Football Australia admits to refereeing blunders in Central Coast Mariners' A-League Men loss to Melbourne City

Football Australia's (FA) referee department concedes Shaun Evans got it wrong in the two controversial decisions that cost the Central Coast Mariners in their A-League Men match against Melbourne City.

Refereeing and the VAR came under the spotlight again after the Mariners were denied what appeared to be a clear penalty in the 87th minute of their 3-2 loss.

The Mariners were trailing City when Mathew Leckie stepped on Lewis Miller's foot.

That followed Melbourne City's first-half equaliser coming via a contentious penalty call against Kye Rowles, who appeared to initially foul Marco Tilio outside the box, but was ruled to have done so in the area.

On both occasions, referee Evans consulted with VAR Kris Griffiths-Jones, spending several minutes reviewing footage before upholding his original decisions.

In a statement on Wednesday, FA said after a review of both decisions Evans had made the wrong decisions on both calls.

FA said City's penalty should not have been awarded due to the secondary contact in the area being «negligible».

It also ruled Leckie had fouled Miller and a penalty should have been awarded to the Mariners.

The statement did not disclose whether Evans would be stood down.

After the match, Mariners coach Nick Montgomery said the decisions had cost his team dearly and had set the A-League Men competition back.

«It's tough for referees to make calls, the game is so quick,» Montgomery said.

«But when you have VAR, and I'm looking at the screen and I can see [the Miller incident is] a penalty, and I can see that the first one is outside the box, maybe they need to get together and really have a look at it.

»I think it's sad for the game. I think the game has been ruined tonight. I think it's a spectacle that Australian