These are the two questions needing to be answered on Sean Longstaff ‘penalty’ | OneFootball

Sean Longstaff was in the spotlight on Wednesday night.

Newcastle United not having the best of games and a goal down to Crystal Palace.

Moving into the last 15 minutes and Sean Longstaff runs into the box to get on to Isak’s clever pass, with just the keeper to beat.

However, Will Hughes appears to pull the Newcastle United player’s arm and Sean Longstaff falls to the ground.

The match officials not giving a spot-kick BUT was it a penalty?

Well, I think there was a lot of ‘noise’ surrounding this incident and in reality there are only two simple questions to be answered.

Was the challenge enough to send Sean Longstaff crashing to the ground?

Was the challenge a foul that significantly reduced the chances of Sean Longstaff scoring?

I really can’t see how anybody can be in doubt about either question. It should be an easy 100 per cent universal agreement on both.

Absolutely, the challenge was 100 per cent NOT enough to send Longstaff crashing to the ground.

Absolutely, it was 100 per cent a foul that significantly reduced the chances of Longstaff scoring.

I think where people are getting this so wrong, is in talking about this as though both questions are relevant for a penalty to be given.

It DOES NOT matter if this foul wasn’t enough to send Sean Longstaff to ground, it ONLY has to be enough to significantly reduce his chances of scoring.

Will Hughes is on the wrong side and knows that he can’t legally get in front of Longstaff to prevent him having a one on one with the keeper. So in the heat of the moment he instinctively grabs Longstaff’s arm as he sprints past him, unbalances the Newcastle player AND at the same time gives himself (Hughes) the chance of getting around goalside of the NUFC midfielder. Instead of having a one on one with a clear chance of shooting for goal, if Longstaff had stayed on his feet he would have at best had a very difficult job of getting the ball past Hughes and the keeper and from a worse angle than if he hadn’t had his arm pulled.

It really is as simple as that.

This was 100 per cent a penalty, Will Hughes knew exactly what he had done and I bet he couldn’t have believed it when he somehow got away with it. The belief on how the match officials worked this is that the referee on the pitch gave no penalty at the time and then VAR didn’t believe it met the clear and obvious error threshold to send the on-pitch referee to the monitor. The flipside of that is it appears to be the belief that if the on-pitch referee had given the penalty, then VAR would once again not have sent him to the replay monitor, because giving the penalty would not have been seen as a clear and obvious error either.

I hate all this over the top anti-Sean Longstaff stuff as well. He has been a really good player for us under Eddie Howe (and Rafa Benitez) and whilst he wouldn’t be in the first eleven now if everybody was fit, he has gone above and beyond this season when playing week in week out with Eddie Howe so low on numbers, despite him (Longstaff) needing pain killing injections in his foot to allow him to keep playing.

Reality as well is that EVERY Premier League club has a number of players who go to ground far too easily. In the case of Newcastle United, I would add Miguel Almiron and Fabian Schar to Sean Longstaff.

The likes of Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Man U each having far more than a trio who go down too easily.

Stats via BBC Sport:

Crystal Palace 2 Newcastle 0 – Saturday 24 April 8pm

Goals:

Newcastle United:

Palace:

Mateta 55, 88

(Half-time stats in brackets)

Possession was Palace 47% (51%) Newcastle 53% (49%)

Total shots were Palace 20 (9) Newcastle 6 (1)

Shots on target were Palace 7 (5) Newcastle 2 (0)

Corners were Palace 7 (4) Newcastle 2 (0)

Referee: Thomas Bramall

Newcastle team v Crystal Palace:

Dubravka, J Murphy (Wilson 65), Krafth, Schar, Burn, Longstaff (White 90), Bruno, Anderson (Ritchie 90), Gordon, Barnes (Hall 65), Isak

Unused subs:

Karius, Dummett, Livramento, A Murphy, Parkinson

(Was this a penalty? See for yourself, watch HERE these Crystal Palace 2 Newcastle 0 official highlights)

((BBC Sport comments from ‘neutrals’ – Very interesting on Newcastle after 2-0 Crystal Palace defeat – Red HERE)

(Match Report – Crystal Palace 2 Newcastle 0 – United get what they deserved – Read HERE)

(3 Positives and 3 Negatives to take from Crystal Palace 2 Newcastle 0 – Read HERE)

Newcastle United matches now confirmed for rest of the season:

Saturday 27 April 2024 – Newcastle v Sheff Utd (3pm)

Saturday 4 May 2024 – Burnley v Newcastle (3pm)

Saturday 11 May 2024 – Newcastle v Brighton (3pm)

Wednesday 15 May 2024 – Man U v Newcastle (8pm) Sky Sports

Sunday 19 May 2024 – Brentford v Newcastle (4pm)

(The final day of the season live TV matches will be selected closer to the day but all 10 PL games will be same time same day)

Wednesday 22 May 2024 – Tottenham v Newcastle (at MCG – Melbourne Cricket Ground)