Top ref's view of Sheffield United on-field spat as "aggressive" Vini Souza, Jack Robinson escape VAR reds

A bizarre on-field spat between Sheffield United pair Jack Robinson and Vini Souza threatened to overshadow a much-improved display from the Blades in their defeat at Wolves yesterday. The two had to be separated by captain Anel Ahmedhodzic in the first half at Molineux, with VAR checking if one, or both, players should be sent off for violent conduct.

After a replay of the incident both players rightly escaped without punishment but it was the incident that dominated the post-match discussion, with boss Chris Wilder initially reluctant to discuss it. “That happens at every football club up and down the country three or four times a year,” he then said. “I can’t condone it; it has to stay at a level and, of course, we have a responsibility to the young kids out there playing but that happens behind closed doors at every football club, at every level.

United ratings v Wolves as pair lose marks for bizarre on-field spat

"It’ll happen at Man City and at the bottom of League Two. You don’t want it to happen, you don’t want to see it, but it does [happen]. For me, move on pretty quickly as long as it doesn’t step over the line, which it didn’t. We spoke to the boys and they’re fine and cool about it.”

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Gary O'Neil, Wilder's opposite number, said: “It never feels quite right for people being sent off for fighting and arguing with their own players. But the extremity of the act and the violence will decide. They [VAR] obviously felt it was fine.”

And the curious incident was one of those to be featured on Sky's Ref Watch segment today, along with the controversies from Sunday afternoon's Carabao Cup final between Liverpool and Chelsea. Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher was asked if in theory both players could have been sent off. "You can, yes," he said. "It's very unusual isn’t it?

"It’s not quite Keiron Dyer and Lee Bowyer as we saw all those years ago at Newcastle but they’re aggressive towards each other, they’re angry with each other obviously but it’s not violent conduct so that’s the end of the VAR brief. The referee could easily have yellow-carded both of them if he wanted to."