Steve Bruce has blasted the decision to award West Ham a penalty following our 4-2 opening day defeat to West Ham, claiming it was the major turning point that cost us the game.
Jacob Murphy fouled Pablo Fornals inside the area while the scores were level and the NUFC boss believes VAR’s failure to correct the decision has ruined our hopes of getting a result.
Alan Shearer and Les Ferdinand were critical of Martin Atkinson’s decision to award a penalty, with several Toon fans on social media also thinking Murphy got the ball.
As a result, Bruce has been left baffled that the referee wasn’t told to watch the incident again on the monitor – feeling certain he’d have changed his mind had he taken another look.
The 60-year-old also rued our side’s defensive display as a makeshift back five threw away the lead twice to leak four goals on the opening game of the season for the first time since 2013.
This is what he said to Sky Sports after the game:
Considering the way we defended, I don’t think Bruce can have any real complaints about us losing the game.
The penalty incident was a cruel setback, but that doesn’t explain why we went on to concede four and gift West Ham a few goals after losing the ball in awful areas.
BOO HOO – so what was his reaction
10 minutes to go he took off the striker and brought Fraser on (!?)
What the F*** – if he can’t bring on Gayle our ONLY other Striker WHAT’S the point of keeping him = sell him to a championship club and get a STRIKER in ASAP (we need 2)
Sorry but he simply ain’t a MANAGER – if we go down he hasn’t the noise to bring on the right players to change things!!
KK(Quote)