Newcastle United under-21 head coach Elliott Dickman has raised questions over two refereeing decisions which saw his side miss out on a win in the Tyne-Wear derby in Premier League 2.
The game finished 1-1 on Monday night, in an affair which saw the young Magpies reduced to ten men after the dismissal of midfielder Jay Turner-Cooke, whose game ended in 78th minute after he received a second yellow card as the match took on a feisty complexion.
The 18-year-old tripped Sunderland goalkeeper Alex Bass after watching a poor challenge from the Wearside shot-stopper on Newcastle’s Joe White.
Ultimately, Turner-Cooke’s sending off would come back to bite him and the Magpies after the Black Cats found an equaliser in the 95th minute of play.
Guess who scored? Sunderland goalkeeper Bass of all people, courtesy of a contentious goal which appeared to deflect into the net via his arm.
As you can imagine, Dickman was not too impressed with the manner of that equalising goal in the all-important derby clash.
Dickman’s reaction to Bass equaliser
He said [via Chronicle Live]: “I’ve had a look back myself and I’m wearing a Newcastle tracksuit so from my point of view, it is a handball. It’s a free header, he hits the post, it comes back and he sort of bundles it over the line with the use of his arm.
“For me, that is deliberate handball. Maybe it happened too quick for the referee to see, I can see why he’s maybe not given it. But looking back at the footage, no matter if it’s slowed down or in real-time, I’m not too sure they score if he doesn’t bundle it across with his hand.”
Speaking on Turner-Cooke’s red-card incident, Dickman said: “I honestly didn’t see what happened with Jay. What I did see was the goalkeeper took the ball, Joe White goes to challenge and I don’t think he touches the goalkeeper.
“All of a sudden, there’s a little kick out on to Joe and for me, that’s a foul to us. After that, I’m not sure what happened. I think there was a coming together with the players.”
Right to feel aggrieved
Coaches will naturally feel hard done by when major refereeing decisions go against their team, particularly in a derby clash, but Dickman has every fight to feel aggrieved after this game.
While one might argue that Turner-Cooke’s second yellow card was avoidable, Newcastle were bang unlucky with the manner of Bass’ equaliser.
Even a report from The Sunderland Echo stated that the Black Cats goalkeeper palmed the ball to the net rather than heading it, nothing that ‘he will later admit’ it was ‘a blatant handball’ and that he celebrated the goal ‘sheepishly’.
