Newcastle Head Coach, Eddie Howe feels that his team didn’t play their “finest” football in a 1-1 draw at Brighton.
Alexander Isak’s penalty in the 89th minute rescued a point for Howe’s Magpies after ex Newcastle winger, Yankuba Minteh had put Brighton ahead with a 28th-minute strike.
Newcastle however had two possible penalties controversially overturned by Video-Assistant Referee (VAR), which left Howe pleased with “a good point” in a post-match interview with Sky Sports despite a sluggish performance in spite of being the better team in terms of attacking spells.
“Our final pass and cross probably wasn’t at its finest level. We were very disappointed with how we conceded. We did enough to warrant a point, if not more.
“I thought we were the team trying to win the game. Brighton are a difficult team to stop. We chased the game with intelligence and ultimately got our reward.”
Howe however refused to get publicly irked by the VAR decisions but admitted that Isak’s eventual penalty from Ayari’s handball of a free-kick was much deserved.
“There was quite a long wait before the third penalty was called and I thought the third one was a stonewall penalty. I think that’s what VAR is there for.”
Newcastle now host top-five rivals, Chelsea at St James’ Park on Sunday 11 May before heading to Arsenal on 18 May, ahead of their final-day clash at home to Everton with Howe cautious about their chances of securing Champions League qualification.
“It’s all to play for. We have three huge games, three very tough games in different ways. Two of them are at home and we hope that can make the difference.”
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