ALAN PARDEW HAS criticised referee Mike Jones for disallowing Cheick Tiote’s stunning strike in Newcastle United’s 2-0 defeat to Manchester City.
The Ivorian buried the ball in the back of the net from 20 yards after Edin Dzeko had given City an early lead, but saw his effort ruled out for offside by referee Jones after much deliberation with the linesman.
Alvaro Negredo made sure of City’s three points in second-half stoppage time, but Pardew felt the match hinged on that controversial call.
“I was right behind the shot, as the fourth official was, and it was a clean strike,” he said. “It’s a great moment in this football club to get a goal like that, so if you’re going to chalk it off, you need to make sure you’re getting the point right.
“So my point was, did he think Gouffran was interfering with Joe Hart?
“He said ‘He was in the six-yard box’.
“I get that the guy was recovering from an offside position, he didn’t want nothing to do with the play, but he’s not interfering with Joe Hart’s vision.
“It goes on the inside of him and the Man City players are impairing Joe’s vision, not Gouffran.“It’s a real tiny technical matter that he’s talking about here, and to chalk a goal off of that quality — that takes some doing.
“It did set the tone for the rest of the game.”
Pardew had a frank exchange of words with opposite number Manuel Pellegrini in the aftermath of Tiote’s disallowed strike, and the Newcastle boss apologised for some of his words after they were picked up by television cameras.
“I apologise for my comments 100 per cent,” he added. “It was a heat of the moment thing and we just had words that we always have as managers, to a degree.
“I’ve apologised to him and, fortunate for myself, he’s accepted that.”
