Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe felt his side’s 4-0 defeat to Leicester City was more “harsh” than the scoreline suggested. Youri Tielemans gave the home side the lead after the Foxes were awarded a controversial penalty midway through the first half.
Eddie Howe said: “It was a really harsh scoreline for us. If you look at that alone you get one picture of the game, but I thought the reality of it was very different. I thought we were okay for long periods of the match without clicking in the final third. For all the ball we had around their box, we never really opened them up like we wanted to. We didn’t deal with the defensive moments properly.”
Turning to the controversial awarding of a penalty, when referee Peter Bankes deemed Jamaal Lascelles to have brought down Maddison,
Eddie Howe said: “When you see it live you fear the worst because you see the leg and the player then going over, but when you go into more detail you see the player is going down before contact is made. For me it’s not a penalty. It’s another decision away from home that has gone against but at half-time, 1-0 down, I thought we were still in the match and competitive. The goals came at bad moments when we were on top and looking to score. We were picked off. VAR is there to be used. I don’t understand why referees are reluctant. They are more told what to do than go off their gut instinct. I think if he has another look at it, he’d have reversed the decision.”
