Howard Webb's defence on Tuesday's edition of Match Officials Mic'd Up for why Virgil van Dijk's goal against Manchester City was disallowed is unlikely to have appeased Liverpool fans still aggrieved at the decision.

But while focus has understandably shifted onto Webb's description of the decision as "reasonable", there was another altogether more standout insight into the match officials' decision-making process during the programme.

Namely, that the decision to rule out the goal was effectively made, contrary to Sky Sports' previous reporting of the incident, by the assistant referee rather than referee Chris Kavanagh, VAR Michael Oliver or assistant VAR Timothy Wood.

That hitherto-unrealised distinction is clearly revealed in the audio transcript of the officials' debate carried

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