‘Robbed’: Alan Shearer says Newcastle United got away with one against Nottingham Forest
Newcastle United came away from Nottingham Forest with three goals and three points yesterday but things could have been very different.
Twice Forest came from behind to level things up against Newcastle and on another day, they could have been the ones coming away with the win.
Not only did Taiwo Awoniyi have the ball in the back of the net in the second half which was rightly ruled offside, he also had a strong penalty claim waved away.
What are your thoughts on the penalty decision?
A long ball over the top from former Magpie Matz Sels got Awoniyi on his bike ahead of Sven Botman and into a 2v1 with the Dutchman and Martin Dubravka. In the tussle, Awoniyi went to ground after making contact with Dubravka but referee Anthony Taylor was not impressed
At the time, while wearing my black and white blinkers I thought it was not a penalty as Awoniyi was never really in control of the ball and he did leave a leg trailing to find contact with the keeper.
However, after looking again, Dubravka does make a motion towards the attacker, who, while it was a clear play for the ball, did create the contact on the striker and could easily have been interpreted as a penalty.
Alan Shearer thinks Newcastle were lucky
Alan Shearer also thought so after saying as much on Match of the Day. Who’s side are you on, Al?
“I think Newcastle got lucky there, I think that’s a penalty. If that was the other way round I’d be screaming for a penalty. So yeah, should have been.
“I understand how the Nottingham Forest fans would feel robbed”
Fortunately, VAR didn’t feel it was a big enough error by Taylor to intervene and the on-field decision stood allowing Newcastle to continue on and find the winner thanks to a brilliant strike by Bruno Guimaraes.
