Newcastle United fans definitely felt it was a case of two points dropped last night as an 88th-minute penalty saw Everton rescue a point at St James’ Park.
The Magpies should have had the game put to bed long before substitute Paul Dummett channelled his inner John Cena and brought down Ashley Young in the box with there being absolutely no danger whatsoever.
Howe’s comments on the penalty didn’t make much sense:
Speaking to TNT Sport after the game Howe spoke of the disallowed goal and the penalty decision as being two times VAR got involved in tight calls which prompted the question whether he feels hard done by with the penalty decision, indirectly highlighting that the VAR helped Everton earn a draw at St James Park.
“I think it’s both players grappling each other, unfortunately for us with Paul’s arm being quite high around Ashley Young I think it made the difference for VAR and that’s why they made the decision. But it’s one of those that probably could have gone either way.”
It was indeed two players grappling, until Dummett got Young in a headlock and dragged the poor old man to the ground.
Newcastle should have had the game wrapped up before the penalty incident:
I’m all for putting the blinkers on or looking at the world through black-and-white specs, but sometimes you just have to hold your hands up, and this was one of those times. There were no excuses, it was definitely a penalty.
In the grand scheme of things, it shouldn’t have mattered as Newcastle should have been out of sight by then anyway, but some great goalkeeping by Jordan Pickford and some poor decision-making in the final third by a few of our forwards, meant that we never got that second goal which would have put the game to bed.
Ultimately it was a game of substitutions. Sean Dyche made three substitutions that improved his side, Eddie Howe was forced into a substitution that made our side worse and ultimately cost us the win.