2-1 to the referee

Newcastle United’s loss at home to Blackburn Rovers was a blip, a one off, a bit of bad luck. The away defeat to Premiership Hull City was a little more bad luck, we played well, we just didn’t put the chances away and in the end lost on penalties. The weekend defeat, away at Nottingham Forest was out of our control, if we had 11 men on the pitch we would have won that game, no question about it. Steve Martin the referee is to blame for the Forest defeat, 100%.

It is actually rare I put a lot of blame on to referees, they’re an easy target and yes, they might make a couple of daft mistakes but he killed the game for us on Friday night. Yes, Jonjo Shelvey was stupid for kicking out at Henri Lansbury. No, there was absolutely no contact but there was intent. Had a similar incident occurred and we were on the receiving end then there wouldn’t have been much debate, it was a foul, it was in the box, it was a red card, it was a penalty. Shelvey has previous with this too and given the likelihood of a ban hanging over his head for the incident in the Wolves game, he needs to take a long hard look at himself. Shelvey has been one of the best, if not the best, player of our season so far and he might not be suspended for a fair chunk of the Christmas and New Year period.

Shelvey perhaps deserved his red card but the sending off of Paul Dummett was completely and utterly wrong. There was no contact at all, it was not a red card offence, it shouldn’t have even been a penalty, if anything, Lansbury should have been booked for simulation. Karl Darlow obviously did well saving both penalties but no team can survive a full 45+ minutes with only 9 men, it is an impossible task.

There was the perfectly good Newcastle goal disallowed and our own penalty appeal turned away when there was an obvious obstruction. No, I don’t often put sole blame on the referee for the outcome in a game but he got 3 key decisions wrong and it cost us dearly.

Thankfully, results in the other games which involved teams close to the team went our way and we still sit top of the league. We have dropped 6 points though out of 6 and we have already lost more games this season than we did in the entire season the last time we won the Championship. I keep using the word blip but we need to start winning again to prove that this is just a blip and a bit of bad luck, rather than a huge downturn in our form.

Up next is 5th placed Birmingham City at home on Saturday. We need a win, we need a performance. I fully expect just that. Howay the lads!