Newcastle 1 Brentford 0
The season began with such optimism in the North-East with talk of Champions League football and the potential of challenging Man City in a title race doing the rounds. Sadly, four games into the season it seemed to have all the promise of having Ant McPartlin as your designated driver for a lad’s night out.
Brentford were the visitors to St James’ Park, unbeaten so far this season, as Eddie Howe’s side tried to get their season back on track after three successive league defeats. The fixture list had not been kind to his side at the start of their campaign, this was a chance to change their fortunes.
The visitors started confidently with Jensen breaking down the right wing, he put in a great ball to back post, where Wissa met it unchallenged but completely missed the ball. Big chance for The Bees to get their noses in front.
It seemed that Thomas Frank’s side were missing their prolific striker, Ivan Toney, as much as the online gambling firms were. The manager had changed to five at the back for this game, having to forgo their usual three-pronged attack in the process.
Credit: @BrentfordFC
The Magpies were struggling to breakdown the visitors and their only chance of the first half came from a corner when it was flicked on to the back post where Bruno Guimaraes had a free header but could not beat Flekken in the Brentford goal.
Kieran Trippier put a cross into the box, which was headed straight up in the air by the Brentford defender, right under his own crossbar. As Flekken came to collect through a melee of players, he failed to collect with Callum Wilson poking the ball home.
VAR decided, after review, that the keeper had been impeded and the goal was chalked off. Then came the most bizarre decision of the weekend and that takes some doing in the current climate of refereeing blunders.
Brentford keeper Flekken looked to shepherd the ball out for a goal kick when Gordon came running across to try and get to the ball. The bottle blonde then tripped over the keeper’s thigh and went down looking for a penalty.
This was a case of an attacker initiating contact for the purpose of going to ground. When Gordon went down, the ball was already over the line for a goal kick, impossible for the player to retrieve. Surely common sense would prevail with video technology available.
The referee pointed to the spot after waiting some time before making his decision. It was almost as if he was trying to add to the drama like he thought he was on the judging panel on Britain’s Got Talent. VAR stuck with his decision realising it was tied to the code of omerta.
Credit: @NUFC
Callum Wilson stepped up and slotted the ball home to give The Magpies the lead. Anthony Gordon broke again soon after and clipped a cross into the back post where Harvey Barnes met it with his head. The ball struck Mbwuemo’s hand and Craig Pawson pointed to the spot again.
However, on this occasion VAR decided to give evidence against ‘the family’ and provided footage that proved the referee’s decision was in fact incorrect. Not before sending him to the monitor to clear up his own mess.
Brentford continued to try and find an equaliser and when Jensen whipped in a free kick late on, both Pope and Trippier missed it as the ball landed on the head of Wissa and bounced over the bar. It summed up the forward’s day.
Eddie Howe’s side managed to claim their second win of the season, but in all truth their man of the match was dressed in an orange top with black shorts. No doubt Craig Pawson will never have to pay for a drink in any pub or club in Newcastle ever again, meanwhile Brentford and Wissa will have to dwell on what could have been.
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