Refereeing is a difficult job. We know this. As much as football fans love to berate the men in black, there's also a universal acknowledgement that nobody would really want to do their job. Without the benefit of TV replays, they have to make very, very close calls in a pressured environment with thousands of people watching on. All anyone asks is that they actually know the rules. An incident in Newcastle's game against Burton has just summed up the controversy surrounding referees this season, and to be perfectly honest, it's just confused everyone.Matt Ritchie scored the only goal of the game, but he was also involved in a bizarre penalty incident.Ritchie dispatched his spot-kick, but it was disallowed because of players encroaching. No problem with that at all. 

The weirdest pen of the season 

Instead of bringing the penalty back for a retake, though, the referee gave Burton a free-kick. What!? 

Take a look at the clip below and see if you can work it out: 

The referee had a quick chat with his linesmen to see if they knew what they were doing, but it seems they weren't sure either. Obviously, none of them were prepared for the extraordinary circumstances of someone taking a penalty. 

It's since transpired that it's because it was one of the Newcastle players who initially encroached. 

No-one understands 

The Geordies often have their problems at St James' Park, but not like this.

Ritchie's perplexed reaction tells you everything you need to know about the mood inside the ground. As you might expect, Twitter was baffled:

Thankfully, it didn't have too much of an impact on the game, nor on Newcastle's promotion hopes which are still going strong. 

With Brighton not playing, Rafael Benitez's side are now top of the Championship by a point and an impressive ten points ahead of the playoffs.

Was the referee right to disallow it? Have your say in the comments.