Newcastle United\u2019s 2\u20132 draw with Tottenham Hotspur ended in late drama thanks to Cristian Romero\u2019s stunning 95th-minute overhead kick, but the turning point came ten minutes earlier when Eddie Howe\u2019s side were handed a controversial penalty. Former PGMOL chief Keith Hackett has now weighed in on the decision.<\/p>\n
With Spurs winless since November 4, Thomas Frank\u2019s team looked set for another setback after Newcastle went ahead in the 71st minute through Bruno Guimar\u00e3es\u2019 composed finish. Romero, pushed up front as an emergency striker, beat Dan Burn to equalise. Then, in the 84th minute, substitute Anthony Gordon buried a spot-kick that many inside St James\u2019 Park felt would secure all three points\u2014only for Romero to rescue Tottenham deep into stoppage time following Aaron Ramsdale\u2019s punched clearance.<\/p>\n
Hackett reacts to the penalty call in Newcastle 2\u20132 Spurs<\/p>\n
Fans both in the stadium and online were stunned when referee Thomas Bramall awarded Newcastle a penalty after being called to the pitchside monitor. With the score at 1\u20131, Guimar\u00e3es swung in a cross that Pedro Porro helped on its way, and VAR judged that Rodrigo Bentancur had grappled with Dan Burn in the box. After reviewing the footage, Bramall explained: \u201cTottenham number 30 commits a holding offence and isn\u2019t looking at the ball. My final decision is a penalty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gordon scored, leaving many Spurs supporters furious, arguing that the contact was minimal and not worthy of a spot-kick. Rio Ferdinand called it a \u201cdisgraceful decision\u201d on X, saying both VAR and the referee should be ashamed. Another fan posted the clip claiming \u201cyou can\u2019t give this,\u201d to which Hackett replied that Bentancur was holding Burn, making the referee\u2019s decision correct.<\/p>\n
Despite both sides ending up with only a point, Tottenham felt particularly aggrieved. Jamie Carragher labelled the decision \u201charsh\u201d on Sky Sports, and Spurs defender Kevin Danso highlighted the inconsistency of officiating: \u201cSome weeks it\u2019s given, some weeks it isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Managers respond<\/p>\n
Replays showed Bentancur with his arms around Burn as the cross was delivered, although Burn continued moving forward before the pair ended up on the ground. Spurs boss Thomas Frank told BBC Sport it was \u201can absolute mistake from VAR.\u201d Howe, however, felt the opposite after viewing the replay post-match: \u201cThe defender isn\u2019t looking at the ball at all, only at Dan. I think it\u2019s probably the right call.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Newcastle United\u2019s 2\u20132 draw with Tottenham Hotspur ended in late drama thanks to Cristian Romero\u2019s stunning 95th-minute overhead kick, but the turning point came ten minutes earlier when Eddie Howe\u2019s side were handed a controversial penalty. Former PGMOL chief Keith Hackett has now weighed in on the decision. With Spurs winless since November 4, Thomas …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":56143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/thomas-bramall-guglielmo-vicario.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56142"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56144,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56142\/revisions\/56144"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}