SURPRISINGLY given his experience, Rafa Benitez does not seem to understand how added time works at football matches.

He was furious at Newcastle’s game with Wolves, when in the 95th minute, Willy Boly scored an equaliser denying, his side the much-needed points.

What annoyed him was that at the end of the 90 minutes, the fourth official had shown there was to be only four minutes of added time.

The fourth official shows only an indication received from the referee of the minimum expected added time to be played.

The referee will start his two stop watches at the same time, but one he will stop for stoppages, while the other he will let run.

Towards the end of the half he will check the difference between the two watches, which is the amount of added time to be played.

For example, if the un-stopped watch shows 42 minutes but the stopped watch shows 40, he will signal two minutes added time.

However, his stopped watch may show 42 minutes and 30 seconds and therefore the added time will be two-and-a-half minutes – but of course the fourth official cannot show that, so the referee tells him two minutes.

On top of that, before the end of the game and even in the added time, there may be more stoppages.

This means added time will go on after the time shown by the fourth official.

I remember Sir Alex Ferguson getting into a rage over a similar situation.

At the start of added time, which the fourth official had already shown, United scored.

This would have won them the game except before the referee blew the final whistle, the opposition equalised.

Sir Alex claimed, like Benitez, the referee had played more added time than shown.

I was fortunate to get the facts from Keith Hackett who was head of Premier League referees.

The extra added time played, was equal to the time taken by the United players’ goal celebrations, for which the referee had correctly stopped his watch.