Referee Martin Atkinson drew the ire of Newcastle United manager Chris Hughton in the wake of the Magpies’ 2-1 Sunday loss to Manchester City.
Manchester City-Newcastle: Chris Hughton Calls Two Martin Atkinson Decisions “Horrendous”
City’s first goal was the result of a highly scrutinized decision to award the Citizens a penalty after a Mike Williamson sliding tackle on Carlos Tévez as the players entered the United area. Tévez converted to give City an early 1-0 lead.
In the second half, Newcastle was deprived of what looked like an obvious penalty when Joleon Lescott took-down Shola Ameobi in the penalty area.
In post-match comments, Hughton talked about how the officiating made a tough task at Eastlands even tougher:
”Games like this are difficult enough, but you need decisions to go your way and with those two incidents, the referee made two horrendous ones.“My first view was that Mike Williamson played the ball and that the initial contact is outside the penalty box.”
Speaking about the second incident he said: “Absolutely (it is a penalty). We’ve already seen it. Lescott loses his footing and of course - absolute penalty.
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