Waching daily Jan 29 2019

 Manchester City took all of 24 seconds to take the lead at Newcastle United.  Rafael Benitez's men were always in for a long evening at St

James' Park, but even their most pessimistic of supporters wouldn't have expected to concede so early

 Raheem Sterling delivered a looping delivery into the penalty area and Sergio Aguero lashed the ball home after a collision between David Silva and Martin Dubravka

 However, from that moment on, the incredibly defensive Magpies managed to stop the rot and that's no small statement when you consider City's recent form

 The Citizens have demolished Burnley, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Rotherham United and Burton Albion twice in recent weeks and all without conceding

Newcastle vs Man City  Nevertheless, it could have been much worse for Newcastle when Aguero looked to have scored his second goal of the game

 Kevin De Bruyne had originally provided the 'assist' by taking a free-kick too quickly, just seconds after Sterling had been fouled on the right wing

 Referee Paul Tierney deemed that he wasn't ready for the game to resume, the goal was chalked off and Newcastle limped to half-time at 1-0

  Lineker wants a rule change  Meanwhile, though, the incident had sparked controversy across Twitter and a number of big names expressed their bewilderment at Tierney's decision

   Times journalist Henry Winter called the episode 'pedantic', while BT Sport presenter Jake Humphrey claimed it 'kills the game' and Danny Mills wondered: 'what's the referee doing?'  Yet perhaps the most assured tweet from Gary Lineker who believes the footballing law in question - which is already under consideration - simply must be changed

   Take a look at his tweet and some of the reaction down below:    It's certainly an interesting debate

 Speed of thought and play is something that football fans love about the Premier League, so it's no surprise that people were disappointed with the decision

 Whether or not the free-kick can be taken quickly depends on the situation and viewers like Lineker clearly think the rules should be changed to ensure consistency

  Phil Dowd defends the decision  In this case, however, replays showed that De Bruyne was expressly told by the referee to wait for the whistle and Phil Dowd was quick to defend the officials

 So, it was perhaps a little cheeky from the City man but the point still remains

 There's plenty of discontent with the rule as it stands and when suggestions of killing the game are being thrown about, something clearly needs to change

 Do you think Aguero's goal should have stood? Have your say in the comments section below