the conclusion that I think it was, but I understand why VAR didn’t give it because it’s not clear and obvious enough.

“To me, it looks like it brushes his left hand, but we’ve been able to blow it up and look at it. A good game is a quick game and we don’t want VAR to intervene and take 10 minutes.

“It’s not as conclusive as we’d like to see for them [VAR] to intervene.

“It brushes his fingers. It’s accidental as well, does it mean to hit his hands?

“It does divert it a little bit, but if we’re going to get to that point where we’re forensically looking at every single thing, it becomes hard.”