Eddie Howe has revealed what Mike Dean told him after Thursday night’s 3-1 defeat at Liverpool, with the referee attempting to explain why he didn’t stop the game before Jota’s equaliser.
Speaking after the match, Howe says that Dean believed Hayden was holding his back, not his head, giving this feeble reason to the NUFC boss as to why he didn’t blow up.
Sorry, but I’m not having any of this. Replays show Dean looking over at Hayden and Schar twice before Liverpool put the cross in, and on both occasions you can see the player on the floor holding his head.
Here’s what Howe’s had to say, bemoaning the costly mistake that’s cost us at a crucial stage of the game:
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. He (Hayden) was holding his head immediately. The priority was the safety of the player.’
“The game should’ve been stopped before their equaliser with two players down.
“Two players down in the box, and it had a huge bearing on our game plan.’
“As soon as they score the crowd are in the game and it feels unjust.
“The referee said he thought he was holding his back, but Isaac Hayden held his head.
“He was dazed for four or five minutes. It could be dangerous.”
“The priority always has to be the safety of the player. We talk a lot at the moment about head injuries and I felt that was a wrong decision.
“We’ve been harshly treated today.“
Howe then had this to say about our second half performance, feeling we defended better but didn’t have the quality to hurt Liverpool on the break:
“It’s disappointing because in the second half I thought our shape was better.
“We were a little bit more aggressive, we got further up the pitch but we just didn’t have the quality needed to break Liverpool down.”
We shot ourselves in the foot for Liverpool’s second, but big decisions at both ends of the pitch haven’t gone for us here.
As usual, it was the Mike Dean show – and that only ends one way when it involves one of the ‘big six.’
Mike Dean must be the worst referee in the Premier division,he is biased towards the top 6 teams in the division and some of his decisions and reasoning defy belief and not just in this season.How he retains his profession as a professional referee with the dreadful but extremely important consequences amazes me.
Angus Davison(Quote)
We lost 3-1 and were completely outplayed.
If they had not equalised when they did it would have been shortly afterwards and the result would have been the same.
BykerBill(Quote)
Did Howe ask Mike Dean why he stopped game the second half when Kouate had a leg injury and restarted with a drop ball to Liverpool.
Tony(Quote)
Howe is saying the player was dazed for 4 or 5 mins with a head injury and says player safety is the priority – shouldn’t he have been subbed then?
We didn’t lose the game coz of that we lost coz Lpool are a far better side, pressed like animals, Shelveys no look pass & TAA thunderbolt.
Sharpy17(Quote)